World View Seminar
                            University of North Carolina
                                     18 March 1999

This session of the World View Seminar will focus upon the financial difficulties facing the Russian citizen during the current transition from centrally planned economy to a market-based economy.  I will place emphasis upon details and materials that can be of use in introducing the topic to high-school or advanced middle-school students.  (I have one of the latter, although he's not as advanced as he thinks he is!)

The topics to be considered in this session are:
 

• The incredible shrinking ruble.
• Do I trust the banks?
• Riding the whirlwind:  the Russian stock market.

I will place reading materials on this World Wide Web site as I get them prepared.  They will be "linked" to the preceding list of topics -- if you do not find them this time, please come back closer to the date of the seminar session.

You'll find some general background readings at:
 

• The Web page set up by the US Department of Commerce on Business Conditions in Newly Independent States.
• The SKATE Equity Management explanation of financial excess in Russia.
• The New York Times series on the global financial crisis.
• The New York Times series on the economic crisis in Russia.

I look forward to seeing you in March.  If you have questions about the sessions or the materials you find here, please feel free to contact me.

            Patrick Conway
            Economics Department
            Gardner Hall, CB 3305
            University of North Carolina
            Chapel Hill, NC   27599-3305
             mailto:patrick_conway@unc.edu