Adam Smith Goes to Moscow.

• Author: Blair, Roger D.

In 1964, a friend of mine enrolled in Walter Adams's class on free enterprise. The opening lecture was something of a surprise. Walter began by explaining how kindhearted and well intentioned Socialist planners were. They were not devils; rather, they were just like us with families and friends. This went on for 15 minutes. He finished by pointing out that these planners were trying to make the world a better place. Suddenly, he slammed his hand down on the desk and roared, "But dammit, it doesn't work!" Then he launched into a heartfelt pitch for free enterprise and the virtues of the competitive market. Thirty years later, he still holds these views, as readers of The Bigness Complex and Dangerous Pursuits (coauthored with James Brock) are well aware.

Adams and Brock know where they want the former Soviet bloc economies to go, but they are unsure of just how those countries should get there. While central planning has caused severe distortions and inefficiencies, converting to a market system is no trivial matter. Their stated purpose in writing the book was "to highlight the economic issues and political complexities of transforming a totalitarian command-and-control system into a free market democracy." They have succeeded admirably in an extremely interesting as well as entertaining book.

Adams and Brock present a dialogue between the Prime Minister of a former Soviet bloc country and the Advisor, an American expert on free enterprise. The book's format is ideal for presenting the pros and cons of a sudden shift from central planning to free enterprise. The Advisor advocates a rapid change minimizing the transitional difficulties while the Prime Minister prefers gradualism hoping to ease past the transitional problems.

In the opening chapter, the Advisor provides a standard blueprint for converting a centrally planned economy to one relying upon free enterprise. First, resource allocation must be driven entirely by market...