European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 11, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                10 the stars and stripes columns Andrew j. Glass questions remain about the soviet Economy things Are changing in Russia. Until recently. Soviet authorities allowed Only 100 copies of the International Herald Tribune 1o be flown in each Day. But in late Sci Ember they agreed 10 raise the newspaper s quota by 80 percent to 180 copies daily. Among the soviet Union s 270 million citizens an estimated it million people read English foreign travel is an impossible dream for most of them. Ordinary people share with visitors a deep desire to learn More Aboul the Western world and particularly about the american Way of life. This is what they do not know each of us in he West lives under a Sci of economic rules that Are As alien to the average soviet As would be for them say logo Down o the newsstand and pick up a copy of the Herald Tribune. Americans can go into a Bank and change heir Dol Lars into japanese yen or any other of the world s major currencies since in makes no sense to walk around with foreign Money except perhaps when plan Ning a trip people generally forego that right. For the Motl Paul they leave currency speculation 10 the Trad ers and make do with dollars. In Russia however jul about anything Worth hav ing from caviar Sci stereos can be bought solely with dollars or other so called hard currencies. The problem is that Only the upper cruel enjoys Access to dollars for most it s illegal to own anything but son rubles. When the negotiators who brought the extra to trips into Russia returned to their Moscow hotel they settled their accounts in rubies that had Cost them jl.60 apiece. Yet if they took their spare rubles Home also against the la they would have been Lucky to gel 12 cents apiece in Exchange thai s what Western Bankers think the Ruble is really Worth. And that s one big reason Why Mikhail Gorbachev s Reform drive is stalled a currency that can t be used to buy the goods people want and that can t be converted freely into others in t Money in the True sense of the word in the West markets link Supply with de Mand and so help create goods that people seek to own. In the soviet Union the Market does not set prices. Instead planners say what everything should Cost from bread which has been Frozen at the same Low Price since 1962 to color to sets which Cost an average worker eight months salary break Anthony Lewis Cipr Down often and cannot be fixed. In seeking to jump Start the stalled Reform process Gorbachev has reshuffled the Kremlin  Medvedev the politburo s new chief of ideology praises the Law of Supply and demand As an Essen tial element of socialist economic management. For traditional marxists this is As shocking As it would be to us if Ronald Reagan would declare Lormor Row that All doctors should be paid from the . Trea sury Gorbachev has proved adept at shaking the ideological tree Edward Teller the hungarian born physicist and no fan of communism Calls him the most Intelli gent Leader inc soviets have Ever had with the possible exception of  whatever he docs has a purpose. What thai Pur pose is i Don e  Gorbachev says his purpose is to make the system work and not to gel rid of in. Perhaps we should take Gorbachev Al his word and then ask him Why he has put off his promised Price Reform until 1991. While he is at it he can also explain Why he has pledged thai real income won t fall As can Happe Nall too readily in a system that follows the Laws of Supply and demand. Like Peter the great another russian reformer Gorbachev wants it both ways he seeks to forge a modern economic society but have in adhere to a single my state. Experience suggests in won t work. Soun crop later something Musl give cps Nan service Thornburgh offers Sharp conf ask to de Meese conflict with Bush s Savage attacks on the Acle. The attorney general then issued a statement that some thought was less than courageous. He said he had re. Signed from the Acle in 1969 because whal is happening around the world it had adopted a political  a is truly remarkable attorney general member of the Pittsburgh chapter said a Thorburgh had never mentioned thai reason Al the Lime. Tiik cause of political Liberty has suddenly flamed up in the world. From Chile to Burma people Are demanding their rights a share in i hair government Freedom of speech protect lion against official oppression and brutality. La Muir it Lulli flout r pc ,.��richard Thornburgh said in a Conversa Tion in Washington the other Day. Look at the Sovil Union. We Don know what the outcome will be in Chile but it s extraordinary Hal it happened. Exciting  it should be noted Thornburgh added that these gains for democracy have occurred during the Reagan administration. Fair enough. But in is also fair to note a certain irony. While we americans cheer the gains abroad of what we consider Basic human rights George Bush is attack ing Michael Dukakis for belonging to the organization that for 60 years has been the prime defender of those right Sal Home the american civil liberties Union. Thornburgh was a member of the Board of the Acle s Pittsburgh Chap Ter from 1966 to 1969. Richard Cohen of the Washington Post wrote about that last month noting the apparent in the conversation in his of fice the other Day Thornburgh said he May not have mentioned his reasons then i did t make a fuss it s not my style but he did in fact disagree Wilh a number of Acle positions. He mentioned its opposition to the death penalty and o restrictions on abortion its defense of free speech for Pomo Grapher and its support for decriminalization of drugs. But the causes thai look me into Thea Clu he said adequate Legal rep rese Lalion for the poor and the full enjoyment of civil rights and liberties by All citizens i hold to just As strongly As i did in the 1960s. I have not made a Ca reer out of  in is Clear to me that Dick Thornburgh strongly disagrees with some Acle positions. It is equally Clear that his View is very different from that of his predecessor As attorney general. Edwin a Cesar was an Acle Basher calling it inc criminals lobby the new attorney general docs Dot want to talk about inc old one. Questions seeking to draw him out on Inci differences were turned aside. But the differences arc going to be easy enough to 5cc. One of Meese s last acts As attorney general was to order thai members of Congress suspected of crime be investigated by a special prosecutor just As executive Branch officials Are. The move pleased conservatives. Bui it was not Clear Why in was needed or How Meese had the authority to Lake Hal step when Congress had explicitly declined to do so. Thornburgh has been gelling the views of Justice department officials an others mostly to reconstruct the ostensible premise for Hal order he said. He is expected to take some action on it soon. My guess is thai he will rescind inc Meese order. The supreme court was one of Meese s main Large. He made a number of speeches charging thai the court in recent years had gone beyond its proper role and played fast and Loose with the  asked Thorburgh whether he thought inc supreme court had abuse Dils function of protecting constitutional rights the court decides cases and Contro  he said. Some the Way i like some i Don l. Ii does t declare abstract philosophies. It has no capacity to act on its own initiative As the executive and legislative branches do. For those Rea sons it s very hard for me to characterise it in absolute terms. H reflects the uncertainly Aboul Basic questions in the Constitution. I m not in the business of running Down the  Dick Thornburch is going to be quite a change As attorney general of he has Long enough to make his Mark. He expects to slay if Bush is  not he will go Back to the Job from which he is on leave director of the Institute of politics Al Harvard s Kennedy school of government. He tort not twi so Tot the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page top Weol ibo of the author and we in no Way to be considered i representing the jews of the Stan and Stripe or the United slates government