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This article provides assessment of the four regional crises during the second half of 90's, i. e. the first and second crises in Latin America (1994 - 1995 and 1998 - 1999) together with the prolonged crisis in Asia (1997 - 1999) and still unresolved outbreak of latent turmoil of Russia (1998 beyond). Summarizing financial flows and capital /monetary instability, the analysis shows that they have represented not only

The article analyses main features of macroeconomic development in Hungary after macroeconomic restriction in spring 1995. Years 1995 - 2000 are viewed as a successful period of accelerating economic growth, high foreign direct investment inflow combined with rising external competitiveness of manufacturing industry, fiscal consolidation and modest external disequilibrium with falling external debt. However, in 2000 a rising inflation and decreasing inflow of non-debt foreign capital are considered as major risks for sustenance of high economic growth in medium term. The limitations of anti-inflationary monetary policy within crawling band exchange rate regime are also discussed.

Moderate recovery of Czech economy in the first half of 2000 raises a question whether it is the beginning of a new era of economic growth or a mere cyclical motion. The balance of payments is the main obstacle of permanent economic growth; domestic savings should be increased substantially to tackle with it. Czech economy after the year 1993 is analyzed in this article while the balance of payments is identified as the main obstacle of permanent growth, and it is explained why the adoption of a foreign currency (EUR) would overcome this obstacle.

The paper deals with the impact of the economic development level and given economic system on sectoral structure of employment with special regard to the services sector. It describes the topic on the case of the Czech Republic, or Czechoslovakia. At first, it reviews the employment structure in Czechoslovakia during the period of 1948 - 1983, then in the Czech Republic between 1990 and 1998.

The article is trying to introduce and defend the thesis that economic policy way not follow the theoretical foundations of economics but the development of economic theories from a number of reasons rather follows the practical outcomes of their "application" in economic policy than the opposite. The major criterion for the evaluation of an economic theory is it's success (or failure) when it can be seen as if it was "applied", i.e. only the potential of the application legitimises the economic theory (in opposite to "the empirical legality" in natural sciences) to becomes a popular and respected part of our scientific knowledge. Such an argument can provide, together with other methodological characteristics, an original insight into the evolution of economic knowledge from the point of view of the philosophy of science as well as it may serve for a self-reflection of the current state and method of the economic research.

Although economic theory of the founder of Austrian School of Economics, Carl Menger, is widely acknowledged (marginal utility theory), his methodological writings are analysed less often. The author claims Mengerian methodology brings many valuable ideas which have influenced methodological thought of economists in the 20th century too. The article is primarily concerned with the Menger's main methodological work - Untersuchungen über die Methode der Sozialwissenschaften (1883). Many philosophical interpretations (at most aristotelian) of Mengerian methodology are discussed. The fundamental merit of Menger's methodology is seen in precision distinguishing between history and theory and between the realistic-empirical orientation and the exact orientation of theoretical research.

In the economic cycle of the Czech Republic in the nineties the number of years of economic recession or stagnation was higher than the duration of economic growth. Two recessions from the early and late years of the decennium indicated how complicated it is to search for an appropriate structure of macroeconomic policies, adequate frameworks of regulatory mechanism's and velocity of property structure establishment. Low customs protection, loose regulation of the entry of new economic agents on the market, high tax burden, high cost of loan capital exerted a high economic pressure on the corporate sector. On the other hand, the soft standards of bankruptcy mechanism, financial discipline and exercise of property rights were applied. It resulted in a slow process of the more profound restructuring of companies inhibiting the growth potential of Czech economy in the second half of the nineties.

The monetary literature over the past thirty years has been filled with published claims of paradoxes, such paradox of

The article describes economic and political events that preceded and followed the exchange rate crisis in May 1997 and analyses the main causes and consequences. Years 1994 - 1995 are viewed as a period of high economic growth and rate of investments combined with growing external disequilibrium which manifested itself in deteriorating balance of trade. Maintaining fixed exchange rate and liberalization of capital flows helped to create a speculative "bubble" which finally led to speculative attack on crown.
The role of monetary policy is discussed in context of the government "packages" in spring 1997 which were aimed at maintaining the balanced government budget. The exchange rate crisis is viewed as a dramatic episode which showed how easy it is for speculators to shatter the fragile equilibrium of an economy in transition. The restrictionary policy of central bank is criticized as the main cause of the economic recession which followed.

The first part of the paper characterizes the main features of the czech macroeconomic development in the time period 1995:I - 1999:III. Cross-correlograms of net inflation, adjusted inflation and producer price index on the one side and explanatory variables: wage gap, broad money, nominal rate of exchange and index of world prices of raw materials and foodstaffs on the other side show the correlations with different time lags.
In the second part the dynamic model for an open economy with government sector has been constructed and several simulation exercises imitating Czech macroeconomic development have been made. The role of the slope of the short term Phillips curve (3 different coefficients) and that of expectations formation including direct inflation targeting has been analysed. The impact of favourable supply shocks and the response of extinguishing, neutral and accommodating aggregate demand policies has concluded the paper.

The serious economic problems that Japan is facing in last five years are different from those having faced in the past. They are based on least three factors. The first reason of it are the structural problems: most of them previously acted been positively factors in post-war performance of Japan's economy (structure of the industry, export promotion, tax system, interest rate-policy of the banks, etc.) The second groups of these factors consist of unfavourable impact of cyclical factors (businessboom-recession), bad loan problem consisting of the mid-term bubble position of the Japan banking system and its potential risks. There is also neccessary to take into account a group of domestic problems, such as the high cost of domestic Japanese firms which is influences the positions of these firms in the global competition (the cost of the land, the level of coporate tax, etc.). The mixture of various short-term and long-term factors complicates decision-making on that what kind of measures should be taken. The question of priority between two policies, domestic demand increase policy or financial deficit cut policy is one of the most difficult issues. Author tries to analyze the role of the industry and restructuring policy, government institutions, etc., regarding development of the Japan foreign trade policy and the influence of the "endaka" (development of the USD-Yen exchange relations) and Japanese FDI. The conclusion of this article undelines that the direction in which Japan is heading to globalization is the right one, with high development prospects

Karel Engliš was the author of the teleological theory of national economy based on the idea that the cognition and understanding of all the economic processes may be satisfactory from the scientific point of view only if it follows the purposefulness , intentionality, the choice of aims and means and the rationality of making decisions and methods in the behaviour of all the economic subjects. He pointed out that the traditional tendencies in economic theory preferred the causal approach and that they concentrated on the search and research of the causal connections in economic reality and the they missed the knowledge of the sense of human doings. In the basis of these ideas he elaborated the economic science dealing with the systems in which all the economic activity takes place. In Engliš's approach the methodological influence of the Austrian school and the noetic-philosophical influence of Kant's critical idealisme are obvious.

Czech economist and philosopher Karel Engliš (1880 - 1961) formulated the conception of three thinking orders: causal, teleological and normological. They are alternative instruments of knowledge and we use them for different aims. Every of them has specific system of concepts and it is not allowed to mix them from logic point of view. The teleological order of thinking is the basis for the economic decisions in the meaning of the Austrian school of boundary use. Engliš's philosophical position grows from the European rationalistic tradition, it is on the line between Kant and postpositivist historical school.

Author combines two points of view on monetary problems of Czechoslovakia in the Great Depression: an outline of monetary development between two devalutions of the crown in 1934 and 1936 and an analysis of monetary theories of Karel Engliš, who was an outstanding representative of the liberal school and the governor of the Czechoslovak national bank, and the economists inspired by J. M. Keynes - Josef Macek, Karel Maiwald and Jaroslav Nebesář. In 1929 the crown was placed on the gold standard at a value of one crown equal to 44,58 miligrams of gold. The financial progress was interrupted by the Great Depression, with devaluation in 1934 and 1936, both times by 1/6 of its value. Theoretical debates concerned the major effects of these economic policy measures from the point of view of Karel Engliš and the Czech Keynesians.

The paper reviews the different economic potential of the ten analysed CEE countries at the beginning of the transformation process (1989 - 1990). The main features of each transformation approach are identified (privatization, liberalization, transition between economic systems). A comparative analysis of the basic economic indicators development during the transformation period is the core of the paper.
Special attention is focused on the differences in subsequent economic growth, in its basic factors, in the convergence process, restructuring trends, the links with the external economic environment and in the competitive ability of CEE countries. The closing part of the paper is devoted to comparative analysis of the CEE countries' potential for future economic growth (during the five to fifteen years) and to the proper policy approach necessary to stimulate the needed acceleration of the transformation process towards a market economy in these countries.

The paper argues that the prices of financial instruments contain usefulinformation about the development of different macroeconomic variables. Itsfocus lies in examining the ability of stock prices and of spread betweenlong and shor interest rates to predict real economic activity. We firstoutline the theory behind this argument and present the findings ofavailable empirical literature on the topic. The main part of the paper isdevoted to empirical analysis of the relationship between the mentionedindicators and real economic activity in the Czech Republic using VARapproach. The results stemming from Granger causality tests and variancedecomposition suggest that the only indicator of the three we examined (twospreads, stock index) capable of predicting real economic activity is thespread between the yield on 5-year bond and one-month PRIBOR.

The paper discusses the effects of interaction of states under the conditionwhen property rights of individuals and states a re respected mutually. Inthese situations states compete for better supply of security and justicefor inhabitants on their own territory. These goods are produced by means ofadministrative and repressive apparatus whose activity is financed throughtaxes. This competition leads to supporting of state integrity. The stateinterest is given as a matter-of-fact (already geopolitically). Thisinterest manifests as an egoism of the state itself. Any government of anystate must lay explicit goals to itself and it is usually better informed(with respect to the production of security and justice) than any otherinstitution and individuals because it takes care about immediateacquisition and exploitation of these goods.

Particularly in terms of tregional analysis, the concept of development ranks among the most frequent and essential components of economicreasoning. Yet, the way how it has been generally understood seems to berather vague, the range and variety of its possible content too wide and itspattern unstable.
The above contribution means an attemt to specify the position of thisconcept in spatial economics, mostly through explanation and comparison oofthree prevailing approaches to address the area of issues associated withthe term development: the process in question can be looked at as localeconomic development, multidimensional or sustainable developments.
Most attention has been paid to the idea of sustainable developmnet, as thebelief has been expressed that the assimilation of its principles and aimsby economc theory and practice poses major challenge that can not be avoidedeven in the very near future. A selection of indicators for the developmentto be evaluated in terms of sustainability has been presented and discussed.

Between investment volume, product and aggregate fixed capital exist the certain quantitative relations which results from depreciation of fixed capital and structural changes in economy. The certain extent of capital in economy makes possible to reach a certain extent of product and this fact determines a certain extent of investment. On the other side the same extent of capital needs a certain extent of investment to replace the loss of capital because of depreciation.
The high rate of investment can be an expression of unequilibrium between both types of investment. This unequilibrium is the result of a low effectiveness of agregate fixed capital in economy (as a consequence of weak demand, high degree of depreciation of capital, unsuitable structure of investment in previous years etc.). That means that the high rate of investment needn't be an essential contribution to acceleration of economic growth in the middle-term horizon. On the contrary it can signal an unsufficient effectiveness of aggregate fixed capital as a result of high rate of depreciation (and low effectiveness) of capital and structural problems in fixed capital reproduction. A high year-to-year dynamics of investment in the middle-term horizon does not guarantee a high rate growth in this time horizon. In transitive economy (as is the case of the Czech economy) this conclusion is valid twice.

Problems of economic cycle moves (including long run cycles) were studied thoroughly in the period between World Wars. Besides the U.S.S.R. (where this topic was analyzed beside N.D. Kondratieff also by L.D. Trotsky) the studies covering the long-run economic "booms" were writen also by scientists in Germany (for instance E. Wagemann), Belgium (L.H. Dupriez and others), France (F. Simiand and others), Sweden (J.G.K. Wicksell, G.K. Casell) and by many Americans (W.C. Mitchell, A. Hansen or J.M. Clark). Despite all these contributions (mostly trying to explain of mechanism of long-run waves on the base of exogenous factors) the basic progress in the modern theory of long waves is linked with N.D. Kondratieff and later with concept of accumulation of basic innovations developed by J.A. Schumpeter.

The constituents of regional economy - manifesting relations between the whole and its parts - have been addressed, particularly in terms of development of regional economic structures (RES). The ways how to evaluate RES, indicators of regional economy's performance related to its sector composition, assessment of diversification and specialization make up the main foci of the paper.
The issue of identification of regions as entities appropriate for definition of economic systems has been also approached - with reference to the theoretical contribution of Perroux and his followers in the respective field. The arguments for enhancing the concept of regions as identifiable spatial elements has been raised. Comparison of the input and output attributes of regional economy have arrived at the issue of significance and position of diversification and specialization criteria in the regional analysis. Both of the two aspects can be represented by a number of indicators, the most important of them having been explained in the text, as well as selected graphic tools of analysing the major relations to be observeject in question. The knowledge concerning the development of the regional sector pattern refer - beside othfer - beside other - to regional conditions and resources for the localization of particular areas of economic activities.

A system-making transcript, as well as, an interpretation of the F. Quesnay's "large" economic model known under the term of the Economic chart, involved in the chapture, points out actuality of his methodological message. The first benefit focuses on its initial concentrating on, first of all, recognizing the principal features of the whole unit, parts, stages and movements in a society (a natural order), which he lived in. Followingly, it continues in application of the non-verbal expressing means and quantification along with creating the economic model - economic side of the movement in the society and with the aim to use it for creating new knowledge of the movement. The Quesnay's message is actually connected with the task of transformation of up-to-know mostly empirical level of the economic science to the theoretical one. The Economic chart points out the need to solve its partial tasks within the tasks of economic modelling, normalization, logical construction and of originality - knowledge of non-substitution and non-isolation of the previous scientific knowledge of the economy from recognizing a concrete society fact.

In the Czech society, the tradition of modern economic theory written in the Czech language was started by František Ladislav Rieger (1818 - 1903). He laid foundations of the Czech economic terminology in his work. He can be called a founder of modern economic literature written in Czech. He presented a complex view of economic liberalism and its role in society development at that time. He was convinced that free competition connected with industrial revolution was a guarantee of affluence growth in the society, of decreasing prices, growth of the consumption of the population, and mainly of working people. Free competition is the main lever of progress. He sharply criticized Engels's work about the position of working class in England, which was popular in the Czech lands. On the other hand, he understood free competition as a rule that did not have to be implemented absolutely. Rieger inclined to support some reforms in distribution of wealth in the society. But he only outlined the main trends of changes in distribution and problems related to distribution. He considered intangible goods and intellectual work as very important for the society and economic development. He argued against A. Smith's concept of productive and nonproductive labor.