National economies can be run from the top down, so to speak, in what is sometimes called a command economy or they can be run from the bottom up in what is sometimes called a free market. In the ...

By the 1980s, Poland's command economy was in deep crisis. Budget deficits and inflation were skyrocketing, as was state-owned heavy industry's consumption of energy and raw materials.

Stubborn inflation and strong growth could keep the Federal Reserve wary about interest rate cuts, eager to avoid adding vim to the economy. By Jeanna Smialek America seemed headed for an economic ...