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Some United States businessmen in the 1970s were advising that generous loans continue to be made to the Soviet Union so that the Russians could buy the products of American firms. The loans are made by the United States Department of Agriculture and the American Export‐Import Bank. These official agencies are, of course, funded by the United States government and ultimately by the American taxpayers. The argument of the businessmen is that if the United States does not make these loans, other countries—notably the United Kingdom, France and Japan—who have had considerable experience in dealing with the Soviet Union, will advance the credits and take away business from America.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

East Asia's emergence as the forthcoming center of global manufacturing is leading nations in the region to reconsider their current and future role in the world economy. For its part, the Republic of Korea is pursuing a strategy to transform the country into the business hub of Northeast Asia. A central aspect in this strategy is the development of a regional “Pentaport” in the city of lncheon, which will consist of five components: an airport, a seaport, a business port, a technoport, and a leisure port. Hopefully, the Port of lncheon will be able to specialize in moving both coastal cargoes and transshipment cargoes to and from China and Japan using Short Sea Shipping (SSS). The first section of this paper provides an analysis of recent trade patterns between the Asian countries of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agreement and the United States, with an emphasis on the Republic of Korea. The second part of the paper discusses current intermodal coastal shipping practices in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico and offers suggestions to the developers of Korea s Pentaport initiative; based upon observations in the United States, to maximize the likelihood of their success.

The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the use of commercial‐in‐confidence arrangements within the public sector allows the deliberate manipulation of accounting figures to generate support for the privatisation agenda.

A case study is presented of an Australian power entity, United Energy, where the privatisation was subject to commercial‐in‐confidence restrictions and differing opinions as to the accuracy of the entity's financial accounts during the privatisation process. It examines many of the key “commercial‐in‐confidence” documents, which are now available through parliamentary and official document sources, together with pre‐ and post‐privatisation financial statements.

The accounting figures were shaped to support a privatisation agenda and this was obscured by the commercial‐in‐confidence provision. Some attempts were made to use accounting arrangements to reduce federal taxes but this failed. A substantial element of the reported sale price represented internal transfers between the state‐owned entity and the government with the actual price paid by the purchaser being substantially lower than the reported price. The price paid was based on the financial statements which were openly challenged by the Auditor‐General. The paper strongly supports the contention that manipulation of accounting figures occurs under commercial‐in‐confidence privatisations.

This was limited to one example at one time. Further work is needed on other settings.

The paper challenges the success claimed for the privatisation process and for the social benefits of privatisation by tender.

There was little evidence of a substantial improvement in financial performance following privatisation or that the pre‐privatisation performance was substantially boosted to support the privatisation agenda. It did show that the accounting served political ends.

The United States government is the world's largest publisher. Its presses churn out thousands of items annually, covering every conceivable subject. Even though most of the items deal with present day concerns, the United States government is responsible for the publication of a large number of histories. Unfortunately, these works, with the possible exception of the Department of Defense's Military History Series, have received little exposure and limited use. In an effort to bring this valuable resource to light, the following bibliography presents annotated citations to nearly 150 histories published from mid‐1977 through mid‐1979.

As the 1960s drew to a close, Congress found itself grappling with an increasing array of complex technological issues that it was ill equipped to analyze and that could be the cause of costly blunders if acted upon incorrectly. To alleviate this situation, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was created in 1972 under Public Law 92–484 in order to advise Congress on issues in science and technology so that relevant information would be available when pertinent legislation was being developed. Under the leadership of its director John Gibbons, OTA has earned the distinction of providing Congress, that most political of bodies, with timely and objective information without becoming mired in political skirmishes. Despite this distinction, OTA is one of the smallest government agencies, with a budget of twenty million dollars and a staff of 140. Its organization is remarkable for its simplicity. A bipartisan congressional Technology Assessment Board governs the agency overall but appoints the director who has full responsibility for running it. The nine agency divisions are organized according to scientific disciplines and report to the director with little or no intervening bureaucracy. Outside expert advice is available from the Technology Assessment Advisory Council. The result is an organization that is equally balanced politically and scientifically, that is streamlined and efficient, and that allows input from its governing members. This structure also allows great flexibility in the research and production of assessment reports. To do an assessment, OTA deploys its experts to go out and gather the information needed on the wide‐ranging topics it has been commissioned to research. The topics are chosen according to the need and interest of both houses and both political parties. Outside experts are sometimes called upon to do research but OTA exercises the final responsibility over their reports. Factual conclusions and options are presented but opinions are never given. The manner in which the information is acted upon is always left to Congress, a major reason for OTA's success.

As the US-China conflict intensifies, the United States is pursuing a ‘decoupling’ strategy to build a new world trade order, arguing that the current World Trade Organization (WTO) system does not properly regulate China's non-market economic system. The WTO provides special and differentiated treatment (S&DT) for developing countries. The United States argues that China should give up its developing country (DC) status. Sufficient research on the DC status and S&DT has not been conducted as a means of resolving the US-China conflict. Decoupling means the collapse of the global supply chain (GSC), which will bring substantial shock to the global economy and a catastrophe for China. This paper examines the re-classification of DC status and S&DT in the context of US-China conflict and seeks an approach for China to avoid decoupling and coexist with the United States. It would be an optimal way for China to revive the WTO first and to improve its economic system through negotiations under the WTO.

In Collection Building, Vol. 8, No. 4, a bibliography of U.S. government publications on AIDS from 1981 to September 1986 appeared. This annotated bibliography updates that work, covering legislative materials from 1986 to 1989. Documents that have information prior to 1986 are included when they were not published until 1986, such as a congressional hearings from 1985. This bibliography is thorough and comprehensive in its coverage of legislative materials, with an exception of two items from the Congressional Research Service. Contractor documents from the Office of Technology Assessment are included when found, but there is no systematic method to identify such sources.

Since 1970 there has been a phenomenal growth in the establishment of foreign commercial banks in the United States thus altering the competitive dimension of US banking markets. An analysis of the state of foreign banking presence in the United States is here provided using recent disaggregated bank‐level information. Foreign commercial banks' country of origin, timing of entry, forms of involvement, main areas of specialisation, and related offices in the United States are investigated.