Organized geographically, the book covers all the major rich countries, the former communist countries, China, and the major countries of Latin America and the Middle East. A useful review of the major thrusts and alterations in national economic policy and performance over a remarkable period from the 1980s to the early 1990s. The book provides little discussion of the international economy as a whole, including trade liberalization, the remarkable growth in international capital movements despite the debt crisis of the early 1980s, and the gradual shift by many countries to floating exchange rates. Sub-Saharan Africa warrants only a page, and Nigeria, the world's eighth-most populous state, gets no discussion at all.
