The directions of the change of economic mechanism of secondary education in Russia, some results of modern economics and the outcomes of school reforms in a number of foreign countries oriented at increasing competition among schools are considered in the paper. It is shown that expectations of better schooling quality due to economic mechanism change are to a large extent unsound: both theoretical arguments and international experience give evidence of serious risks that schooling quality will decrease as a result of competition among schools.

     The author points out that self-education is the ontological basis of the educational process. Self-education forms a specific type of personal "natural economy". In industrial society teaching technologies reduce education to objective oriented learning leaving behind subjective oriented upbringing. Various markets are emerging in educational sphere characterized by the tendency to substitute "live" labor by "embedded" one. But even the most advanced countries have not extended WTO principles to the educational area.

     The authors discuss some problems of socioeconomic forecasting and analyze the specifics of teaching this discipline at higher school. Attention is focused on peculiarities and typical mistakes in Russian forecasting. The factors that restrict the scope of prognostic methods are considered. Some improvements for teaching are proposed.

     The effect of money multiplier is determined by credit activities of the banking system and depends upon the value of the difference between average profitability in the economy and interest rate. The modification of payment systems may lead to decreasing central banks possibilities of money regulation. Seigniorage which is obtained by the banking system is a kind of economic rent. The effect of money multiplier reveals itself in the world credit market and influences exchange rate dynamics of reserve currencies. Using government securities as the main asset of central banks and as an instrument of open market operations leads to appreciation of interest rate and to decreasing of credit activities in the economy. A perspective instrument of money regulation is allocation of central banks deposits with commercial banks.

     The article is devoted to actual questions of introducing convertibility of the ruble. The structure and definitions of convertibility are considered. On the basis of the international experience the economic essence of convertibility as a source of additional income of the states-emissioners is revealed. The sequence of stages of convertibility in advanced economies is presented, basic problems of introducing convertibility in developing as well as in transition economies are studied. The experience of transition to convertibility of the ruble and corresponding consequences for the Russian economy are analyzed.

     The paper investigates the evolution of bimonetary systems in emerging markets. The process characterized by currency or asset substitution is typical for most countries with transition economies. Internal contradictions connected with the circulation of two currencies cause interest to the problem of bimonetary system evolution as a special type of institute. The paper presents a theoretical classification of possible ways of development of bimonetary systems. Particular attention is paid to formalization of the model of bimonetary system evolution with the instruments of the game theory.

     In 1973, the US Treasury Secretary informed the IMF that the United States had moved from system of fixed exchange rates to flexible exchange rates. The fall of the Bretton Woods system became the culmination of the campaign led by M. Friedman during the previous quarter of a century. This publication studies the process by which Friedman's case for flexible exchange rates was transformed from economic "heresy" to the majority academic opinion. The primary focus of the paper is political economy of organization and developing of the intellectual and political forces which undermined the Bretton Woods system.

     Thematically, the article contributes and aims to advance current debates on the political economy of global finance and international financial crisis, drawing in on the academic legacy of Hyman Minsky and his contemporary followers. Methodologically, it advances Minskyan financial instability hypothesis to the analysis of the increased fragility in global financial capitalism and specifically, of the financial crises of the late 1990s-early 2000s. Grounded in Keynesian tradition of political economy, Minsky's analysis of financial instability and crises - features endemic in capitalism - is enlightening not only for those interested in the economic history of the 20th century. His methodological insights and political conclusions provide a fertile ground for elaboration in the context of recurrent financial crises and the present-day nature of financial capitalism. This essay reveals major sources of in-built systemic fragility of financial structures in capitalist economies generally, and in the Russian case in particular.

     The point of the article is studying basic problems of the firm institutional theory - opportunism behavior problem in a principal-agent relationship system on the firm level. The article is devoted to the analysis of the essence of opportunism as economic category, definition of basic forms of inside opportunism and estimation of their influence on performance of firms of the Ural region. Factors that influence the level of opportunism are classified.
    Вторая часть публикации содержит выступления Ю. Якутина, Ю. Ольсевича, Г. Рузавина, А. Бузгалина, А. Колганова, Л. Гребнева, В. Мау.

     The basic properties of international public goods are analyzed in the paper. Special attention is paid to the typology of international public goods: pure and impure, excludable and nonexcludable, club goods, regional public goods, joint products. The author argues that social construction of international public good depends on many factors, for example, government economic policy. Aggregation technologies in the supply of global public goods are examined.
    Вторая часть публикации содержит выступления Ю. Якутина, Ю. Ольсевича, Г. Рузавина, А. Бузгалина, А. Колганова, Л. Гребнева, В. Мау.

     The paper is based on the concept of integration as "integration of markets". It identifies factors, which make post-Soviet governments take suboptimal decisions to deny integration, despite significant resources of social integration. For this purpose three concepts of institutions are used - rational choice institutionalism, social constructivism institutionalism and mediated-conflict institutionalism. The paper analyses possible mechanisms of institutional design for common economic space. It considers relations between disintegration of the post-Soviet space and internal disintegration of markets in the CIS countries due to the deficit of trust and the deficit of law.
    Вторая часть публикации содержит выступления Ю. Якутина, Ю. Ольсевича, Г. Рузавина, А. Бузгалина, А. Колганова, Л. Гребнева, В. Мау.