The position of the method of economic duality in economic science is obviously paradoxical. On one side, this method is used by scientists for more than two and a half thousand years (starting from Aristotle): modern economic science has been built at a considerable degree with its help. On the other side, it is not acknowledged in economic science and even is not formally defined. As a specific method used only by economic science it is based on the fact that economic phenomena of market economy have dual structure. All economic phenomena are different expressions of labor inputs of commodity producers. But this labor, as is known, has dual nature and is determined as contradictory unity of concrete and abstract labor. Objective connection between labor structure and structure of economic phenomena appears to be the basic structural regularity of market economy. Usage of the given regularity in economic analysis is the essence of the method of economic duality allowing to reveal complicated and contradictory structure of economic phenomena and processes.

     The concepts of the "QWERTY-effects" and "path dependence" are close to the cybernetic law of hierarchic compensations which refines the law of requisite variety. The law states that in a complex hierarchic system the variety of forms at higher levels of a structure is in inverse proportion to that at its lower levels. On the basis of closeness of these concepts conditions of unification and disintegration of standards and institutions are considered. These are illustrated by the analysis of several particular cases.

     Some physical properties of time and their relation to the forecast theory are considered. Time's slowing and stopping as the break of the information link between former and future events of the system and as the "uncertainty catch" are put forward. The appearance of such "catches" on the eve of stock crisis is analyzed. The article deals with the link between synergetic factor of economic growth exhaustion and stock crisis.

     The phase model of market economy is suggested in the article. It is formalized in the cubical equation The equation takes into account the imperfections of competition and the fact that consumer goods are produced with the help of means of production. Transitions from the imperfect competition to the perfect one and visa versa yield qualitative status change of market economy.

     The author pays special attention to the fundamental attributes of economic systems - their nonlinearity and nonequilibrium. So the usage of strictly determined optimization models cannot provide adequate results. He argues that the concept of synergetic effect of self-organization is very useful in economic modeling. It is suggested that the theory of phase transfers can be fruitful in the analysis of the evolution of such synergetic systems.

     The article proposes methods for quantitative analysis of interregional differentiation structure and construction of regional ratings based on principal components analysis. Results of computations and analysis of interregional differentiation structure for all Russia, the North zone, and Russia without the North zone are provided. For computations data for 1998-2003 and their forecasting values for 2004-2005 were used. Ratings of socioeconomic development of Russian regions for 1998-2005 are also provided in the paper.

     The article considers the state and prospects of development of fiscal federalism in Russia. The most important shortcomings of the system of budgetary regulation have been revealed and analyzed; the subsidiary nature of regional and local budgets forming has been proved. The conclusion about the deviation from the universally recognized principles of fiscal federalism in Russia and returning to the policy of centralized managing of state financial resources has been drawn.

     During recent years the intensive activity on perfection of mechanisms and tools of financial support of regions from the federal budget has taken place. The algorithm of distribution of the Fund of financial support of regions has been changing almost annually with the purpose of equalization of parameters of the regional budget per capita incomes. Meanwhile, the differentiation of these parameters is growing. Using wide empirical base the authors try to answer the following question: why cannot the decision of the priority task put before the transfer mechanism be reached?

     The paper is focused on uneven development of municipalities in Russia. A feasible method of assessing inequality of local development within regions is suggested and applied to four Russian regions. The analysis shows that in the late 1990s constant increase in inequality was observed, based on constructed municipal development/welfare indicators. Economic growth in that period had an uneven impact and did not create additional development opportunities for weak and economically stagnated municipalities.

     The article contains critical analysis of methodology of the medium-term budgetary forecasting in present-day Russia. This methodology is based on the monetarist principles understood in the way of vulgar economic theory. The author proposes a variant forecast of using budget proficit including the possibility of investment of its part. Special attention is paid to the problem of forming the effective state in Russia.

     The article describes the main aims, objectives, principles and tendencies of formation of the Common Free Market Zone of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. The detailed analysis of economic prerequisites of the said zone creation including the possibilities of the removal of existing barriers between states for the movement of goods and services that interfere with the creation of a viable free trade zone without any exemptions or restrictions is presented. The approaches of the states-participants to the coordination of their talks positions concerning the WTO accession are analyzed. The aspects of formation of the Common Free Market Zone taking into account geopolitical orientation and objectives of the states-participants are considered.

     The paper presents the results of the "Individual labor supply parameters research" project realized in 2002-2003 in several Russian local labor markets (N=1413). LS elasticities as well as the shapes of LS curves have been special points of interest of the researches. Besides the canonical C-shaped and S-shaped curves, their mirrored reflections and also L-shaped and J-shaped forms were observed. The "backward bend" concept for poor households and the S-shaped LS curve concept for households with "primary", "secondary" and "tertiary" workers helped to find explanations for the cases. One can observe the same phenomena once found out in India and Africa. The dummies for regions and professions as well as "institutional numbers" are successfully used in order to improve the regression quality.