In this important book, Judy Shelton, one of America's leading experts on the Soviet economy, demonstrates that rampant inflation and a huge budget deficit, theoretically impossible under Marxism, have ravaged the Soviet economy and are forcing Mikhail Gorbachev into a frenzied search for Western credit. Public and private Western sources are too eager to provide money without understanding exactly what they're financing. Shelton argues that if Western financial aid is to be used to influence Soviet behavior - especially in arms control - the U.S. must fully maximize its present great leverage by co-ordinating and controlling the movement of capital - or dangerously risk American security in the future.