I'm somewhat at a loss to understand your comment "worst famine in modern Russian history", since modern Russian history could at the earliest be said to start with the liberation of the serfs there is remarkably little "modern Russian history" that was not under communist rule. Indeed it is difficult to imagine that any worse famine did occur at any time in Russias history, unless you were to count some of the effects of world war 2. Since the appologists for Stalin outside Russia number in the low thousands I'm at a loss to understand the relevance of your point. Similarly your point about government control of currency is somewhat puzzling. Are you arguing that we are less prosperous today than we were in the 1920's? If so that would be a somewhat curious argument which you will no doubt share with us. The only modern country I know of which does not control its currency is Lichenstein which uses the Swiss Franc, I'm not sure what lessons can be learnt from a country whose chief ecconomic activities are gambling and facilitating tax evasion however. Now it may be that Bob Dole is secretly planning a radical change in the ecconomic direction of the country but somehow I doubt that the position of chairman of the Federal Reserve is going to be going away soon. Indeed I have not heard any Repulicans mioving towards yor policies which to me sound more like those of William Jennings Bryant than Bob Dole. Phill