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The aim of the article is to analyse the consequences of a high interest rate policy pursued in Poland since 1990 in the process of disinflation. The interest rate was the main instrument of monetary policy in a situation when the economy lacked a money market on which the money supply could be influenced directly by open market operations. The application of a high interest rate had many unfavourable consequences both in the real sphere and in the financial sphere. The most important of these consequences in the real sphere was that it forced self-financing on the part of enterprises, the ineffective allocation of resources, delays in carrying out investments, the cyclicity of demand; the effects in the financial sphere mainly concern the banking sector, where the assets of the banking system become distorted, while for enterprises the most important consequences result from the high cost of credit, which increases costs and reduced the competitiveness of enterprises dependent on credit. The authors analyse these consequences and formulate hypotheses and a research programme for testing them.

Developing countries now significantly advanced in development, which include Poland, have much lower productivity of production factors, including workforce productivity. Among the reasons for that, essential is the unfavorable division of labor in the global value creation chain. Such a condition in the post-socialist countries results from several important factors, among them accelerated privatization, mainly with the participation of foreign capital, as well as the structure of foreign direct investments. The national economy is dominated by foreign corporations that invested labor-intensive production processes in these countries, using cheap labor. The subordinate role of local production has been strengthened by the globalization process. These countries may be caught in the trap of medium development, and currently operate in a peculiar lower league of the world economy. The inferior role of local subcontractors is due to the fact that they do not participate in the capital ownership of companies and thus have little influence on the power of international corporations. Improving their position requires an active policy of states, including the control of gross capital flow structure.

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Healthcare systems operate properly as long as there are enough skilful health professionals available. This paper compares the population of doctors and nurses in the healthcare system in Poland and in other European countries. We used statistical data gathered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Statistics Poland, Ministry of Health, as well as materials from the General Medical Council, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council in Poland. We made an attempt to find out why Poland ranks so low in the lists showing the number of practising doctors and nurses per 1,000 population. We identified the main sources of “inflows” (graduates of medical and nursing schools) and “outflows” (retirement, migration, people leaving medical professions) into/ from the pool of health professionals. Our goal was also to specify which areas necessitate systemic changes to increase the number of practising doctors and nurses. We decided that institutional changes are also needed: increasing the number of students admitted to medical schools, better working conditions for medical professionals, incentives to return to Poland, etc. Such changes combined with rising public expenditure may improve the performance of the healthcare system in Poland.