On a more serious and less beer-o-centric note, although God knows I want one, I
should say that I agree with Peter. If Putin actually did enter politicking, that
would wreck his image. He is perceived as the good tsar fighting against the bad
boyars.
Putin was placed in power to solidify and
I read somewhere the Chinese felt betrayed when the Russians agreed to
let the Japanese, late entrants, divert the proposed West Siberian oil
pipeline from Daqing to Nakhodka for trans-shipment across the Sea of
Japan to Japan and beyond -- presumably to the US West Coast. The
Chinese evidently
Yoshie:
The Russian default was a blow against neoliberalism: Neoliberalism
at the global level has also been dealt some serious blows--although
one of the hardest punches has not received the attention it
deserves: Russia's default on $200 billion worth of debt, some $40
billion of which is
Anyhow, I think that Chris is trying to say that, though the Russian
economy tanked after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, its
economy has recovered quite a bit since Russia defaulted on its
foreign debt in 1998. Putin has managed the post-default Russian
economy well by capitalist
Good job citing Rosbalt! See below.
-Original Message-
From: Jurriaan Bendien [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Of course, the shadow economy would consist both of activities defined as
production, and activities consist only of transactions unrelated to real
production (transfer incomes), one
Yes, my goof. Impossible to implement when income is unverifiable.
do you mean progressive income taxation?
Jim D.
At the risk of annoying people through overposting, I wanted to make one more brief
comments (I'm busy at the moment, and don't have much time to self-edit):
I wrote:
For one thing, not many Western reporters know Russian
(and very few Russians know English). For another, they get cycled
-Original Message-
From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED]
You make Putin sound almost like Robert Mugabe. I would argue that all
of his measures have been calculated to make Russia attractive to
Western investors.
Economic advisor to the president Andrei Illarianov is on record as
This is an editorial. This is Washington Post spin. The brokerage firms in Moscow are
taking a positive or negative line depending on who funds them. These were the same
people who said Yeltin was business-friendly just before the 1998 crash. Please, away
with the know-nothing Western press
See, I can quote self-interested know-nothing Western business reports too (there's so
much nonsense in this piece I don't even want to go there -- Khodorkovsky a political
threat? Please! -- but this does show that the business press is far from united in
its assessment):
-Original Message-
From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED]
T
Russia is courting foreign investment in order to build capitalism.
Well, he is not courtinf foreign investment, but he does intend to build capitalism of
a state-directed variety, which is far, far, far better than
Message-
From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 11:29:30 -0500
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Lesser evil politics in Russia
Chris Doss wrote:
Personally, I identify with the general well-being of the Russian people.
It's really interesting how
Hey, thanks.
I have to chuckle when I see the official stats on income in Russia. The Moscow
Mayor's Office says that average Muscovite income is $300 a month. If you factor in
pensioners, that might be true, but most Muscovites wouldn't get out of bed for that
little money. Maybe university
-Original Message-
From: Jeff Sommers [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 11:47:35 +0300
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Capitalism versus socialism
Peter Gowan provides a nice
summary of how the Soviet bloc industries were taken over by foreigners,
sometimes, merely to
One other little thing: with respect to the following comment, well, it depends a lot
on where you are. My impression is that really existing socialism has a lot of fans
in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Kyrgystan not only has all it old Lenin statues, it
builds new ones. A very different
Just a couple more comments on this passage. God knows I hate Yeltsin like the plague,
but the case is being really overstated here:
In Poland, the former Gdansk Shipyard, point of origin of the Solidarity
Trade Union, is closed and now a museum piece. Over 20% of the labor force
is officially
How do you fix that damn line thing anyway?
Louis wrote:
The bourgeois press is now filled with reports about how the Russian
economy is finally taking off. It would be unfortunate if the left
became influenced by this happy talk.
--
I write: Well, there were trebuyetsya srochno prodavets
-Original Message-
From: Jeff Sommers [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I think Louis right to suggest caution in asking who benefits from the
current growth in Russia, but there has been a qualitative shift since the
1990s. Growth is not merely being absorbed at the top of the economy. The
1998
Tell me what mail client you are using (Eudora, MS Outlook, or whatever)
and I'll tell you.
God, I don't know. Some Russian thing. I'll ask.
--
But we heard the same thing about Poland, Hungary and other Eastern
European nations as well. Anecdotal evidence is less interesting to me
than broader
Few of the workers, it seems, want to stay. But even fewer have better
options. In a country where a quarter of the population lives in poverty
and the average wage is $190 a month, a steady job is a good job.
Just as an aside, I know a guy who sells shoe polish in the Moscow train
I would be very careful about trusting English-language mainstream reporting on Russia
(as anywhere else). The paradigm today is Putin is an authoritarian tyrant and
anyone who supports him (in other words, 80% of the population) is a dupe. It is the
inverse of the Yeltsin is Russia's savior
-Original Message-
From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I am not sure what point you are trying to make.
My point was just to show that official stats on Russian incomes are wildly
inaccurate, due to the informal economy. 95% of Western commentary in this country is
people seeing in
Jeff wrote:
Regarding Petras' look a the general direction of Soviet bloc economies,
some are doing well. The Baltic economies are today among the strongest
growing in the world. Sandwiched between Scandinavians looking for
investment outlets and Russia's need for neighboring offshore zones,
I wrote:
Go to RosBalt, RosBusinessConsulting, or www.untimely_thoughts.com (caveat; I am
marginally associated with that site) if you want professional commentary on the
place. Both of the first two outlets have English-language versions; the third
is fully English-language.
---
I forgot to
-
From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 13:41:47 -0800
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Ceaucescu and Romanian transition
Was that before or after he became rich?
On Sun, Mar 07, 2004 at 02:09:07PM +0300, Chris Doss wrote:
He's an associate member
Under communism the economic decisions and property were national and
publicly owned. Over the past 15 years of the transition to capitalism
almost all basic industries, energy, mining, communications, infrastructure
and wholesale trade industries have been taken over by European and US
It's not only that. It's this idea that everybody with connections in the ruling group
is utterly cynical. My impression from dealing with former members of the Soviet
nomenklatura is that they were completely convinced that they were doing the right
thing for the country (and getting something
WORLD BANK: BELARUS HAS FEWEST POOR PEOPLE IN CIS
MOSCOW, March 4, 2004. (RIA Novosti correspondent) - Belarus has the lowest
number of poor people among the CIS countries, the Belarussian Embassy in
Moscow informed RIA Novosti on Thursday quoting the data of the World Bank.
Belarus holds 85th
per capita income than Russia was Estonia.
-Original Message-
From: Chris Doss [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 13:19:44 +0300
Subject: [PEN-L] WORLD BANK: BELARUS HAS FEWEST POOR PEOPLE IN CIS
WORLD BANK: BELARUS HAS FEWEST POOR PEOPLE IN CIS
MOSCOW, March
Why anybody would move from economically booming Russia to Israel is beyond me.
This is my first post to this list. My posting is proverbially voluminous and
russocentric, so I will keep it down.
Christian Science Monitor
March 4, 2004
Jews find home again in Russia
More leave Israel for
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