[jeffkrol]

as well as another answer to Winder regarding such.........................
This covers dozens of interesting points.........................

How Neoliberal Tax and Financial Policy Impoverishes Russia ? Needlessly | Global Research

Russian poverty is unnecessary. Like all poverty in today’s high-productivity age, it is the result of bad policy. There is no technological need for it, nor is Russia lacking in a full spectrum of natural resources and economic potential. So future historians no doubt will puzzle over how the nation was convinced to de-industrialize its economy and impoverish much of its population in favor of exporting fuels and minerals, and to impose more regressive

The shock therapy and “grabitization” that concentrated wealth while dismantling public regulation and separating resource rents from the financing of social spending was not a natural or inevitable result of Soviet Communism. This sharply anti-labor policy and rejection of a mixed economy finds its origins in Chile after the 1973 military coup, and the Thatcher and Reagan decade of the 1980s that reversed the Progressive Era’s reforms that had broadened the economic base, nurturing a middle class and thriving domestic markets.

Making Russia dependent on Western credit by wiping out Russia’s domestic savings

Today’s economic polarization was planned at the outset, in the logic spelled out at the 1990 Houston Summit. Neoliberals were given a free hand in designing the post-Soviet economies, and they had no intention of creating a Western style mixed economy with progressive taxation and anti-monopoly regulation. The very idea was anathema to them. The ensuing dismantling of industry and asset stripping throughout the former Soviet Union stands as an indictment to the advice they gave.

When a government pursues impoverishing economic policies for a sustained length of time, there always are special interests at work. In Russia’s case the main beneficiaries were Western investors. Their self-serving program is clearest in what the Houston report excluded from consideration: the prospect of businessmen amassing fortunes through banking and insider dealing rather than by real capital formation, realizing their gains by selling their shares abroad – and keeping the proceeds in the West

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[arnold]

And now for something that doesn't espouse State-ism as the answer to running our lives.

A cliff of Democrats’ own choosing | Full Comment | National Post

[rawr]

The Russians, thanks to good leadership and fiscal discipline, have been pulling themselves out of the hole of the Yeltsin era. Their economic trajectory is looking pretty positive nowadays, certainly compared to many other countries even in the West.

[jeffkrol]

And now for something that doesn't espouse State-ism as the answer to running our lives.

A cliff of Democrats’ own choosing | Full Comment | National Post

Georgie is an authority on nothing.. One clueless dude....but he does support the American way.. Even dummies can become rich........
I used to have some respect for what he said (not usually agreement) but lately.. might as well hire a blond bimbo (my apologies to blond non-bimbos.. ) and stick his words in her mouth.. Oh wait that's FOX...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/hostess.asp
http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/opinion/article_d486ca4c-35d3-11e2-91e3-...ment_form=true

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Last edited by jeffkrol; 11-30-2012 at 12:17 AM.

[lammie200]

The Russians, thanks to good leadership and fiscal discipline, have been pulling themselves out of the hole of the Yeltsin era. Their economic trajectory is looking pretty positive nowadays, certainly compared to many other countries even in the West.

I went to high school with someone that became the CEO of the Russian arm for one of the largest financial service providers worldwide. I am sure he is doing quite well by anyone's standards.

[jeffkrol]

Russian poverty is unnecessary. Like all poverty in today’s high-productivity age, it is the result of bad policy. There is no technological need for it, nor is Russia lacking in a full spectrum of natural resources and economic potential.

what part of this went over your heads????