The Russian economy (catch all)

[mirhond]

https://www.opendemocracy.net/sean-g...shock-doctrine

While a crisis of faith, of sorts, has resounded in western discourse on the economic effectiveness of austerity, this scepticism, rather ironically, dissipates when you cross over into the remnants of the Iron Curtain.

Neoliberalism’s flagellants reside east of the Elbe. There, ideological purity remains, if not redoubled. Former patients of shock therapy are now its most devoted converts. This was not only demonstrated by Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovak, and Polish officials’ unyielding support for ‘tough reforms’ in Greece, but the general lack of sympathy among their populations for the Greek people. Past shock therapies have left them numb, docile, and inured to the calamities of neoliberal logics.

The neoliberal faith is expanding further eastward as well. The Ukrainian leadership have shown their unbridled readiness to exchange one master, Russia, for another: western finance and corporate capital. Even in light of the Troika’s ‘fiscal waterboarding’ of Greece and the utter failure of austerity as economic policy, the Ukrainian government is willing, even enthusiastic, to implement reforms prescribed by the IMF not only with the blind faith that they will stimulate economic recovery, but also in the name of ‘European values’, which are now subject to much scrutiny.

[kaur]

mirhond, if you don't live in "gas station", then you have to drag yourself out from the "end of golden age" somehow. Show me the other way than neoliberal. State railways fallen king turned academics (after ambassador episode Yakunin has shown his way https://www.project-syndicate.org/co...akunin-2015-10 This is also theory at the moment. In Russia there is another professor called presidential advisor Sergei Glazyev. His solution to revival of Russia and Eurasian project is working in Ukraine at the moment.

[mirhond]

mirhond, if you don't live in "gas station", then you have to drag yourself out from the "end of golden age" somehow. Show me the other way than neoliberal.

Your faith is strong and steadfast, I see, Thatcher bless you and Reagan smiles on you

[kaur]

mirhond, show me the working alternative and I'm glad. After reading this discussion even Russia's own bright heads can't see it.

И все же: сколько понадобится снова времени, чтобы слезть с волны самодержавия и несвободы?

Гуриев: Я остаюсь оптимистом — все будет нормально, но не в ближайшие несколько лет. Завтра будет хуже, чем сегодня, но послезавтра будет совсем хорошо.

Аузан: Я думаю, что при нашей жизни начнутся изменения, но это будет очень длительный процесс. В России были только одни длинные реформы — реформы царя Александра II. Вот я бы очень хотел, чтобы мы опять вошли в длинную волну реформ. Потому что с короткой волной мы все время будем повторять одну и ту же картинку. Если мы это сделаем, то шанс на успех — 10–12%, если ничего не будем делать — ноль.

http://www.newtimes.ru/articles/detail/103328

[kaur]

mirhond, it seems you share the thoughts mentioned here.

One of the main conclusions of the workshop is that political liberalism as an ideology and as a political thought in Russia has been largely discredited. Western countries and international organizations have probably underestimated the trauma of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which instilled in a significant part of the Russian public a distrust toward liberalism, there understood as an ideological justification to destroy the Soviet Welfare state. This disqualification of political liberalism, associated by the Russian public opinion with neoliberal economic practices responsible for huge socioeconomic inequalities, contributes largely, today, to the call within Russia for a return to a Great Power status.

We need to remember that a large part of the Russian society has been calling for Russia’s international prestige and a comeback to some Soviet practices and conservative values since the early 1990s – with the electoral successes of the Communist Party for instance – long before “greatpowerness” and conservatism became the flagship of Putin’s third mandate. Indeed, for part of the public opinion, Russia’s greatpowerness is synonym for a strong state domestically, capable of reinstating a paternalistic social-economic order.

http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022596

[mirhond]

mirhond, show me the working alternative and I'm glad. After reading this discussion even Russia's own bright heads can't see it.

http://www.newtimes.ru/articles/detail/103328

You know, I almost always laugh when venerable economists talk about history: for many of them the real world is a subcase of some crackpot economic theory, they really don't bother with facts and data. But thanks, anyway, I'll put this in my collection.

mirhond, it seems you share the thoughts mentioned here.

We need to remember that a large part of the Russian society has been calling for Russia’s international prestige and a comeback to some Soviet practices and conservative values since the early 1990s – with the electoral successes of the Communist Party for instance – long before “greatpowerness” and conservatism became the flagship of Putin’s third mandate. Indeed, for part of the public opinion, Russia’s greatpowerness is synonym for a strong state domestically, capable of reinstating a paternalistic social-economic order.

http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022596

Captain Obvious rescued us again, but this stuff does not belong to this thread, actually. Copy this to the relevant thread, please.

[davidbfpo]

From Mirhond:

Captain Obvious rescued us again, but this stuff does not belong to this thread, actually. Copy this to the relevant thread, please.

Posts 627-632 have been copied from the Ukraine (non-military) thread as they belong here.

[Firn]

With Russia's Economy, Talk Is Cheap (Op-Ed) by Mark Adomanis.

Some Russian analysts have spoken of the "war between the television and the refrigerator," a pithy way to describe an escalating clash between a politicized propaganda narrative in which Russia is "rising from its knees" and an increasingly bleak economic reality in which inflation, shortages, and recession loom ever larger.

In terms of what Western Russian analysts should pay attention to I would rephrase this slightly as the fight between Sputnik (a state-run news agency) and Rosstat (the state statistics service).

I found I also increasingly useful to ignore a lot of the output which was designed to be noise and look at the research articles and statistics. Maybe the best frame for thought was actually the old Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia. Mark Thoma once joked that new economic thinking means reading old books. In this case it worked surprisingly well.

As always, reality has exceedingly little regard for abstract ideological notions.

Great quote that.