> Mark, The Wall Street Journal was maundering on the other day about the
> Russian economy having no global significance because its export and
> import totals were so tiny that a Russian collapse would have no impact.
Is this actually true. I thought the Soviets had substantial oil exports. If the Russians are exporting substantial amount of Raw materials and then stopped which is extremely dubious that they would have no effect on the industrialized world. Raw materials have considerable more inport than their current market price. Also former Soviet republics esp. have nuclear weapons and all sorts of nasty unpleasant things could happen a priori in principle if Russian leaders got too unhappy
All this being said, I suspect that the net dollar inpact on the US is pretty small since they have not been integrated into the "global economic system". However, psychological inpact and inpact on traders could be considerable.
--mike -- Michael Cohen mike at cns.bu.edu Associate Professor, Center for Adaptive Systems Work: 677 Beacon, Street, Rm313 Boston, Mass 02115 Home: 25 Stearns Rd, #3 Brookline, Mass 02146 Tel-Work: 617-353-9484 Tel-Home:617-353-7755