>Doug wrote:
>
>But during the perestroika days I met a few
>shock-therapy type economists who were passing through NYC (who
>seemed, by the way, quite convinced that a few years of their magic
>would turn Russia into a prosperous Third World country; they were
>completely uninterested in the story of mass poverty in NYC)
>-----------
>
>Never underestimate the ability of the Russian intelligentsia to ignore
>reality.
And, of course, I meant "prosperous First World country." And it was stunning how little these economists knew about actual economies - which is a deformation professionelle, of course, but it was even worse than Western economists.
Doug