[lbo-talk] Civil Rights in South Asia

[Chris Doss]

It's kind of funny that, if you look at the economic performance of the former USSR countries during the current economic crisis, they are doing pretty much the opposite of what should be happening in the world of a WSJ editorial writer. The GDP of Latvia (EU member, so good) has dropped about 25%(!). The GDP of Ukraine (was a good country before they "voted against democracy" by electing Yanukovich president) has dropped about 20% and Ukraine has the lowest per capita income in the region -- lower than Albania. Russia's GDP has dropped something like 8%. And the "last dictatorship in Europe," Belarus -- actually increasing GDP! 

----- Original Message ----
From: Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com>
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Sent: Wed, March 3, 2010 4:25:49 AM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Civil Rights in South Asia

It was amazing how long it took for some people to accept that, indeed, the Russian economy and average incomes were rapidly growing post-1998 crisis. It was like Russians needed to be punished by God for having turned away from socialism or something. It's only been in the past year and a half or so that the narrative of "the economy's not growing, and even if it is, it's only due to high oil prices, and when oil prices drop it will collapse. Ha!" has stopped. Probably because oil prices have been pretty low for the past year and a half and no giant calamity has ensued.