On Sep 10, 2010, at 9:24 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> And as far as i know, countries like Russia or Poland made far
> greater progress during the first 10 years of socialism than during the 20+
> years of capitalism and privatization.
For Russia, it was more than the first 10. According to Maddison, Russian incomes were 55% of U.S. levels in 1820. That fell steadily to 28% in 1913. It rose to 36% in 1973, then began to lag, falling to 30% in 1990. But then the undoing of the USSR kicked in, bringing incomes down 14% of U.S. levels in 1998. According to the IMF's not-comparable data, total Russian GDP was 18% of the U.S. in 1992 (the first year they have data for). It fell to 11% in 1998, a really sharp fall in a short time. It's since risen to 15%, i.e. back to 1993 or 1994 levels.
Doug