>From: "Bill Douglass" <bill_douglass@onebox.com>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: ECON: Russia coming around?
>Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 21:45:04 -0800
>
>This article from the Sunday _New York Times_ makes a decent case that
>things may finally be starting to look up for Russia and its economy:
Yes, I would not be surprised to see a flurry of "news stories" about how
the Russian economy is "coming around", seeing as how the utter failure of
the Russian economy is a persistent reminder that
neoconservative/libertarian politics is simply a concession of the ownership
rights of the citizens to the upper classes.
I think I am starting to see a glimmer of recognition among few serious
op-ed columnists. Maybe the Islamic terrorism will be a catalyst for a new
strain of political thought, one that is a meld of socialism, populism, and
business.
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/international/europe/18RUSS.html
>
>Registration on nytimes.com is free; I'll post the first couple paragraphs
>below. I'd like to believe that Russia is at the stage now where Poland
>was in 1993 or 94, but I'm skeptical:
>
> >>>>
>Mr. Hirst [President of Citibank Russia] spent most of the 1990's in
>Poland, where leaders imposed wrenching economic and political reforms
>early in the decade to set the stage for growth. He said Russia today
>was roughly where Poland was in 1993 or 1994, a year or two before social
>and fiscal gains began barreling in. Russia could be on the cusp of its
>own Polish-style renaissance, Mr. Hirst said.
><<<<
>
>Would that it were so. The idea of Russian being close to a "Polish-style
>renaissance" strikes me as being a bit fanciful. People threw around
>this type of optimism after the USSR collapsed, and Russians got a decade
>of stagnation, economic contraction and, with Yeltsin's devaluation in
>1998, financial meltdown. Comments?
>
>Here are the first few paragraphs of the article:
>
>
> >>>>>>
>November 18, 2001
>
>INTERNATIONAL
>
>At Last, Signs of Economic Revival in Russia
>
>By MICHAEL WINES
>
>MOSCOW, Nov. 17 — At last, Russia may be turning the corner.
>
>Ask Yevgeny G. Peskin, vice president of IBS Group, an information
>technology
>company based in Moscow. He says Russian demand for computer hardware
>is growing at a 17 percent-a-year clip. Even better, demand for computer
>services is up nearly 30 percent.
>
>"Things have been happening with mind-boggling speed since 1990," he
>said. "But in the last two years there was a massive change in the way
>business is done in Russia."
>
>Or ask Yuri Levada. His National Public Opinion Research Center measures
>general optimism among Russian families, an index that has increased
>more than 35 percent this year, to its highest point ever.
>
>"All the ratings of consumer behavior and social behavior are better,"
>he said. "The average person's situation is much better than two years
>— or even several months — ago."
><<<<<<
>
>
>
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