I think Louis right to suggest caution in asking who benefits from the current growth in Russia, but there has been a qualitative shift since the 1990s. Growth is not merely being absorbed at the top of the economy. The 1998 collapse of the ruble delivered the unintended Keynesian consequence of demand from below. In Riga, anyway, small and mid-size businesses are proliferating and the sense of desperation that one observed in the 1990s is evaporating. From what little I saw of Moscow this past November, this seems somewhat mirrored in Moscow. Of course, reports from the rest of Russia are, to mildly put it, discouraging.
In sum, the market seems to be creating a broad-based growth, but in spite of neoliberal policies pursued in the 1990s, not because of them. All that said, this has caused some inflation and none of these states has adjusted pensions appropriately, thus resulting in declining living standards for many. At any rate, the whole criminal enterprise of the 1990s came at the greatest cost to the region since Stalin in the 1930s, although at least that left them with a modern industrial infrastructure.... Jeffrey Sommers, Assistant Professor Department of History North Georgia College & State University Dahlonega, GA 30597 Ph.: 706-864-1913 or 1903 Fax: 706-864-1873 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Research Associate, World History Center Northeastern University, Boston Url: www.whc.neu.edu Research Associate Institute of Globalization Studies, Moscow http://www.iprog.ru/en/ -- on 3/9/04 17:25, Louis Proyect at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Chris Doss wrote: >> Under communism the economic decisions and property were national and >> publicly owned. Over the past 15 years of the transition to capitalism >> almost all basic industries, energy, mining, communications, infrastructure >> and wholesale trade industries have been taken over by European and US >> multi-national corporations and by mafia billionaires or they have been >> shut down. >> --- >> >> Uh, something like 40% of the Russian economy is state-owned. Gazprom is >> state-owned. Almost none of the Russian economy has been sold off to >> foreigners. > > Chris, you might want to set your mailer to 72 characters or something > since your sentence is floating into the horizon and makes a reply more > difficult. > > The fact that 40 percent is "state-owned" does not contradict the > assertion that industries have been taken over by multinationals or > mafia billionaires. If 60 percent of Cuba's sugar, tobacco and other key > productive assets were bought up in fire-sales, you can be sure that the > impact would be enormous. And if the other 40 percent became the > fiefdoms of people like Khodorkovsky, so what? > > The bourgeois press is now filled with reports about how the Russian > economy is finally "taking off". It would be unfortunate if the left > became influenced by this happy talk. > > > -- > > The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
