>Russia's black market may amount to 50 percent of the country's GDP > Russia's black market economy could account for 50 percent of its gross > domestic output, according to a new report that will fuel arguments >over > how fast the economy is changing -- and in what direction. This info should not come as a great surprise. Any nation undergoing the change that Russia has undergone, and that has suffered the level of economic implosion reported, should have seen significantly larger disruptions. Year after year, we in the west have hear about the upcoming 'terrible winter'. And each spring, we wonder why there has not been a coup or revolution. Drops in real wealth and standards of living lead to increases in crime, warlordism, hunger, and rebellion. Reductions in military budgets have traditionally been one of the primary causes of coups. Why then have these not happened to Russian (other than the increase in crime and warlordism - which may now simply be reported, as opposed to being 'new'). Then, when we look at the GDP (which represents the measured dollar value of economic activity) for the underdeveloped world, we see that some countries (Cambodia, Somalia, Mozambique, etc.) have per capita GDPs below $200/year. One would think that these nations should cease to exist. But they continue. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not with their economies, but with our measurement methods and assumptions. Russia is in the shit, but then again, it have been for decades. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 13:01:37 PDT