HT: Tom Palmer
Hitler and Stalin completed their conquest of Poland today 1939
18 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi collaborators, Poland, Russia, Stalin, World War II
HT: Tom Palmer
How Senator Bilyk’s Dad found paradise in Australia @Catbilyk
11 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - Australia, war and peace Tags: Australia, economics of migration, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, World War II
An old Uni mate’s dad was rounded up by the Nazis in the Polish Ukraine in 1941 and carted off as a slave in factories in Germany. He survived the war. He ended up in a refugee camp. He met and married a Dutch lass.
He did not want to go back to the Ukraine because that part of the Ukraine was now Russian under Stalin. That part of the Ukraine was Polish before the war.
Soviet post-war expansion resulted in border changes, the creation of a Communist Bloc & the start of the Cold War. http://t.co/0Os3EPp6Th—
History Facts 247 (@historyfacts247) August 17, 2015
Australia was the first country to accept them as refugees. He raised a family in Tasmania, working in a factory to support them.
I knew one of his two sons who became economists both at the University of Tasmania and in Canberra. One of his daughter’s was elected to the Australian Senate in the 2007 general election.
After such a rough start in life, my old mate’s dad must regard Australia as paradise for him, his wife and their family.
Communism fell today
24 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: fall of communism, Russia
Why some billionaires are bad for growth, and others aren’t
22 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, financial economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: Australia, billionaires, Russia, top 0.1%, top 1%
…Bagchi and Svejnar carefully went through the lists of all the Forbes billionaires, and divided them into those who had acquired their wealth due to political connections, and those who had not. This is kind of a slippery slope — almost all billionaires have probably benefited from government connections at one time or another.
But the researchers used a very conservative standard for classifying people as politically connected, only assigning billionaires to this group when it was clear that their wealth was a product of government connections. Just benefiting from a government that was pro-business, like those in Singapore and Hong Kong, wasn’t enough.
Rather, the researchers were looking for a situation like Indonesia under Suharto, where political connections were usually needed to secure import licenses, or Russia in the mid-1990s, when some state employees made fortunes overnight as the state privatized assets.
…The negative effects of wealth inequality are largely being driven by politically connected wealth inequality. That seems to be the primary channel that drives this relationship…
a 3.72 percent increase in the level of wealth inequality would cost a country about half a percent of real GDP per capita growth. That’s a big impact, given that average GDP growth is in the neighbourhood of two percent per year
The return of The Great Escape to Russia: life expectancies by age and sex, 1990 to 2013
20 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in health economics, population economics Tags: collapse of communism, life expectancies, Russia, The Great Escape
Modern European borders superimposed over Europe in 1914
06 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: France, Germany, Russia, UK politics, World War I
Modern European borders superimposed over Europe in 1914 immediately before World War ! – bit.ly/1BCI17c http://t.co/0vADDCvp2l—
Brilliant Maps (@BrilliantMaps) December 12, 2014
Major sovereign bond defaults in recent history
11 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in currency unions, economic history, Euro crisis, international economics, law and economics, macroeconomics Tags: Argentina, Greece, Russia, sovereign defaults
via Defaulting Debtors.
Boris Yeltsin took office as the first elected President of Russia this Day 1991
10 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, economic history, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: capitalism and freedom, collapse of communism, Russia
On 10 July 1991, Boris Yeltsin took office as the first elected President of Russia. #OTD http://t.co/8462T7mCJB—
History Facts 247 (@historyfacts247) July 10, 2015
Can the American fighters fly slow enough to intercept the Russian bombers
08 Jul 2015 1 Comment
in defence economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: obsolete military technology, Russia
Doing business in Russia and Italy – World Bank rankings compared
05 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, international economics, law and economics, property rights, survivor principle Tags: doing business, Eurosclerosis, Italy, rule of law, Russia, transitional economies
Figure 1: Doing Business rankings, Russia and Italy, 2014
Source: World Bank Doing Business 2015.
It is rather disturbing that it is a lot easier to register property and enforce contracts in Russia than in Italy and far harder to pay your taxes in Italy. Once again, Italy’s saving grace is the ability to trade across borders Because of its membership of the European Union.
Legal systems and property rights in Greece and Russia – Index of Economic Freedom rankings compared
05 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of crime, economics of regulation, growth disasters, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights Tags: capitalism and freedom, Greece, rule of law, Russia
Figure 1: Index of Economic Freedom rankings for legal systems and property rights, Greece, Russia and USA, 2012
Source: Economic Freedom of the World – Annual Report 2014 | www.freetheworld.com.
Overall, there are not that many differences between Greece and Russia in the quality of their legal systems and property rights. Don’t go to the police in Russia and good luck trying to enforce contracts in Greece.
Greece (61st) is ranked one above the Russia in the World Bank’s Doing Business Survey 2015
29 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: cost of doing business, Euroland, Greece, Russia, sovereign defaults, transitional economies, World Bank
Figure 1: Greek and Russian Doing Business sub-rankings, 2015
Source: World Bank Doing Business 2015.
As long as you’re not in a construction or export business, and don’t mind waiting for your electricity, it’s better to do business in Russia than in Greece! The main difference between Russia and Greece is its membership of the European Union makes it easy to export?
In Russia, it’s easier to start a business, register property and enforce contracts than it is in Greece!
Should economic reform have been slower in the transitional economies?
03 Jun 2015 1 Comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, Marxist economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: collapse of communism, economics of socialism, economics of transition, former USSR, Russia
Russians are surprisingly trusting of their politicians
12 May 2015 Leave a comment
A 2012 poll found that 62% of British voters agreed that “politicians tell lies all the time” econ.st/1ANQGPS http://t.co/3oH0FsHf0V—
The Economist (@EconEconomics) May 10, 2015
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