[A-List] IMF and World Bank boys in Russia

[Jeffa <sparc5@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I can name a trillion reasons why Russians are so poor now.  Don't want 
to be reactive and list the top 10 reasons, or even see the need to. The 
whole reason I started subscribing to this list and other good economic 
ones is because it was my goal to get ideas how to make the Russians 
living in poverty have functioning local economies again. 

Michael pointed out Kleptocrats are a big problem.  I agree.

Maybe the reason foreign investors keep coming is because there is so 
much opportunity for growth here.  There is a big pot of gold shimmering 
in the distance for anyone cleaver and ruthless enough to get it.  The 
risks are extremely high.  I see often very rich people loosing their 
pants investing here. I don't have any official statistics but  Research 
George Soros, he's classic example of rich people loosing in the early 
90's.  I don't have any official numbers of how many foreigners loose 
here.  I hear probably forty failure stories for every success story. 

My understanding is most multinational companies would love to see 
Russians have more wealth and be stability.  Airbus only sells their 
airplanes to countries that have good economies, where people have 
enough money to fly.   LG would love for more people to buy their 
products but they can only if people can afford it.  There is this 
conflict of interest I think about all the time, where the companies try 
to pay their workers the least amount possible vs. macro economists who 
try to make it so everyone has a big wage. Their ideal is to see Russia 
look like the USA, where the average per capa GDP is in the neighborhood 
of $40,000/year. 

Henry, I admire your mind extremely much.  I feel very honored that you 
took the time to respond to my post.  Thank you.  I know very few people 
in this country who haven't lost their life's savings once or twice 
because of something unfair the WIPS have done.  Russian citizens 
universally have very little confidence in banks or bankers, government 
officials, or anyone with power. 

 Furthermore I don't act like I have the whole system figured out. If I 
had it figured out I'd be famous, and I'm not. From what I've seen, 
anyone who claims they have it all figured out are lairs.  There are 
analysts who get paid big money to tell us what is going to happen in 
the Russian economy.  First of all for anyone to figure out what is 
truly happening on this system made from deceptions inside of deceptions 
inside of deceptions, would be a miracle.  Secondly they have a lousy 
track record of  making accurate predictions.  Thirdly one person, I 
think it was Curtiss Priest, made the observation nobody knows all of 
macroeconomics, but some know more then others. 

In Russia it's not controversial at all to say the big shots don't 
always get their way.

-=Jeffa=-