Peter Tosh Tom Jagels Seraphim Hamilton Russias economy is certainly taking a beating (I couldnt tell you how and whether the sanctions have had anything to do with it), and theres nothing that their government can do about it. But the clincher in this article is: It is too early to say whether the crisis will affect Mr Putin’s popularity rating, which is still running at up to 85%. But his support could melt away faster than most Western analysts think. Accusations that the government is to blame for economic problems and for Russia’s international isolation are growing more frequent. The nationalistic soap opera of a war against supposed Ukrainian fascists, which Russian television has fed the public continuously for the past six months, no longer attracts viewers. Ultimately, in the war between the refrigerator (rising food prices) and the television set (the war in Ukraine), the refrigerator is likely to win. The crisis has ended the era of Putinist consumption, the tacit deal under which the Kremlin promised its middle classes rising living standards in exchange for political quiescence. As far as bullshit goes, this is pretty weak. For a clear and concise explanation of my problems with this article (and a lot of other articles published by The Economist), Bryan Caplan has a great post here: econlog.econlib.org/archives/2014/04/you_dont_know_t.html There are no examples to support the narrative in the above paragraph. Our author says that the refrigerator will win against the television set but gives us no examples. She doesnt even give us any reason to think that Putins approval rating is actually falling in the face of inflation.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 03:52:25 +0000
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