BUSH’S 21 WORST ERRORS/CRIMES ARE PARTICULARLY IMPRESSIVE

January 2, 2015 by concisepolitics

BUSH’S 21 WORST ERRORS/CRIMES ARE PARTICULARLY IMPRESSIVE

“George Bush’s 20 worst moments” by Nick Greene in The Telegraph

Click for Source Article by Nick Greene in The Telegraph

#1 No WMDs — Bush built his case for war on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction — He refused conflicting evidence with NEOCONS WMD Theory — Bush and his war mongers lied to Americans, Congress, United Nations, and the ENTIRE WORLD.

#2 BUSH worked with WALL STREET IN “SUB-PRIME SCAM” to get $400 BILLION in TAXPAYER MONEY via Fannie/Freddie to begin the SUB-PRIME SCAM that eventually CRASHED THE USA AND WORLD ECONOMY. 2002 Televised announcement proves Bush was involved in originating the $100s of Trillion Scams.

2002 – BUSH OWNERSHIP SOCIETY MARKETlNG and SOLlClTATlON of $440 BlLLlON from Fannie/Freddie and 2004 FED and BUSH STEPS SETUP A FREE FOR ALL WITH NO REGULATlON OF THE BANKSTERS!

VIDEO OF GW BUSH STARTING SUB-PRIME SCAM IN 2002

#3 “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” — Bush named incompetent Mike Brown as Director of FEMA for disaster relief = Complete FAILURE in New Orleans region = FAILED to aid stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina.

#4 No Post-War Plan for Iraq = Bush had ZERO plan for Iraq after Saddam was TOPPLED, leaving Iraq in CHAOS and Destabilized = 6 MORE years + 4,OOO+ DEAD USA TROOPS + MILLION+ DEAD IRAQIS + $3+ Trillion in COST to USA MIDDLE CLASS = WAR STILL IN PROGRESS AFTER BUSH FAILURES.

#5 Permitting Torture = Bush-Cheney and 9+ Israeli NEOCONS ignored the Geneva Convention and TORTURED PRISONERS (in addition to Abu Graibe) = Waterboarding + Attack Dogs + Hanged by hands from ceiling for days + Draconian interrogation tactics.

#6 Ignoring Pre-9/11 Terror Memo — For 4.5 months Bush-Cheney-Israeli Neocons ignored CIAs STRONG and REPEATED WARNING of an airplane attach on USA = Bush spent igored the memos and presentations and spent time at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. = Bush ignored CIA memo entitled, “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US”.

#7 “Mission Accomplished” = Bush’s military flight and bombastic declaration of victory in Iraq aboard an aircraft carrier in May 2003 = Premature Elation to say the least = 4,OOO+ MORE USA TROOPS DIED after he had unfurled his “mission accomplished” banner. Bush also promised USA would have “NO CASUALTIES.”

BUSH DECLARED VICTORY IN IRAQ IN 2003:

#8 Entering Iraq without a UN mandate = Bush BYPASSED UN Security Council approval for invasion of Iraq. The Bush decision is still considered by the UN to be illegal.

#9 Insisting a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda existed = Bush used LIES to strengthen his IRAQ WAR attempting to link SAUDI ARABIAs 9/ll citizens to Saddam Hussein who HATED THE SAUDIS. SAUDIS had funded 9/ll and NOW FUND ISIS(L) = BANDAR BUSH. Even NOW there is no evidence for this trumped up BUSH CLAIM.

#10 Failing to capture Osama bin Laden = Despite the Bush Family love for BANDAR BUSH, after 9/11 Bush focused on capturing Bin Laden = But for 7 years NOTHING ACHIEVED = FAILURE. Obama supposedly finished the job.

#11 Abandoning the Kyoto Protocol = Calling himself the “World’s #1 Polluter. 2001 Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol Treaty to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Now climate change is far more severe.

#12 Refusing to let Katrina ruin his holiday = Ignored the tragedy in New Orleans region from Hurricane Katrina to extend his long summer holiday. He never visited the damage on the ground = Looked out window of five mile high Air Force One on his way back to Washington.

#13 Underestimating the cost of the war = Bush said $50-$60 Billion Cost for Iraq war = Actual TOTAL COST is $3+ TRILLION to the American Middle Class.

#14 Lack of body armour for US troops + HALLIBURTON-KBR ELECTROCUTION SHOWERS = BUSH SHORT CUT IRAQ WAR BUDGET so many US troops lacked proper armored vehicles so many TROOPS were killed or injured unnecessrily. Families tried eBay to purchase protective gear for their sons and daughters stationed in the Middle East.

#15 Failure to include Louisiana’s coastal parishes in state of emergency plan = Bush hands off approach in 2005, two days before Hurricane Katrina hit, did NOT include coastal areas of Louisiana outside New Orleans = Hit hardest by Katrina.

#16 Tax cuts for the wealthy = TRICKLE DOWN LIE used to say wealthy Americans spend more of their WINDFALL TAX CUT CASH in the US = PROVEN LIES. = “JOB CREATOR LIE” = “TRICKLE DOWN LIE” and USA MSM SOLD THE LIES.

#17 Losing focus on Afghanistan = Bush loses progress in Afghanistan buy FAKING WMDs and FAKING A MASSIVE WAR in IRAQ. Afghanistan continues as the LONGEST WAR IN USA History.

#18 Limiting stem cell research = Bush’s earliest decision was to LIMIT research on embryonic stem cells = Research studies offer tremendous results such as reversing Parkinson’s. Many victims of diseases never get treatment and many die unnecessarily.

#19 Appointment and backing of Alberto Gonzales = LIAR IN CHARGE og DOJ = Bush appointed this old Texan friend Alberto Gonzales as his Attorney General = Sycophantic foil for Bush = Gonzales illegally dismissed US attorney in states and managed NSA’s warrantless wiretapping before eventually resigning. FAILURE like Browny = Bush loves being surrounded by “yes men” rather than qualified individuals.

#20 CHENEY SUCHS ON MIDDLE CLASS TEAT = Halliburton Awarded “COST-PLU SOLE SOURCE NO BID” Lucrative Iraq contracts = Cheney MADE $BILLIONS = NATION BUILDING = MASSIVE OVERCHARGING RIPOFFS OF AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS.

#21 Warrantless Wiretapping = BUSH uses 9/ll as EXCUSE to do warrantless wiretapping of American and Foreign telephone calls by the NSA. Bush signed the FREEDOM REMOVAL of the so-called Patriot Act — removing 238+ YEARS of FREEDOM. = Reprehensible acts by Bush + Supported by AIPC-WALL STREET OWNED and FULLY OPERATED Congress.

911 Bush and Cheney won’t testify under oath – BECAUSE BUSH IS AN IDIOT AND WILL SPILL THE BEANS!

USA #1 IN WEALTH INEQUALITY + USA #1 IN INCOME INEQUALITY = PIKETTY PROVED WHY AND HOW TO END THIS TRAVESTY = INJUSTICE TO THE 99+% OF HUMANS IN WORLD!

January 1, 2015 by concisepolitics

USA #1 IN WEALTH INEQUALITY + USA #1 IN INCOME INEQUALITY = PIKETTY PROVED WHY AND HOW TO END THIS TRAVESTY = INJUSTICE TO THE 99+% OF HUMANS IN WORLD!

Great Depression + WW II = Losses to financial capital = Powerful era of equality

PIKETTY FACTS:

Piketty 1.0 justly celebrated BREAKTHROUGH book = makes it clear concentration of income and wealth are again approaching Gilded Age levels = 15 Years building the most comprehensive data set on inequality ever assembled = 3-Powers = Precision in Data + Analysis + Prose = Historic Work of Scientific Analysis and Mathematics applied to Economics.

Piketty PROVES that mature capitalism does not distribute its benefits to all of Society

Piketty = Demonstrating that wealth in a mature capitalist economy concentrates wealth and income in the hands of a FEW!

USA #1 IN WEALTH INEQUALITY!

Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS because income on Capital Income tends to grow faster than GDP (Labor). = Interest + dividends + “rents” = 5+% growth for 2+ centuries. = PASSIVE INCOME

Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS because GDP grows at only 1% to 2% = LABOR INCOME

Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS because CAPITAL INCOME TENDS to GROW 2 to 3 TIMES faster than LABOR INCOME!

Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = RICH get RICHER and WEALTHIER = Concentrated in hands of a FEW

Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = Very wealthy are able to realize higher returns than the merely moderately wealthy = Access to well-paid advisers + Insider knowledge (Trading) + Hedge-fund investing + Flash trading + Scams not available to the ordinary small investor.

Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = Inequality of wealth Reinforces MORE WEALTH and GREATER INCOMES in FEWER AND FEWER HANDS

Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = Demolishing conservative economic MYTHS = LIES OF TRICKLE DOWN + LIES OF SUPPLY SIDE + LIES OF JOB CREATORS + LIES THAT THE VALUE OF CAPITAL INCOME EXCEEDS VALUE OF WORK INCOME. = convenient Conservative myths

Piketty Proves = FALSITY that workers and capitalists are paid according to their skills or the marginal value of their product = convenient Conservative myths

Piketty Proves = The labor market is a Social Construct (by the RICH) using specific rules and compromises to MAXIMIZE CAPITALISTS PROFITS.

Piketty Proves = Education does not solve the problem of rising inequality because education is not its main source.

Piketty Proves = Top executives increasingly have power to set their own SALARIES

FACT = In a market system, monopoly profits are supposed to be competed away.

Piketty Proves = Extreme Wealth = Rigged rules + Exploiting public domain innovations = Bill Gates “enjoyed a virtual monopoly in operating systems” and relied on the research of thousands of unsung scientists and engineers.

Piketty 1.0 = Exception to a relentless wealth concentration was 1914 to 1945 = Can the exceptional period of greater equality be replicated with the right policies = like postwar boom? = 2 WWs, Inflation, Depression, rise of Fascism, Bolshevism, New Deal

Piketty 2.0 = Triumph of the democracies when domestic power alignments EQUALITY-ORIENTED policies more possible than usual. FDR + UNIONS

Piketty 1.0 = Reduced Inequality = Loss of a lot of inherited wealth and the weakening of the finance class. = The destruction of wealth.

Piketty 2.0 = Postwar era = Strengthening of labor and of public institutions dedicated to more generally shared prosperity.

Piketty 1.0 = Describes what happened after 1914 is more mechanical spirit of a narrow technical economist. = Concentrated social class and inherited wealth was followed by war and depression which destroyed narrowly help wealth/capital = less Wealth concentration and LESS INEQUALITY. = Jane Austen and Honoré de Balzac Era

Piketty 2.0 = There is much more to the history of capitalism’s era of greater equality Piketty 1.0 ignores. = But Piketty’s research demonstrates that inflation, on average, was almost nonexistent in the century before World War I and that the real returns on capital were stable and predictable, typically about 5%.

FACT: The pre-WW I upper classes were rentiers—the major part of their income came from capital that they had inherited or perhaps added investment interest income, or Rents on physical structures and land, and in rare cases entrepreneurship. = Few fortunes were self-made.

FACT: The gold standard pre-WW I was basis of the world’s major currencies—francs, dollars, pounds, and marks—were freely convertible at predictable rates.

Piketty 1.0 = Refers to Balzac’s novels = Fastest route to affluence and comfort is to win the hand of a rich man’s daughter who is neither pretty nor charming but who is worth a millions. = Could “thus immediately achieve ten times the level of comfort to which he could hope only to aspire years later on a…salary.” = Inherited Wealth over hard work.

FACT: During the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Wealth/Capital = land + stocks + bonds + industrial plants + urban real estate = Maximized wealth and Income concentration in the HANDS OF THE FEW prior to WW I. = Analysis of Original Forbes 400 WEALTHIEST calculated that 341 of the 400 fortunes (85%) were rooted either in inherited wealth, lucky timing, or government contracts.

Piketty calculates = Only 33% of current Forbes fortunes are primarily entrepreneurial.

Piketty 1.0 = When WW I broke out, the stable, reliable world of capital was destroyed. = France’s overseas holdings shrunk. Czarist bonds, a favorite of the rentier class, were soon worthless.

Piketty 1.0 = Massive government borrowing to finance the war triggered inflation, ended the gold standard, and destroyed the secure relationship between capital and income.

Piketty 1.0 = WW II demolished both physical capital and financial capital even more than WW 1 = Reducing Inequality = Compressing the wealth distribution like the wealth had been deliberately confiscated.

Piketty 2.0 = A great deal more occurred to cause the brief and exceptional era of greater equality on both sides of the Atlantic.

Piketty 2.0 = WW I demolished the WEALTH of the Rich in Europe + Then 1920s era was stupid = Deflationary policies + Needlessly high unemployment = Conservatives hapless effort to rebuild the prewar rentier CLASS chased after unpayable war debts + tried to RECREATE PAST CURRENCY VALUES = Result was Deflation + Deepening Austerity + High Unemployment = WW 1 did reduce Wealth of the Rich BUT DID NOT BENEFIT TO MIDDLE CLASSES!

Piketty 2.0 = WW I for US = the world’s dominant industrial and financial power + US wartime policies allowed the RICH to profited handsomely from the war boom + ADDED to extreme WEALTH and INEQUALITY of the Gilded Age grew until 1929 and The Great Crash and the Depression destroy some fortunes.

Piketty 2.0 = WW II + aftermath was more significant era for WEALTH AND INCOME LOSS AND COMPRESSION.

Piketty 2.0 = WW II in Europe was massively destructive of both physical capital and financial wealth.

Piketty 1.0 = Treats the period of 1914-1945 as a single statistical era for purposes of understanding wealth compression in all the major Western nations, the American experience was entirely unlike Europe’s.

Piketty 2.0 = In USA the most interesting years are 1941-1973, not the years bracketed by the two wars as Piketty 1.0.

Piketty 2.0 = In USA 1941-1973 was the most powerful era of equality WW II to Nixon. = WW II was a massive stimulus with full employment + Strong Unions + Investment of public capital. + Repressed private finance in multiple and reinforcing ways = Treasury bonds held at 2.5% maximum + 94% TOP TAX RATE ON HIGH INCOMES + Intensified anti-speculative financial regulation of the New Deal.

Piketty 2.0 = to 1973 lasted until unions were bashed and finance deregulated started with Nixon in 1970s. = The political dynamics changed to Economic Liberalization (DEREGULATION) with Reagan in 1981.

Piketty 2.0 = Reduction of US Inequality from WW II to 1973 was due to the policies pursued.

Piketty 1.0 = The aftermath of WW I led to depression and fascism!

Piketty 2.0 = The aftermath of World War II was followed by a boom of widely shared prosperity. = Reconstruction from 1944-1948 (opposite of 1920 Conservative deflationary policies + austerity) deliberately created domestic full-employment welfare states.

Piketty 1.0 = Said the era of shared growth was simply the shrinkage of inherited wealth of RICH + weakening of financial elites made possible a politics of broad gains for the wage-earning class.

Piketty 1.0 = Europe = 30 glorious years of high growth and full employment while inequality came back strong in late 1940s as capital began recovering its normal place. It was rather high rates of growth, rising real incomes, and the expanding welfare state that made the postwar boom a happy French memory.

Piketty 2.0 = A great nostalgia in the US postwar boom = A period of steadily rising wages and job security—a period of both rapid growth and LOWER INEQUALITY = more equal distribution of Wealth and Income.

Piketty 1.0 = “The significant compression of income inequality over the course of the 20th century was due entirely to the diminished top income from capital.” = 50% of the Story.

Piketty 2.0 = The other 50% is that the temporary weakening of capital, financially and politically, gave progressives and social democrats an opening that they successfully exploited for three decades after the war.

Piketty 2.0 = US postwar era (1947-1973) of increasing equality = “The Great Compression,” as economist Claudia Goldin termed it = Partly the top 30% losing its WEALTH and associated INCOME + The greater equality of labor income of that period.

FACT: Sweden’s social democratic era = NO war needed to destroy wealth at the top as labor gained power at the expense of capital. = Used the political process to entrench and redouble its gains using POLICY CHANGES that REALIGNED WEALTH AND INCOME = HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING IN THE WORLD. = Piketty 2.0

Piketty 2.0 = 1930s US was under-employed and underinvested = Overhang of the losses from 1929 and the dynamics of what the economist Irving Fisher termed “debt-deflation” left purchasing power depressed and business with too little appetite to invest.

Piketty 2.0 = Technical breakthroughs like television and commercial aviation were underexploited because of weak Consumer demand. Unemployment 15% + shortfall in investment.

Piketty 2.0 = After Pearl Harbor = First six months of 1942 = $100 Billion War Department orders and the economy roared back to life. = Public investment capital = VIRTUALLY IGNORED PRIVATE BANK CAPITAL!

FACT = Turned out that you did not need to give private capital exorbitant rewards for the economy to prosper.

Piketty 2.0 = Era of the postwar MIDDLE CLASS boom = RICH CLASS (rentier class) suffered with NEGATIVE Real rate of return on capital + Inflation reduced the value of bonds, and the stock market languished.

Piketty 2.0 = Era of the postwar MIDDLE CLASS boom = As low PUBLIC capital costs CREATED A THRIVING ECONOMY = MOST IMPORTANT FINDING!
Piketty 2.0 = To get a MIDDLE CLASS BOOM THEN USE NEAR ZERO% COST PUBLIC CAPITAL to gain FULL EMPLOYMENT AND A BOOMING REAL ECONOMY = TO HECK WITH THE FAKERY OF MULTINATIONAL WALL STREET SCAMMING = MINIMIZES WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY!

Piketty 1.0 = Projects a society in 2030 as unequal as that of the Gilded Age.

Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in a green transition to save the Planet

Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in NEW PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE

Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in 1 Teacher for Every 15 Students

Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in the frontier of NEW technical possibility.

FACT = Book The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato suggests that this is not necessarily so. Private capital is myopic when it comes to long-term pursuit of technological breakthroughs.

Piketty 2.0 = PATIENT PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in the fruit of UNIVERSITY RESEARCH = LONG-TERM BENEFITS!

Piketty 2.0 = PATIENT PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in increased productivity growth + Skills Development + FULL Employment + Technology frontiers = on an ongoing basis.

Piketty 1.0 = Supports a more progressive income tax

Piketty 1.0 = Supports a quality higher education system everyone can use

Piketty 1.0 = Issues a call for a “social state for the twenty-first century.”

Piketty 1.0 = Each nation impose a “global tax on capital” to fund PUBLIC SPENDING = NO KOCH OR PETERSON OR RUBIN ALLOWED = Should have done this in 2009! But another opportunity is coming!

Piketty 1.0 = Recommends a new repression of finance = Far tighter regulation of banks and hedge funds to reduce them back to pre-1973 SIZES! = Weaken their political power.

Piketty 1.0 = Questions whether increasing concentration of capital ownership is a mutation of “meritocratic extremism” that reflects the ability of executives to pay themselves ever-higher salaries disconnected from what they contribute to the society and take from the economy.

FACT = CANNOT count Wall Street bonuses or corporate mega-salaries as “labor income.” = Reflect and reinforce the extreme inequality and POWER of our age

Piketty 1.0 = WALL STREET class of super-managers = Socially & politically rentiers = NO Salaried and independent professionals and middle managers.

Piketty 2.0 = Understands the important role of unions and shifting power relations. + More inclusive institutions and better regulation policies did promote [postwar] mobility and growth.”

Piketty 2.0 = Favors green transition, led by public capital.
Piketty 2.0 = We need both institutions and politics like that which once undergirded greater equality.

Piketty 2.0 = Yes two World Wars + A Depression reduced inherited wealth = Good news is OTHER POWERFUL OPTIONS EXIST to create a Vibrant Middle Class.

Piketty 2.0 = The effort of both statesmen and organizers and PUBLIC INVESTMENT can maximize the opportunity that history offered for A GROWING MIDDLE CLASS!

FACT = Right-wing intellectually bankrupt GOP OFFERS NO SOLUTIONS to a DECLINING MIDDLE CLASS AND USA #1 IN WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY!

Piketty 1.0 = ENDS REAGAN VOODOO FOR GOOD and EXPLAINS THE POLICIES CAUSING MASSIVE WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY – ESPECIALLY IN USA!

NOW LETS USE PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND GOOD GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO GROW NEW MIDDLE CLASSES AROUND THE WORLD AND ELIMINATE POVERTY, HUNGER, AND MOST DISEASES.

RUSSIAN ECONOMY — CHARACTERISTICS – TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW USA GOV-WALL STREET-CITY OF LONDON ARE TRYING TO TAKE IT DOWN

December 30, 2014 by concisepolitics

RUSSIAN ECONOMY — CHARACTERISTICS – TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW USA GOV-WALL STREET-CITY OF LONDON ARE TRYING TO TAKE IT DOWN

NPR News: Obama took credit for a decline in the value of the Russian currency — sanctions have proved devastating to the Russian economy.

FACTS ABOUT RUSSIAN ECONOMY

Russia oil and gas = 16% OF RUSSIAN ECONOMY

RUSSIA unemployment at 5%

Russia investments = aviation, shipbuilding, manufacturing and technology.

Economy of Russia = GDP $2.118 trillion — Rank 8th
Economy of Russia = 6th largest in the world by PPP.

Agriculture 4.4%
Industry 37.6%
Services: 58%

Oil and gas
Chemicals
Mining
Processed metals
Defense equipment
Shipbuilding
Aerospace
Automotive
Communications equipment
Electric power generating and transmitting equipment
Consumer durables
Textiles
Food and beverages
Retailing
Real estate
Healthcare
Utilities

Exports = $542.5 billion = petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, metals, wood and wood products, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures

Netherlands 14.6%
People’s Republic of China 6.8%
Germany 6.8%
Italy 6.2%
Turkey 5.2%
Ukraine 5.2%
Belarus 4.7% (2012 est.)[15]

Imports = $358.1 billion = consumer goods, machinery, vehicles, pharmaceutical products, plastic, semi-finished metal products, meat, fruits and nuts, optical and medical instruments, iron, steel

People’s Republic of China 16.6%
Germany 12.2%
Ukraine 5.7%
Japan 5%
United States 4.9%
France 4.4%
Italy 4.3% (2012 est.)[17]

Economy of Russia = High-income mixed economy with state ownership in strategic areas of the economy.

Russia relies on energy revenues to drive growth.
Russia has an abundance of natural resources, including oil, natural gas and precious metals, which make up a major share of Russia’s exports.

Russian oil and gas sector = 16% of GDP = 52% of federal budget revenues

Russian oil and gas sector = 70+% of total exports.

Russia = Large and sophisticated arms industry, capable of designing and manufacturing high-tech military equipment, including a fifth-generation fighter jet.

Russian arms exports = $15.7 billion — second only to the US = Combat aircraft, air defence systems, ships, submarines.

2000 and 2012, Russia’s energy exports fuelled a rapid growth in living standards, with real disposable income rising by 160%. = Sevenfold increase in disposable incomes since 2000.

110 wealthiest individuals own 35% of all financial assets = “billionaire capital of the world”

Russia = 2th largest victim of illegal money outflows = $880 Billion (2002-2011)

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia had undergone a radical transformation = Corrupt and haphazard privatization process turned over major state-owned firms to politically connected “oligarchs” = Equity ownership highly concentrated. = “shock therapy” = Recommendations of IMF + Larry Summers = Result was disastrous as real GDP fell by more than 40% by 1999 + Hyperinflation wiped out personal savings + crime + destitution spreading rapidly. = Majority of state enterprises were privatized to be owned by insiders for far less than they were worth. = ANOHER LARRY SUMMERS FAILURE! Many of the NEW rich promptly invested their newfound wealth abroad producing an enormous capital flight. = Collecting government revenues was a Disaster.

Oil prices in the 2000s Russia bounced back from the August 1998 financial crash with surprising speed. Much of the reason for the recovery was devaluation of the ruble, which made domestic producers more competitive nationally and internationally.

Russian leaders repeatedly try to diversify the economy away from its dependence on oil and gas and foster a high-technology sector.

The Russian Central Bank has free floated the Russian Ruble and has been widening the currency’s trading band and expects the ruble to be fully free floating in 2015.

Along with a rapid devaluation of the Ruble inflation in Russia has greatly increased. In 2012 Inflation was at one of its lowest points since the fall of the Soviet Union at 3.6%, in October 2014 the rate of inflation was reported to be 8%, although this is well below the 2333.30% inflation rate experienced in 1992.

The petroleum industry in Russia is one of the largest in the world. Russia has the largest reserves, and is the largest exporter, of natural gas. It has the second largest coal reserves, the eighth largest oil reserves, and is the largest exporter of oil in the world in absolute numbers.[citation needed]

Per capita oil production in Russia, though, is not that high. As of 2007, Russia was producing 69.603 bbl/day per 1,000 people, much less than Canada (102.575 bbl/day), Saudi Arabia (371.363 bbl/day), or Norway (554.244 bbl/day), but more than two times the USA (28.083 bbl/day) or the UK (27.807 bbl/day).[73]

Russia is leading producer and exporter of minerals and gold.

Russia is the largest diamond-producing nation in the world = 33+ million carats in 2013

Agriculture in Russia = Agriculture shows signs of improvement due to technological modernization = livestock + grain + Private farms and garden plots of individuals account for over one-half of all agricultural production.

Industrial Production decreased 2.10% in 2013

Russia is one of the most industrialized of the former Soviet republics.

Defense industry of Russia = Employs 2.5 – 3 million people = 20% of all manufacturing jobs = Second largest conventional arms exporter = Sukhoi and MiG fighters + air defense systems + helicopters + battle tanks + armored personnel carriers + infantry fighting vehicles.

Aircraft manufacturing = Employs 355,300 people = Competitive aircraft = MiG-29 and Su-30 + new Sukhoi Superjet 100

Space industry = Employs 250,000 people =

Automotive industry in Russia = Employs 600,000 people = 15th largest car producer in 2010

2013, Russians spent 60% of their pre-tax income shopping, the highest percentage in Europe. This is possible because many Russians pay no rent or house payments, owning their own home after privatization of state-owned Soviet housing.

A significant drawback for investment is the banking sector, which lacks the resources, the capability, and the trust of the population that it would need to attract substantial savings and direct it toward productive investments. Money on deposit with Russian banks represents only 7% of GDP.

Russia = 100% mobile penetration thanks to the huge popularity of wireless communications among Russians and the government’s good work in fostering a market driven mobile sector based on strong competition.

Information technology = Russia has more academic graduates than any other country in Europe. World leader in percentage of population with associate’s degree or higher: 54%, compared to 31% in UK. = IT market is one of the most dynamic sectors of the Russian economy. Russian software exports have risen from just $120 million in 2000 to $3.3 billion in 2010. = IT market growth rates of 30–40% a year, growing by 54% in 2006 alone. The fastest growing segment of the IT market is offshore programming. Currently Russia controls 3% of the offshore software development market and is the third leading country (after India and China) among software exporters.

Russia national search engine (Yandex, uses 53.8% of users + its own email service, service of electronic maps with panoramas, music service, electronic payment system, the app store for Android, cloud storage Yandex Disk and other services).

Russia is China’s eighth largest trade partner and China is now Russia’s fourth largest trade partner. China now has over 750 investment projects in Russia, involving $1.05 billion. Chinese imports from Russia are mainly those of energy sources, such as crude oil, which is mostly transported by rail, and electricity exports from neighboring Siberian and Far Eastern regions. Exports of both of these commodities are increasing, as Russia opened the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline’s branch to China, and Russian power companies are building some of its hydropower stations with a view of future exports to China. Russia still exports more to China by $21.23 Billion in comparison to an import of $17.52 Billions.