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The Rather Pathetic Economy of Russia | Economics Explained

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  • Published on Mar 17, 2022 veröffentlicht
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Comments • 6 782

  • Howling Wolf
    Howling Wolf Year ago +5537

    I thought the video would be about can they economically afford to carry on this war, Instead we got a history lesson on how their economy got to this point. I’ve been bamboozled

    • Gummmybeer
      Gummmybeer Year ago +169

      i was thinking same

    • lenyrockwell
      lenyrockwell Year ago +78

      i thought it was just me

    • Roma Zone
      Roma Zone Year ago +59

      There is a part 2 planned.

    • Dorlan Quintero Santana
      Dorlan Quintero Santana Year ago +70

      Well he said at the end there's another video about Russia next week. Fingers crossed. 🤞

    • Will Stikken
      Will Stikken Year ago +38

      @Roma Zone Would have been nice to know that if you weren't looking for a primer on the rise of the Russian Federation's economy...

  • Quinn Conor
    Quinn Conor Day ago +107

    Certainly! I understand that living expenses and taxes can take up a significant portion of one's income in the UK, which can limit how far that income can go. Even 100k doesn't get you very far and the dream of retiring early is starting to seem like a fairy tale. I have roughly $200,000 in 401(k) that I need to grow quickly. Please leave a comment if you can help.

    • liu zhang
      liu zhang Day ago +2

      Nobody knows anything you need to create your own process, manage risk and stick to the plan, through thick or thin while also continuously learning from mistakes and improving.

    • Theo Alex
      Theo Alex Day ago +1

      @liu zhang I wholeheartedly concur; I'm 60 years old, just retired, and have about $1,250,000 in non-retirement assets. Compared to the whole value of my portfolio during the last three years, I have no debt and a very little amount of money in retirement accounts. To be completely honest, the information provided by invt-advisors can only be ignored but not neglected. Simply undertake research to choose a trustworthy one.
      2

    • Margaret
      Margaret Day ago +2

      @Theo Alex How do I meet this CFA?

    • Theo Alex
      Theo Alex Day ago +5

      @Margaret My personnel advisor is "NICOLE DESIREE SIMON" . In terms of portfolio diversity, she's a genius. You can look her name up on the internet and verify her yourself. she has years of financial market experience.

    • Margaret
      Margaret Day ago

      @Theo Alex I just Googled her name and her website came up right away. It looks interesting so far. I'm going to book a call with her and let you know how it goes. Thanks

  • Nasiruddin84
    Nasiruddin84 Year ago +850

    "Most consequential conflict of this century."
    Your optimism is mind-blowing. We got another 78 years left....

    • nick ross
      nick ross Year ago +93

      He is forgetting Iraq, Lybia, Syria. It isn't clear to me that Ukrainian war will come anywhere close to the level of destruction or human life loss as the those wars. Author is click baiting

    • Etienne
      Etienne Year ago +81

      @nick ross This war is a game changer for many countries. Just take a look at what is going on with Germany. They are going to weaponized once again, just like in the 30's.
      And just as Dritteweg is rising. Really worries me to see us replay the previous century.

    • Jamaican Me Crazy
      Jamaican Me Crazy Year ago +25

      We 'may' have another 78 years left

    • pbjbagel
      pbjbagel Year ago +16

      Convenient to cut off the "may prove to be..." bit. No one knows exactly how things will play out.

    • Lucas Cunha Rocha
      Lucas Cunha Rocha Year ago +8

      especially considering that Oil is gonna dry somewhere in the next 50 years and other resources like drinkable water is also become much harder to come by.
      we are going to see a lot more conflicts in the future.

  • Kirill Sukhomlin
    Kirill Sukhomlin 8 months ago +77

    It's funny how in the mix of other abandoned and damaged building, the one at 3:50 (where you say "complete failure") is atually a "museum artifact" - a house left intact after WW2 battles.

    • MrDarkTAP
      MrDarkTAP 4 months ago +2

      Though that is true from what I have seen a lot of the new construction isn't much better.

  • nlpnt
    nlpnt Year ago +85

    Some countries rushed to privatize faster than others. In east Germany the Treuhand quickly became the most hated institution. In Czechia the Budvar brewery is still state-owned to this day, even though Anheuser-Busch would love to buy it and secure worldwide rights to the Budweiser trademarks, but they're not selling because it's consistently run at a profit to taxpayers.

    • richard finlayson
      richard finlayson Year ago +4

      Budweiser is dreadful

    • Bigoun Big
      Bigoun Big Year ago +2

      @richard finlaysonCzech beer is the best.

    • richard finlayson
      richard finlayson Year ago +1

      @Bigoun Big I'm sure you are correct, not a big beer drinker anymore, take it easy mate.

    • richard finlayson
      richard finlayson Year ago

      @Bigoun Big I guess central and eastern Europe has a long tradition of making great beer, I bet it's a lot different than what we are used to here in Australia, although there is a massive craft beer and microbrewery scene here in Melbourne I grew up with the Carlton and United beers:Foster's lager, Victoria Bitter,Melbourne Bitter,Carlton Draught although Cooper's was a pretty good drop,that's from South Australia,, more naturally brewed,at least it used to be. Take it easy mate, I shouldn't really say negative things about Budweiser I haven't drunk it for years and barely remember.

    • Julian Brelsford
      Julian Brelsford Year ago +1

      @richard finlayson Budweiser and all its competitors in the USA are extremely bland in flavor. I actually like bland beer but there's no sense avoiding the truth of it - they are bland.

  • Gandalf Greyhame
    Gandalf Greyhame 2 months ago +4

    A year later, the answer is clearly, YES.

  • Williamnot
    Williamnot Year ago +1551

    For this to be the most consequential conflict of this century I think we'd either have to be very lucky or very unlucky.

    • Captain Alex
      Captain Alex Year ago +38

      well said.

    • medexamtoolsdotcom
      medexamtoolsdotcom Year ago +184

      To anyone not getting it, I believe he means that we'd have to get very lucky and have no other conflicts of mention for the rest of the century, or get very unlucky and for it to end in nuclear armageddon. Unfortunately I don't think that will require us to get "very" unlucky, as I put the odds of that outcome at 30%.

    • Vimal Jose
      Vimal Jose Year ago +5

      Good one mate

    • State of Opportunity
      State of Opportunity Year ago +67

      Yemen is the most consequential in terms of the erasure of what little remained of our moral imperative. Millions killed so far and our media blackout is still nearly unanimous.

  • guydreamr
    guydreamr Year ago +393

    So, the original sin for Russia was botched privatization. Thanks for an informative video.

    • Showsky
      Showsky Year ago +14

      Hahaha, don't mind the structural problems when you can blame the oligarchy.

    • massa_todotipodemassa-5TEAMPUNK #HSOGameplays
      massa_todotipodemassa-5TEAMPUNK #HSOGameplays Year ago +40

      @Showsky it would be better if the soviet union didn't collapsed

    • bg
      bg Year ago +60

      @guydreamr The original sin is the lack of law and order. The destruction of the Soviet control system caused complete anarchy. In this vacuum of central power, people who held formal or criminal power stole everything that was worth anything and were fighting among themselves. The biggest "achievement" of Putin is that he stopped the anarchy put some rules on how the people who have the power should behave.

    • Raman Shah
      Raman Shah Year ago +37

      Nah, the botched privatization is just a symptom of something deeper - a cynicism that comes from a generations-long traumatic memory of being punished whenever you tried to deal in good faith with your public institutions.
      A thing I remember from early U.S. history was how the fledgling government (a much more primitive, low-revenue state than today's) did pretty well in its core tax collection (of tariffs). There were such scant enforcement mechanisms that the tariffs could have rampantly been evaded if people chose to do so. Yet people overwhelmingly remitted the tariffs. That comes from a sort of idealism (goodwill toward institutions, personal honor, national pride) that, it appears, is quite rare and delicate.
      I have some close friends from the former USSR (including one, harrowingly, with folks still in Ukraine) and we will still occasionally start to talk past each other and then chuckle about it. The cynical vs idealistic mindsets we grew up with are diametric opposites.

  • John
    John Year ago +365

    Outside of the touristy areas. There are many parts of Russia, that resemble some kind of post apocalyptic wasteland, like what you see in the fallout video games. The people i met, seemed much poorer, than their counterparts in Western Europe.

    • T Peterson
      T Peterson Year ago +32

      yeah just watch bald & bankrupt and u see lots of that

    • Кристофер Досс
      Кристофер Досс Year ago +41

      Wait -- are you telling me that people in most of the world are poorer than in the richest part of the world?!?!?!?!? NO WAY

    • T Peterson
      T Peterson Year ago +73

      @Кристофер Досс no he didnt say that. he said that russia has money but also has extreme wealth inequality so many people are poor and some few hoard all the money.

    • Vineri13
      Vineri13 Year ago +25

      i`ve seen the same in USA, see San Francisco, one example

  • Peter Marsh
    Peter Marsh Year ago +13

    Dear Sir, for a non-economics graduate I found your economic soup fascinating. Thanks for the education.

  • Mostyn Gale
    Mostyn Gale Year ago +5

    Many people understand that governments are really bad at running businesses, but few appreciate that they are equally bad at selling them.

  • Ron Pearson
    Ron Pearson 5 months ago +3

    I find it comical how much we talk about all these economics and minimize the "spicy fireworks" but yet these fireworks contain MASSIVE leverage.

  • Rory Mitchell
    Rory Mitchell Year ago +2605

    In a similar fashion to the 1 Ruble being the same size as a 5 Swiss franc coin, the British 2p coin was the same size as the Belgium 20 Franc coin (maybe 40, it was a long time ago), which made arcade games very cheap for me whilst I was on Holiday there as a kid in the early 90s :)

    • Pedro Hartman
      Pedro Hartman Year ago +135

      The 5 pence piece was the same as 25c piece in Canada, and I played arcade games cheaply for a while too.

    • Vendetta
      Vendetta Year ago +48

      Lucky man. Gaming for me was expensive in Australia. It use to cost like Au 60 cents or 1 dollar a credit.

    • WherE-mE-weeD
      WherE-mE-weeD Year ago +61

      2 2p's stuck together made for a nice £2 coin which was fun in the vending machines

    • Nena Vaskina
      Nena Vaskina Year ago +162

      @WherE-mE-weeD wow, I didn't know you could do that. One time there was a machine in the arcade which would change your £1 coins, notes into 10p coins (which was the cost of pretty much everything there) and one time I put in a £1 coin to get 10 10p coins, but it gave me 10 £1 coins instead, I managed to repeat this many times and got £187 before the machine finally broke or ran out of coins. Was probably the most amazing moment of my childhood

    • nitroflux_o
      nitroflux_o Year ago +9

      @Nena Vaskina wow nice

  • Avery Freeman
    Avery Freeman Year ago +26

    Wow, this was really interesting! Thanks for explaining the economic history so thoroughly yet plainly.

  • Stephen Beat
    Stephen Beat Year ago +65

    Thank you for this video, I mainly watch the military side of things but thought I should broaden my knowledge, and this really did that! Very informative and I learned a lot I didn't know. 👍

    • Peter Dixon
      Peter Dixon Year ago +6

      Now go learn about American debt... And see who really can't afford to "fight".

    • Stephen Beat
      Stephen Beat Year ago +1

      @Peter Dixon America - obviously.

    • Phil V
      Phil V Year ago +1

      Stephen, economic history is just as interesting as military history. I would recommend you watch some Clip-Share videos on the history of money. For example on the island of Yap in ancient times they used giant rocks called rye stones (I may have spelled that wrong) which were really hard to move. They could only be mined with great difficulty from nearby islands as limestone does not exist on Yap. One time after much difficulty mining one, the stone fell off the boat during a storm and now sits at the bottom of the ocean. The natives decided it still counts and they just kept a ledger of who owns it.

  • Scott Shadrick
    Scott Shadrick Year ago +2

    Asking if Russia can still afford to fight is kind of like asking a tweeker if they can still afford meth.

  • Joe Murphy
    Joe Murphy Year ago +1

    Either this is going to be an awfully short century, or this conflict isn't likely to be the most notable in this century. The mid 2050's aren't looking all that great if we make it that far.

  • Anton Schrodinger
    Anton Schrodinger Year ago +374

    A Russian friend said this to me once: "Our currency is no longer ruble, rather rubble"

    • Daniel Fibiger
      Daniel Fibiger Year ago +2

      they got snowballs for days

    • james maddock
      james maddock Year ago +32

      Workers said, "we pretend to work, they pretend to pay us."

    • Lordsbully 245
      Lordsbully 245 Year ago +1

      check update

    • IFlax
      IFlax Year ago +19

      The Ruble is back at the value it held before the war. In some forex pairs it's even higher, such as with YEN.

    • Ståle
      Ståle Year ago +21

      ​@IFlax Officially, yes. On the black market, not so much. It's artificially propped up, and that can't be done forever.

  • Judy Whitehead
    Judy Whitehead Year ago +1405

    The shock therapy in Russia was very brutal. China didn't follow this path, opened up gradually, with many trials and errors, and succeeded. The 90s was a decade in which life spans in Russia decreased dramatically, the highest decline of any peacetime region. If you want to understand current revanchist politics in Russia today, look to this tragedy.

    • Semyon Morozov
      Semyon Morozov Year ago +117

      ... and even more to it - try and take away 14 territories in US with half of its population even without changing all of the system in one day, and lets see what will happen to the biggest economy in the world we have today.

    • Semyon Morozov
      Semyon Morozov Year ago +53

      @J B Who said so? There was a referendum to keep USSR intact - over 70% voted "yes". Try and have it in Texas now.

    • Col Who
      Col Who Year ago +129

      @Semyon Morozov That referendum was also worded as preserving the USSR as a "renewed federation of independent republics that protects the rights of the individual." So while they wanted to preserve the USSR as a geopolitical force, they certainly also wanted a change in the political and economic situation within the USSR

  • Т1000 Youtube
    Т1000 Youtube 6 months ago +6

    Nothing much but all over the place and entertaining. Pretty much in spirit of other videos about Ukraine on Clip-Share. Eastern society is actually very similar to the US, but also has a very distinct Asian flavor that takes a long time to understand. Thanks for all the work!

  • Endre Sutus
    Endre Sutus 7 months ago +2

    I'm sure somebody pointed this out already but the Swiss 5 Franc coin is 31mm in diameter, about the size of the US $1/2 or the Soviet 1 Ruble. The 1992 Russian ruble was 19.5mm, there's no Swiss coin close to that.
    If anything like that happened (source?) then with the demonetized USSR ruble.

  • Yare Yare Daze
    Yare Yare Daze 11 months ago +8

    8:25 - little to no time spent to note the other side of Russian oligarchs wiring the money out - the british and european banks, that actually were pretty fine with putting such amounts of capital under them (un)intentionally closing the eyes on that money origins

  • Oliver Lorenzo
    Oliver Lorenzo Year ago

    I can't believe I watched the entire video. It was very detailed yes easily understood. Well done!

  • Scipio Africanus
    Scipio Africanus 4 months ago +4

    9 months later and they are still very much fighting so I hope your answer was yes.

  • Steve H
    Steve H Year ago +197

    Question: What would have been the best way for Russia to privatize State owned businesses without having to sell them all off to foreigners?

    • Aditya Jadhav
      Aditya Jadhav Year ago +151

      Don't be in a hurry to sell them off. Let people start their own businesses and build wealth first. Then sell state businesses to those wealthy people through auctions and the stock market

    • SocialDownclimber
      SocialDownclimber Year ago +58

      Workers collectives. Its really not hard. If the workers' livelihoods all depend on the business succeeding, they are going to try to manage it well.

    • Ola Pawlak
      Ola Pawlak Year ago +18

      do not privatize right away, keeps much of shares state owned

  • Mark Turpin
    Mark Turpin Year ago +1

    Thank you for this first rate analysis and your self deprecating humorous approach. True class !

    • shraka
      shraka Year ago +3

      It's not first rate. The political analysis is garbage. The economic analysis laid on top of it is pretty thin and from a very western perspective of economies - one that is notoriously bad at analyzing eastern economies.

  • issaciams
    issaciams Year ago +7

    Your scores are so subjective but I still like the economic breakdowns you do. 👍🏼

  • Chiron
    Chiron 7 months ago

    16:18 FPTP and IRV are not representative voting methods FWIW due to vote splitting. Highly recommend looking into this - if you're interested in economics there's a good chance you're into game theory and mechanism design too.

  • Roger Beck
    Roger Beck Year ago +1

    I would like to see your assessment of the government of New South Wales and specifically the privatisation of energy / electricity production and distribution BEFORE privatisation of water is considered publically. I love your stuff, great team, thank you all.

  • Ruben Sietsma
    Ruben Sietsma 8 months ago +2

    Would like to see an update for this video, maybe about how the economy is doing after seven months of war and for how long Russia can continue this war.

  • Rodrigo Pérez
    Rodrigo Pérez Year ago +249

    15:00 "Russia has a wealth Gini of 37.5 which is not great, not terrible". Loved that reference 😂

    • Peter Ricard
      Peter Ricard Year ago +5

      thank you for pointing it out. I missed it listening through

    • Stormchaser 08
      Stormchaser 08 Year ago +5

      can someone help me interpret the Gini Coefficient's numbers (to the real world situation... if i can put it that way).
      1) if 100 means that all the wealth is with one person, does it then mean that 37% of the Russian wealth is with one person?
      or 2) the 37% means that there is a 37% income gap; if so, who are those people that have the wealth gap of 37%
      basically, what i am trying to ask is: how do these numbers apply/work in the real world

    • Mark Norrish
      Mark Norrish Year ago +5

      @Stormchaser 08 Wikipedia is your friend, but basically: it means that if you make a graph of the poorest x% of the population their y% of the wealth/income, what's the difference between that and a straight line. In a perfectly equal society, there is no difference; in the tyrant society, the poorest 99.9% have nothing and there's a 100% difference. For G=37%, I can't give such exact numbers, but it'll be something like the richest 10% own 90% of the wealth, whereas if G=25%, it'd be more like the richest 20% own 80% of the wealth, or if G=50%, it'd be something like the richest 5% own 95%.

    • Cameron Burt
      Cameron Burt Year ago

      I was looking for this comment, Thank you!

    • Inderpal Singh
      Inderpal Singh Year ago +6

      what is the reference he is talking about?

  • John Hough
    John Hough Year ago +1

    Informative, thank you. Explained just how I like it (and now to watch it again to catch any points I missed).

  • Ian McCabe
    Ian McCabe Year ago

    Our old 5p pieces used to be the same as a Deutschmark coin (worth about 30p in the 80s/ early 90s. Cigarettes in a German vending machine were one Mark! Great hack!

  • PhotosbyErnesto
    PhotosbyErnesto Year ago +18

    "this puts it in line with other economic success stories like Cyprus and El Salvador..." 🤣🤣🤣

  • 1joshjosh1
    1joshjosh1 Year ago

    This video was awesome.
    What an excellent heap of information!

  • Truthspiller
    Truthspiller 7 months ago +6

    8 months on. War still ongoing 🤷‍♂️

  • Bob Zee
    Bob Zee Year ago +111

    There was a Czechoslovakian coin that worked in German vending machines too :) Also, after the fall of Eastern block and dissolution of Czechoslovakia, 2 SKK worked as 5 CZK (so like triple its value) in vending machines. They got much more accurate since the early 90s tho :)

    • Michal Peterka
      Michal Peterka Year ago +10

      Some machines in CZ accepted washers :D

    • gerald greenman
      gerald greenman Year ago

      In Australia the dollar coin is bigger than the 2 ,bonkers and so say n.Zealandsrs visiting

    • Deadfast
      Deadfast Year ago

      @gerald greenman If you think the 1 dollar coin is chunky, look up the 50 cent one. It's almost twice as heavy!

    • MsJubjubbird
      MsJubjubbird Year ago

      Australia had the issue with 1 and 2 cent pieces, which were no longer valid in the 80s/90s. I think the 1c passed for 5 cents and the 2c passed for 10c. You couldn't give them to shop vendors because of the colour but they were the same size for vending machine

    • Biały
      Biały Year ago +1

      The best story about this type of old times scams is about Polish people, Polish people living in the west were making coins out of ice and then they were using them in rented homes that got vending machines for the utilities... 10 out of 10 scam rating...🙃

  • Matt Riddell
    Matt Riddell 11 months ago +4

    I'd love to see a video on the international consequences of cutting Russia off from its reserves. Will this mean that people don't want to hold USD?

    • Apoorv
      Apoorv 11 months ago +3

      In short term, not much.... in the long term, it's already happening, just now accelerating

    • High Definist
      High Definist 11 months ago

      Does not look like it. The Dollar has gained in value relative to the Euro, implying that people are, overall, more interested in holding USD compared to holding EUR.

    • Matt Riddell
      Matt Riddell 11 months ago

      @High Definist I meant more if the USA can say that holding USD is potentially worthless, will it have an impact. I guess maybe your statement is that if you're going to hold something, USD is probably the best option?

  • Roger S.
    Roger S. Year ago +1

    Yet another excellently informative film. Thank you.

  • Zach Gerrity
    Zach Gerrity 4 months ago +7

    This literally sounds like what's been going on in the UK for the past decade

  • MafiousBJ
    MafiousBJ Year ago +2

    Very large country but small relative population which is concentrated around a few urban centres, making it difficult to properly take advantage of their the natural resources and size...add tons of corruption to it and it reminds me a lot of Argentina....and we know how Argentina "works" (or most accurately, doesn´t work)
    Source: I live in Argentina :)

  • Kenzie Campbell
    Kenzie Campbell 11 months ago +14

    This video aged well

    • Umer Salahuddin
      Umer Salahuddin 8 months ago +2

      Really ? Rubel is stronger than ever

    • Jordi Nagel
      Jordi Nagel 7 months ago +3

      @Umer Salahuddinyeah, after having defaulted on its debts and driving gas prices through the roof. Such strong.

    • Jesus Zamora
      Jesus Zamora 7 months ago

      @Jordi Nagel Yep. Only recently have we seen gas prices coming back down 'round here. It's good to see gas at around $3.50/gallon again.

    • Daniel Tchaikovski
      Daniel Tchaikovski 2 months ago +2

      @Jordi Nagel when did a default happen are you high?

  • Wind_Runner
    Wind_Runner Year ago +197

    I love how he talks about being resource-rich as if resource exportation doesn't have the lowest return in terms of economics and it isn't the major form of wealth in developing nations.

    • Marcos Chagas
      Marcos Chagas Year ago +126

      Having lots of resources is a very welcome bless, but countries fail when they don't add value to it. Being dependent of comodities is a recipie to disaster.

    • neeneko
      neeneko Year ago +59

      Yeah, it is a rather dated economic concept. There used to be this idea that resource wealth -> general wealth -> service economy. It was very popular with american economists since it seemed to explain the US's rise to power while downplaying the importance of imperialism. It was a very 'feel good' theory that is still VERY popular, esp in the western US, and shows up in a lot of 'critical rural vs useless urban populations' political and cultural rhetoric.
      In more modern frameworks, resource economies are more of a 'soft imperialism' trap, very difficult and painful to get out of.

    • Graham
      Graham Year ago +77

      Natural resources don't have to be bad for economic development though. Australia, Canada, and especially the channel favourite - Norway - are examples of how resource extraction can help grow an economy rather than hinder it. Even the US has had great help from natural resources.

    • Andynd27
      Andynd27 Year ago +6

      @neeneko cool let's all stop sowing crops so if critical rural economy is just rhetoric

    • Andrey Bolkonskiy
      Andrey Bolkonskiy Year ago +17

      It's called resource curse. It makes your currency valuable therefor not competitive in the global market.

  • Player 2 Nation
    Player 2 Nation Year ago

    I learn so much on this channel its amazing! Like I learned today that numbering things like this: "#1):" is confusing to say the least lol

  • Gary Powell
    Gary Powell Year ago

    I have seen reports that even major arms plants, such as those that build and repair tanks and armored vehicles are shut down and unable to replace equipment losses or repair damaged equipment, due to a lack of western produced parts. I have also seen reports that are predicting the possibility of this war going on for years. Remember, Russia's equally inept war in the much smaller Chechnya went on for a decade and a half and without these kinds of sanctions. Despite Putin's ability to so far control the flow of information to his people, I can't imagine a scenario where that goes on forever. That, plus the upcoming and inevitable economic collapse, will lead to the end of Putin's regime. Also, remember that it was the military loss in Afghanistan that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

  • Mehdi Hatami
    Mehdi Hatami Year ago +34

    How can Russia afford nuclear weapons when it's economy is so weak? You could ask the same question about North Korea.

    • Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
      Curtiss P-40 Warhawk Year ago +30

      Because both of these country’s put military spending first while Civilian economy goes 2nd,

    • Tetraxis
      Tetraxis Year ago +10

      @Curtiss P-40 Warhawk Indeed. thats why sanctions don't work against tyrants, they're tyrants.

    • Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
      Curtiss P-40 Warhawk Year ago +4

      @Tetraxis deep brained

    • Root Beer
      Root Beer Year ago +17

      Russia really can’t afford them, they have thousands of Soviet legacy weapons, and they are a huge drain on their budget. As for North Korea, it’s just their number one priority because it’s the only thing that keeps them relevant.

  • Mason Findlay
    Mason Findlay 5 months ago +10

    Great video! Would you consider doing one on the UK economy?

  • DUCKVILLELOL
    DUCKVILLELOL Year ago +10

    Most interesting thought I had about the Washington Concensus was to think about it and - where information is possible - thinking about post-apocalyptic movies/tv shows. Imagine doing a review based on the Washington Concensus on the various collectives that came about in The Walking Dead or something like that! Would be fascinating!

  • J r
    J r Year ago

    A missed/ wasted opportunity. Well said. Sad, tragic and now horrible.

  • Space
    Space Year ago +1

    The only thing Russia needs to do is make it easier to become "well connected."

  • Miguel Riesco
    Miguel Riesco 5 months ago +33

    They are still fighting 8 months after this video

  • tofu
    tofu Year ago +3

    As someone who knows sweet F all in economics, thank you for explaining everything clearly in layman's term.

  • XIVDock
    XIVDock 11 months ago +1

    I appreciated the Chernobyl nod. "Not great, not terrible"

  • tanjoy0205
    tanjoy0205 Year ago +628

    Can’t wait for the “Sovereign wealth fund and how their more powerful than banks” ep ,a nice discussion to distract from the perils of the world.

    • Joshua Yow
      Joshua Yow Year ago +11

      That was a nice way of saying countries that don't run on world bank debt work different.

    • James Guy Photography
      James Guy Photography Year ago +4

      @Joshua Yow If a country produces something, like the US produces massive amounts of food, they get to be wealthy.

    • ross8816
      ross8816 Year ago +5

      they're

  • mphRagnarok
    mphRagnarok Year ago

    How come you never ranked the US on the score list even though you did a three part video series?

  • EdgyShooter
    EdgyShooter Year ago +1

    I like that method, always make sure to pardon yourself while disguising it as pardoning your boss!

  • Evancraft53
    Evancraft53 Year ago +11

    This did not age well

  • TheCardboardJedi
    TheCardboardJedi Year ago

    Thank you that video helped fill in a lot of history for me leading up the recent "activities"

  • Lamaahru Loma
    Lamaahru Loma Year ago +1

    By the way, you can use 10 Czech Crowns for 10 Swedish Crowns in Wendung machines.

  • Telhias
    Telhias Year ago +396

    I do have a question regarding privatization. Would it be possible to lease the industries rather than straight up sell them off? I mean while it feels bad to sell off vital resources of the country to foreign powers, having a potential legal way of taking it back over would largely assuage the downsides. Personally I find a regular and renegotiable payment scheme a much better option, for the government, to a one off fire-sale of everything money-making.

    • Skytanks
      Skytanks Year ago +79

      The issue is that it takes capital to buy and make mining equipment. Having limits on the contract make it significantly less advantageous for the buyer.

    • ymirfrostgiant
      ymirfrostgiant Year ago +88

      I have to agree. Selling off Russia's mineral wealth to foreign companies would have turned the country into a virtual colony of the West. Russia's kleptocracy might just have been the only thing keeping the country somewhat independent.

    • Austin Behel
      Austin Behel Year ago +19

      If only the government was constrained by legal and democratic means

    • Noneof Yourbusiness
      Noneof Yourbusiness Year ago +39

      Or how about not selling everything to the same foreigners?
      Like 20% max to US citizens, 20% to Arabs, 30% to various Europeans etc.

    • bored panda
      bored panda Year ago +72

      Jim Harrington ayo is that sarcasm ?

  • Poking Technology
    Poking Technology Year ago +1

    Living in Switzerland... the five franc coin is _huge_, big and heavy and over two centimetres across. If the one ruble coin is the same size, then that must have one of the highest mass:value ratios around!

  • David
    David Year ago +1

    "Not great, not terrible." I see what you did there Comrade Dyatlov

  • Jacob Myers
    Jacob Myers Year ago +1

    Really well done video, thanks for the info

  • kyle johnson
    kyle johnson Year ago

    Japan, Germany and South Korea make the top 12, remarkable recoveries.

  • John Jonothan
    John Jonothan 11 months ago +5

    You had it right at the start....under-qualified to say!

  • Gerald Maxwell
    Gerald Maxwell Year ago +705

    Another thing Russia does have going for it despite having a low GDP per capita and high inequality is the high home ownership rate. Like All former Communist nations, well over 85 percent of Russians own their home(Most of the 15 percent are temporary migrants from Central Asia who btw are also home owners in their home countries too).While property taxes exist, they are very low given how low the value of Russian apartments especially, is. As such, even with low wages, Russians generally do not have to worry about rent or rising property prices the way Americans and Canadians especially have to.

    • Mylet
      Mylet Year ago +28

      I did not know that great post !

    • Nety Imeni
      Nety Imeni Year ago +11

      My taxes are 47 dollars a month.

    • Mylet
      Mylet Year ago +43

      @Nety Imeni as an American I will have to move mountains to afford a home. Good luck to you !

    • Munch517
      Munch517 Year ago +28

      Whenever I see pictures of Russia they often show a lot of apartment blocks, are there a lot of single family homes in Russian cities? Or are those apartment blocks mostly turned into condo-flats?

    • Mylet
      Mylet Year ago +9

      @MATRIX high demand or lack of supply it still sucks if you want to own your own place in the US or Canada vs Russia. This is an area where it is advantage to live over there. No perfect place to live but having your own home is a huge plus.

  • Big Blue
    Big Blue Year ago

    You may want to remake this video in a couple of months. The way it's going it is definitely going down your list.

  • Angel Arch
    Angel Arch Year ago

    Maybe the GINI coefficient should also take into account the coefficient of how likely it is to be thrown out a window or be poisoned to inequality.

  • Jamarmaduke
    Jamarmaduke Year ago +1

    "I guess it didnt take them too long to embrace Capitalism after all. Not very important but it is very funny."
    My brother in Christ, they were hungry.

  • TheMagnificentGman

    As a South African I'm glad we're winning at something

  • Maks
    Maks Year ago +4

    "something we will be trying to explore in next weeks video"....17 days later... EE! Where are you?! Really curious about what you have to say about Russia post-sanctions.

  • D G
    D G Year ago +215

    Just so you know, ALL modern wars are fought economically as well as militarily. Japan’s war was largely driven by economics, and its defeat involved cutting off its economy. Same with Germany - hitlers drive in Egypt and in the Soviet Union Caucasus was completely driven by the economic imperatives of oil (and taking Ukraine was intended to boost German food supplies - blockaded by Britain, as in ww1). Stalingrad, as the northern ‘elbow’ in the axis line to oil in the caucusus, become solely a strategic imperative for economic reasons. It’s loss by Germany meant the certain defeat of Hitler, as did the defeat of the Afrika Korps at El Alamein. Economics IS war. And it often drives wars.

    • Rainboq
      Rainboq Year ago +42

      Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics. Wars are fight through industrial scale and supply chains more than they are fought through sheer might on the battlefield. The army with the better fighting force but weaker logistics cannot afford to take losses, while the army with the inverse can lose every battle until it's opponent reaches the extent of it's logistics capacity, and then smash it to pieces. Tanks can't fight if they don't have fuel, soldiers can't fight if they can't eat, and guns can't fire without ammo.

    • Kamakiri711
      Kamakiri711 Year ago +9

      @Rainboq "An Army marches on its stomach" Napoleon and/or Frederick the Great, or neither ;)

    • michael jordan
      michael jordan Year ago +3

      Economics IS politics… it’s economics all the way down. Real and monetary.

  • Kant3n
    Kant3n Year ago +368

    It really is a tragedy that the chance for arguably the biggest societal redemption story in human history was squandered by one lunatic and his rich friends who couldn't let go of a failed empire.

    • Harris Axer
      Harris Axer Year ago +21

      @Jeff Johnson probably both respectively

    • Lorem Ipsum
      Lorem Ipsum Year ago +37

      Lol this video is "western" propaganda right from the title.

  • NIKOLASAVE
    NIKOLASAVE Year ago +2

    By looking at the title man can guess that the best eay to win is to underestimate your opponent.

  • Bobby
    Bobby Year ago +2

    We can't afford to fight, but hey that's what good credit will do for you.

  • Julianos
    Julianos Year ago

    “Which is not great, not terrible” I see what you did there 😂😂😂

  • Caro Quintero
    Caro Quintero 6 months ago +2

    8 months later and still bombs away!!!😊

  • Cassette Walkman
    Cassette Walkman Year ago +36

    I remember my second trip to the USA from New Zealand when I was a kid. I say the second trip because on the first trip I discovered the NZ 10c coin was exactly the same as the US Quarter. And an exchange rate that made that 10c coin worth about US 5cents. Hellllooo vending machines!

  • Norwegian Blue
    Norwegian Blue Year ago +7

    I always felt Russia is its own worst enemy.

  • Connor Hennessy
    Connor Hennessy Year ago +1

    Can you do a video on the causes of increased US gas prices? I’m seeing a lot of conflicting arguments online.

  • TheBusyHoneyBee
    TheBusyHoneyBee 7 months ago +10

    Seven months lather they are still at war🤷‍♀️

  • Tymek
    Tymek Year ago +1

    I'd love to see some material about Poland 🤗

  • Extra Ark
    Extra Ark Year ago

    I dont know much about economics, but here I am being interested in a channel about country's economics.

  • Alyssa D
    Alyssa D Year ago +41

    Thank you for this wonderful explanation! I was rather confused on the inequality with the Gini Index being less than that of the US, but explaining both the oligarchs and how the Gini Index is calculated really helped :)

  • Vadim S.
    Vadim S. Year ago

    I see a lot of videos talking about Russia. Can you make a video trying to predict post war Ukraine? I saw some people expecting an economic boom in Ukraine after war. Money might flow in UA from friendly counties helping to repair it. Architects from whole world might come and help rebuilding cities

  • Gef Ginn
    Gef Ginn Year ago

    Great post my friend. I appreciate all the information you are sharing here. I'm always learning something new ✨️

  • Luciano Lago
    Luciano Lago Year ago

    You got me with the "Not great, not terrible" comment 🤣

  • Suraj Gupta
    Suraj Gupta 7 months ago +2

    As of today it seems like Russia is suffering less than Europe and US, specially after recent OPEC oil production cut

  • V Bala
    V Bala Year ago +1

    Small economy but such a big impact on world economy..

  • rick@rick
    rick@rick Year ago +87

    Looking fwd to see how this analysis goes.
    It really needs to consider if is it true that the country has the ability to be 'apparently' self sufficient on goods and food for its population. (A big parameter to analyze the impact of the sanctions imposed).

    • Diệp Triệu
      Diệp Triệu Year ago +18

      It definitely can self sufficient the same way Soviet self sufficient. However, it won't do any good for the economy the same exact way it destroy Soviet's economy

    • Graham
      Graham Year ago +7

      @Diệp Triệu That's how I see it as well. They should be able to feed themselves, supply fuel and other basic necessities. But their GDP/capita is going to tank. So there probably won't be mass starvation but living standards will fall sharply. They should do at least a bit better than Iran.

    • Marko Bucevic
      Marko Bucevic Year ago +27

      @zjetman Dude, russia produces/produces like 20% of world grain if not war, with ukrain being the next one with around 14%. They are fine food and resource wise by a mile.

    • Robin Jacobs
      Robin Jacobs Year ago +5

      @Marko Bucevic but they depend for a significant part on foreign seeds and technology to do so. Bayer, one off the largest seed suppliers to Russia stated that delivery of seeds for next year crops will depend on peace in Ukraine a few days ago.

  • Brian
    Brian Year ago

    THIS is the 2022 Russian Economy, and today I'm going to review some of its quirks and features. Then, we'll get it out on the road for an invasion and then give it an Economy Score.

  • John Weir
    John Weir Year ago +1

    You probably won't ever see this, but any chance of doing a comparison/contrast video between Russian oligarchs and South Korean Chaebols?

  • Kelechi Okoro
    Kelechi Okoro 2 months ago +1

    Are you able to review your video compared to where Russia and its economy is today?

  • GSUS
    GSUS Year ago

    I like how you picked out 2017 as the year to use for your chart at 1:11. Nice bias.

  • Christo
    Christo 6 months ago +9

    This aged well.....

    • Rajat Jain
      Rajat Jain 6 months ago +2

      I was here to just write this.. lol

    • Nope
      Nope 2 months ago +1

      Over a year now and back to laugh at this video again as well

  • Tabor Kelly
    Tabor Kelly Year ago +9

    This is some of your best work. Lots of information without any hyperbole. If you are interested in a discussion of the west's involvement (including Jeffrey Sachs) in the early '90s in Russian markets I found The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein to be interesting.

  • Assassin Agent
    Assassin Agent Year ago +3

    "can russia afford it" is not a question. Neither is the fact that Putin now definitely needs a win in Ukraine. Even an extremely costly in death toll and world politics

  • srdjan455
    srdjan455 Year ago +4

    16:25 I don't think that's entirely correct, you're saying that you stay in power in Russia by keeping the oligarchs happy. But Putin has done the exact opposite and sent them a very clear message to stay out of politics.

  • Robert Stelian Nita

    Russia could have gone the way of Norway but went the way of Kleptocracy. Such is life.

  • VERE
    VERE 11 months ago +1

    12:57 that soldier falls off, when he is trying to get in to the helicopter 😂😂