In 1998, I traveled to Moscow for the primary time to show in a summer time course on the Russian Academy of Sciences. The week earlier than, we had been on trip in Colorado and I heard on the radio “Today, the ruble lost 100% of its value.” That meant that the ruble was nugatory, which appeared unlikely. Certainly, the subsequent day, the announcer apologized and mentioned she meant to say that the ruble misplaced 50% of its worth.
Within the occasion, by the point I arrived on the Lodge Sputnik in Moscow, all of the money machines within the metropolis had been shut down. Restaurant costs modified hourly throughout my five-day keep, and there have been sidewalk indicators posting alternate charges that had been written in chalk so they might simply be edited. Definitely, places our latest expertise with inflation in perspective.
Over at jabberwocking.com, Kevin Drum notes that the ruble is down 30% relative to the US greenback because the warfare began and 20% simply since September.
From the remark thread:
“The problem with the Russian economy at this point is that it is basically producing nothing except military supplies for the war and even then they’re still having to import tons of weapons and supplies from Iran and NK. Most Russians have seen a marked deterioration in their standard of living the past 2 years. Some 150,000 young men have been killed and hundreds of thousands more injured or disabled. There’s a real possibility of a major economic-political crisis in Russia when the war ends and hundreds of thousands are thrown out of work or discharged from the army with no civilian economy to return to. A lot of foreign aid will pour in to reconstruct Ukraine, but Russia (and the eastern provinces it has annexed that have been turned into a moonscape) will get nothing and even if some sanctions are eased, things probably won’t go back to anything resembling normal as long as Putin is in power.”
When the USSR collapsed, Francis Fukuyama declared the top of historical past. Historical past, it appears, has different concepts.
