The Economist: 110 individuals control 35% of Russia’s wealth

[HT: OP]  In Russia, forget about the One Percent!  

Instead focus on the 0.0000008 percent. They control 35 percent of Russia's wealth, according to the new book Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? by Karen Dawisha.

We can hold our noses up and feel superior to Russia, but in fact, in the U.S. the top 0.1 percent owns 20 percent of all national wealth. And things are getting worse by the year.

We in the West must come to a renewed appreciation of not just democracy, with its formalities of elections and voting, but more importantly pluralism, because real pluralism is the built-in antidote to oligarchy and the national insurance policy against any form of tyranny, exploitation or extremism. 

Band of brothers

November 22, 2014 | The Economist 

URL: http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21633785-academic-investigation-networks-control-russia-band-brothers?fsrc=scn/fb/te/pe/ed/bandofbrothers

The Economist: Ukraine's economy is in the toilet

"Few people know that Ukraine is the world’s most unequal country, if you look at wealth (not income). The second-most unequal is Russia," noted The Economist.

And few people know that Ukraine's Maidan Revolution was not about the Russian language, or even about signing an agreement with the EU. It was about systemic corruption and political cronyism that was slowly yet unstoppably choking the life out of the economy, chasing out foreign investment and the country's best and brightest, and depriving a whole generation of smart, ambitious young Ukrainians of any kind of future where their hard work and merit could better their station in life.  

Russia's president Vladimir Putin cannot let the Maidan Revolution succeed in stamping out corruption and reforming the economy. Now he is perfectly content to let Ukraine be a freezing economic and political basket case with a Russian-fomented "frozen conflict" in its eastern Donbas region.

It is really that bad

By C.W.

November 20, 2014 | The Economist

URL: http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/11/ukraines-economy

Economist: Where discerning babies will be born in '13

The uber-conservative Economist has ranked the best countries to be an infant in in 2013, and guess what?  The U.S. ain't even in the top 15.  

But I'm kinda calling bullshit on this one. Why?  Because these global rankings like Doing Business and World Economic Forum tend to over-rate the tiny island nations of the world like Singapore, Taiwan, New Zealand, Qatar and -- jeez, it's not even a country -- Hong Kong.

I've been to Hong Kong, and unless you're a millionaire, it is not a place for human beings.  And New Zealand?  Before director Peter Jackson discovered it, there was nothing there except sheep and the people who loved, er, looked after  them.  

But these lists are correct to put the Nordic socialist paradises at the top of their lists.  We all need something to aspire to.... (sigh).

The lottery of life

Where to be born in 2013

November 21, 2012 | The Economist

URL: http://www.economist.com/news/21566430-where-be-born-2013-lottery-life?fsrc=scn/tw/te/tr/thelotteryoflife