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

The next big scam after Madoff?

The new documentary Chasing Madoff is about Harry Markopolos, half crusader, half cuckoo, whose warnings about Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff were ignored by the SEC for years. The next big financial scam, according to Markopolos, is foreign exchange fees fraud:

"'The investment managers were saying they're reporting this much and the pension funds were saying we're receiving this much. The gap should've only been fees but there was something extra missing, 30 basis points for currency overcharges.'

"Markopolos said the Madoff case was 'a total wakeup call' for the SEC, which now has more financial examiners to go with all the lawyers. It 'remains to be seen if [the SEC] becomes a credible law enforcement agency. If they're not doing big cases 18 months from now, we have a big problem.'"

Madoff whistleblower: Here's the next big fraud

By Margo D. Beller

August 28, 2011 | CNBC

URL: http://usat.ly/o4gt7X