Krugman on Putin: defending a kleptocracy, not the downtrodden masses

[pampango]

Putin’s thrashing, his evident decision to reject advice from economists who tell him anything he doesn’t want to hear, feel very familiar to me and I’m sure many others who’ve followed Latin America over the decades. Basically, it sounds a lot like good old-fashioned economic populism.

There is, however, one interesting difference. The stories Dornbusch and Edwards analyzed, the issues of Latin America today, involved governments that really were trying to help the poor and workers with low wages. That is, they really were populist regimes, even if they didn’t end up serving the interests of their constituency. But nobody would call the Putin regime populist; he’s rejecting economics as we know it to defend a kleptocracy, not the downtrodden masses.

Have there been comparable examples? I’m sure there must have been, but I can’t think of them. Malaysia’s imposition of capital controls in 1998 was in part about rescuing its version of oligarchs, but it was actually a reasonable policy given the circumstances, and worked OK. And otherwise I’m coming up blank.

So Putin seems to have brought something new, or at least formerly rare, into the world of economic policy: economic cronyism, an effort to suspend the laws on economics on behalf, not of the broad populace, but a tiny group of well connected malefactors of great wealth. Innovation!

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/macroeconomic-cronyism/?_r=0

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Erm, what about the US?

Politicians ignoring economic reality, defending 'voodoo economics', proclaiming that our own rich oligarchs are 'job creators', rather than acknowledging that it is demand that actually creates jobs, and both major parties creating laws that have the effect of continuing to make the rich richer, draining public resources to enrich the already rich?

Putin doesn't sound all that new to me. He sounds like he's discovered American style economics.

[pampango]

2. "Putin doesn't sound all that new to me. He sounds like he's discovered American style economics."

I agree and I'm pretty sure Krugman would too. Krugman particularly blames republicans for their austerity, deficit-hawk mentality that favors the rich and 'job creators' - IOW, "American style economics". He seems to be accusing Putin of being a republican, at least in terms of his economic policy.

[BainsBane]

4. That would be in every other column that Krugman writes

This one happens to be about Russia. It isn't an American style economy. Not even fucking close. It's capitalism at it's most naked, where a few oligarchs loot the resources with no pretense of anything else. He peddles some bullshit for half-witted foreigners who don't actually give a shit about the lives of people in Russia but have decided to create a hero in a white hat out of a right-wing despot because they can't handle the world as it is.

Your post is nonsense. Russia is not US style economics. It's capitalism at it's most brutal and naked, with no safety net and no pretense of fairness. It's not trickle down. It's graft, pure and simple. There is no shortage of documentation of how Putin has personally become enormously wealthy as a result of stealing while in office. Pretending it is just like the US is absurd. We have our own quite serious problems, but they are not the same as Russia's.

If the only point you people ever have to make is that the US is the worst place on earth and therefore everything else that goes on around the world is justified, we got the message. Theft, no problem. Jailing LGBT, no problem, foreign invasion, no problem. The only source of evil on earth is the US--which by the way is YOU TOO--and therefore that justifies making heroes out of right-wing megalomaniac authoritarians. Anything any brutal asshole does is justified because of something by the US. We can't be outraged over burning someone alive because of for Americans to care about human life, we are told, is hypocrisy. We are told we have no right to object to Russia's imperial endeavors because of the US, while those same people who insist we be silent work double-time to justify the invasion of the Ukraine. None of it matters if it isn't at the hands of Americans. The world could face the worst genocide in history, and some here would insist it didn't matter because of something by the US. It's inane beyond belief. That' all you people ever say. The self-loathing verges on the pathological. You are American after all. It's not like you're separate or immune from this evil you are convinced is worse than anything else. You people are talking about yourselves.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. Yeah whatever.

American Republicans (and many Democrats) just pretend that they aren't about 'looting the resources'.

So we're not 'naked'. But it's exactly what they want, what they believe in.

And for your 'you people', it's off to ignore with you. I've got no time to for people who want to constantly caricature people with whom they disagree. I've never said 'America is the worst place on earth', nor will I. (Edit, and btw, Putin is no 'hero' of mine - he's an evil megalomaniac bastard. But that doesn't make him all that special in the world.) Go argue with your own imagination - oh wait, you already are.

[BainsBane]

6. Actually in the US system it's about accommodating global capital

which is a problem of a whole other magnitude and likely far more intractable than simple graft. What it is not is exactly the same. Failing to understand the nature of the problem makes it impossible to do anything about it. Krugman has written thousands of columns about problems in the US economy, which surely you know. So why would you ask, "what about the US?"

And yes, I'm arguing with the sum total of crap I've read over the past couple of days. My imagination is not nearly so fertile. I couldn't possibly dream up the crap I've read here recently.

[Johnyawl]

16. Well said...

...what you're pointing out is just another form of American Exceptionalism.

[Throd]

18. Thank you. Narcissistic self-loathing parading as masturbatory enlightenment.

All the problems on earth can be traced back to the USA in their version of "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon".

[freshwest]

19. Agreed! Because world history (including evil) ceased to exist in 1776! USA! USA! USA!

It's really become tiresome, and you and Bain explained it well. I have a lot of respect for Bain and even quote her at times:

Dismissing the rights and concerns of people of color and women is reactionary. It is way more reactionary than Third Way. There is nothing progressive or liberal about it, and I don't consider people who do so to be leftists. Period.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025216329#post457

It's a fantasy being sold to avoid an unbearable reality to some that the world has often not been a nice place, there has not been a Garden of Eden for all people, no matter how idyllic some peoples or places have been portrayed. Americans are but toddlers on the world stage. I'll be looking to see your take on things more often. You sure hit the nail on that one.

[SidDithers]

3. Stop bashing Russia!!...

Thanks for posting.

Sid

[Fred Sanders]

7. So Russian Oligarths and American Oligarths rule their nations in a similar way? Shocking.

[pampango]

8. Krugman seems to judge Putin and his political supporters as more like republicans than like

Democrats in terms of economic policy.

Others have made the argument that Putin's foreign policy is more like that of American neo-cons even though American variety professes to hate him the most.

[Fred Sanders]

9. Not to forget the similarities do not end there. The 100 million strong Russian Orthodox Church is

similar to evangelicals in America, with even more political clout and identical Neanderthal religious fervour and voting homogeny.

[pampango]

10. Good point. n/t

[Fred Sanders]

11. I just happen to remember when Americans were conditioned to hate Russian communism and now

they have been conditioned to hate Russian capitalism?

If there is something really fucked up going on somewhere I always look at the religious angle first, money second, and always find the answer is connected to one or both. Always.

American public opinion is as malleable as religious fervour.

[stevenleser]

12. The American system at least has had points where we cared somewhat about workers and

the middle class. Russia's non-Communist era started as an organized crime kleptocracy right off the bat and has no pretension about being otherwise.

[Fred Sanders]

14. The ruling class in Russia sure do care about the positions of 100 million Russian Orthodox Church members.

I think Putin is even a member.

Putin is a fundie?

I think America has had its historical moments trying to champion the middle class and poor as well, but it also passed.

[pampango]

13. I'm not sure that disliking the American and/or Russian versions of capitalism relies much on

"malleable public opinion". Simply looking at the effects of how both operate is enough to arrive at that conclusion.

[Fred Sanders]

15. I dislike Putin not because he is aggressive militarily in Eastern Ukraine, as if America should be the one to cast

the first stone on military and imperialistic aggression, but because either he is a religious nut case, or is pandering to the religious nut cases on the one hand and the Billionaire Oligarths with the other.

Sound familiar?

A preview of 2016 America, perhaps, except America has 10 times the military capacity.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. And yet the OP is about Russia, and you want to talk about the US instead.....

It's boring American Exceptionalism framed in the negative.

[Octafish]

20. Just like here.

Since the repeal of Glass-Steagal, top US government officials in and out of office have worked exclusively on Wealth Management:

http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com/revitalizingamerica/SenatorPhilGramm.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

21. ha...........

I was just gonna say the same thing..

but who is worse or blackest of the pot and the kettle

I'm sure there is data that compares disparity.

[Octafish]

22. Banksters in jail vs Plutocrats in jail?

Zero to More Than a Few.

Plus the United States Treasury bailed out the Banksters "100 cents on the dollar" per Timmy Geithner for AIG.

When did the Russians ever do that?