Mercantilism Works, Thank You EU
The West has done another great deed for Russia, it has forced Russia, against the will of its fifth columnist oligarchs and bureaucrats and many traitorous senators onto the path of Mercantilism. More on this fifth column scum later, and how most deserve a wall and a cigarette.....now on to the mercantilism.
I have written many times about Mercantilism, the only nationalistic economic form, the one that built all the great nations of the world and the one that is absolutely ignored in all economic classes and B schools. Both of which I know from personal experience and from speaking with countless others who had similar gaps in their education.
Mercantilism's first pillar is maximum utilization of your own resources and population. This does not mean a communist or fascist dictatorial economy. Internally a free market is a fine thing with competition...internally. What it does mean is that you need protective barriers to cut down on imports and thus produce everything that can be produced at home, buying, as per the second pillar, only raw resources and only if you need them and selling finished goods.
This worked with the auto industry in Russia, raising the number of automobile plants from 19 old ones, when stiff import duties were passed to 36 as of this year, including a few new home grown ones. So it was and is obvious that this is what is needed to take the Russian industrial production to the next great level.
However, knowing and doing are two very different things and with a bag full of foreigners, that is oligarchs, running large swatches of the economy, it would never materialize. Why are they foreigners? Because they do not give two cents of a damn about Russia or the Russian people. Because they consider themselves internationalists and are more than happy to run away from what ever they destroy in their wake. These are the same types of men who pushed out the Tsar and created chaos because they thought they could earn more, and then ran away from the wreck.
However, our enemies, the collective West, and enemies they are: have moved Russia down that path themselves. Thanks to sanctions, this has give the patriots in power circles incentives to push through localization. And guess what? It worked. In the months from Dec 2013 through July 2014, the industrial output graph was flat to negative, below the 50pt mark. Since
The West has done another great deed for Russia, it has forced Russia, against the will of its fifth columnist oligarchs and bureaucrats and many traitorous senators onto the path of Mercantilism. More on this fifth column scum later, and how most deserve a wall and a cigarette.....now on to the mercantilism.
I have written many times about Mercantilism, the only nationalistic economic form, the one that built all the great nations of the world and the one that is absolutely ignored in all economic classes and B schools. Both of which I know from personal experience and from speaking with countless others who had similar gaps in their education.
Mercantilism's first pillar is maximum utilization of your own resources and population. This does not mean a communist or fascist dictatorial economy. Internally a free market is a fine thing with competition...internally. What it does mean is that you need protective barriers to cut down on imports and thus produce everything that can be produced at home, buying, as per the second pillar, only raw resources and only if you need them and selling finished goods.
This worked with the auto industry in Russia, raising the number of automobile plants from 19 old ones, when stiff import duties were passed to 36 as of this year, including a few new home grown ones. So it was and is obvious that this is what is needed to take the Russian industrial production to the next great level.
However, knowing and doing are two very different things and with a bag full of foreigners, that is oligarchs, running large swatches of the economy, it would never materialize. Why are they foreigners? Because they do not give two cents of a damn about Russia or the Russian people. Because they consider themselves internationalists and are more than happy to run away from what ever they destroy in their wake. These are the same types of men who pushed out the Tsar and created chaos because they thought they could earn more, and then ran away from the wreck.
However, our enemies, the collective West, and enemies they are: have moved Russia down that path themselves. Thanks to sanctions, this has give the patriots in power circles incentives to push through localization. And guess what? It worked. In the months from Dec 2013 through July 2014, the industrial output graph was flat to negative, below the 50pt mark. Since
Industrial Production grew by 2.8% year on year in September - the fastest pace since 2012 as the domestic economy shows strong signs of recovery.
The most important segment which reflects overall business conditions is the manufacturing segment which registered a 3.6% gain for the month.
http://russia-insider.com/en/business/2014/10/17/02-55-52pm/russian_industry_expands_rapidly_september_hammers_expectations?utm_medium=RI&utm_source=Russia%20Insider
Retail Sales improved for a third consecutive month reaching the yearly rate of 1.7% beating consensus forecasts of 1.5%. The improving trend in Retail Sales is particularly important given how important Q4 is for the retail sector.
http://russia-insider.com/en/business/2014/10/17/10-07-31pm/september_data_smashes_expectations_russian_economy_accelerates
33 comments:
Sorry if off the topic:
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/germans-clear-russia-in-mh-17-case/
Would like to see it tried here :)
So tired of the prattle from the manure spreaders. Globalism is one of those academic dreams...doesn't work in practice. Rewards cheating on a massive scale.
can you comment the cnstitutional ststus the central bank of RF?
Kyrilloff.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-29/globalization-permanent-instability
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan14/autarky1-14.html
Globalization does appear to be great for oligarchs and gamblers...For real people? Not so much.
Problems probably rooted in human nature. The theory suggests comparative advantage should work....but actual results often seem questionable.
Too bad these issues only seem to be raised whenever nations get their feelings hurt instead of being soberly and constructively discussed during good times?
Tangents:
Russian rocket engines were on CBS news tonight. Despite one blowup, treatment seemed respectful. Believe Russian concerns get more respect here than you might believe....but events often get entangled with other interests & considerations.
That mess with Ukraine is just baffling. Looks to be a very messy divorce between cousins? Sometimes you just want to yell "Stop! Be careful what you ask for!" But there is no denying many states in that area fear Russia. Why else would they put up with an "ally" caught red handed spying on them? Must make for plenty of pissed off people....just can't get a break.
Had the Nazis won & held onto Europe...Russia probably would have wanted some American skin over there (specifically our people get nuked when your people get nuked) - but you sure as hell wouldn't like it.
They say company and fish smell after 3 days. We've been in Europe far longer than that...so it's really stinky. That's the choice many of these small countries face. Put up with stinky Americans or be vulnerable to the next Russian pogrom.
No wonder they're pissed. Bet more than a few are crying: "A pox on both your houses".
Good link "Sorry if off topic". Thanks.
Hope someone just tells the truth someday.
Problem is, those engines were Russian designed, Ukrainian built (Dnepropetrovsk) and American modified and the engineering work is 50 years old.
What next Russian pogrom? Russia does not start wars (well it may start the next in a series of wars, but even that is rare). Read some real history...all those countries invaded us, countless times, not the other way around. We just happen to be very very good at killing and since we have a long temper and the West the memory of a gnat, history repeats itself every 50-100 years.
The USA practices the opposite of Mercantilism. Its version of globalization includes a one way mass importation of labor, both legal and illegal. With unrestricted immigration of people from foreign cultures who don't wish to assimilate, the American people are dealing with what in essence is an invasion. One result is downward pressure on wages and working conditions of both unskilled and skilled labor. It becomes very difficult for young citizens to get entry level jobs to begin their economic momentum upwards. In general, social mobility becomes stymied.
The loss of economic robustness of the middle and lower middle classes causes pressure on business who may be further induced to move out of the country, or close up shop altogether.
However, the mass importation of intellectual labor has special problems in its own rights. In the first instance, the USA appears to be looting the rest of the planet of its intellectual resources. In doing so, it impedes the development of science and technology overseas. Since the USA public safety apparatus was so deaf, bloody minded and callous as to induce the suicide of computer science super-geniuses such as Aaron Swartz of Brooklyn, New York, the danger to the development of science is now an issue.
Further, the conditions of service of technological laborers is gravely undermined. It is bad enough that US universities are administrative institutions instead of academic ones. Just a comparison of the quality control techniques and leadership cadre in contrast to well run European Universities demonstrates the corresponding value systems with regards to the "advancement and dissemination of knowledge". The lack of opportunity is so bad that it has been typical for 200 to 700 people to apply to each single academic opening even in some of the hard sciences.
Academic freedom is threatened, and the free movement of labor means little when there is essentially a nationwide lockout for citizens.
Globalization has had miserable consequences. American citizens are closed out of many labor markets throughout the world, while suffering from pathetic conditions of service in the USA.
Magooey
and then putin drops the economy into the toilet with his dick-waving. shortly the gas deal with the chineese will go from $400b to $200b. and for what? a slice of shithole Ukraine.
Mr. Mishin:
Considering developments in the last week or so I think it remains to be seen whether the premise offered in your article holds true for Russia this year. More important is the source of your data.
You refer to articles in Russia Insider, and these in turn use data from TradingEconomics.com. Unfortunately this data is highly suspect because Trading Economics doesn't state the precise sources of its data. Rather it uses the following rather soft description:
"Trading Economics provides its users with accurate information for 196 countries including historical data for more than 300.000 economic indicators, exchange rates, stock market indexes, government bond yields and commodity prices. Our data is based on official sources, not third party data providers, and our facts are regularly checked for inconsistencies."
Well, okay, what are these "official sources"? Presumably this means government agencies, but tell us what they are, e.g. US Treasury, Bank of England, Russian Ministry of Finance, Rosstat and others. I'll argue the merits of your economic philosophy separately, but using Russia Insider's source, Trading Economics, to support your arguments weakens rather than strengthens your position.
Mr. Mishin:
Regarding the effects of mercantilism on the auto industry, you wrote:
"This worked with the auto industry in Russia, raising the number of automobile plants from 19 old ones, when stiff import duties were passed to 36 as of this year, including a few new home grown ones. So it was and is obvious that this is what is needed to take the Russian industrial production to the next great level."
That is a strange permutation of mercantilism as you've described it. Surely you know that nearly every one of the new plants, and nearly all the expansion of auto production in Russia, is due to foreign car companies. In sales of the top 20 passenger car brands, only two are Russian. The leader among all brands, the Russian Lada, has only a 17 percent market share according to the Russian magazine Auto Review. The remaining 80-plus percent of the market belongs to foreign brands.
The vast majority of production of vehicles for sale in Russia is met by either plants owned by and producing import brands, or by Russian companies under licensing or production agreements that assemble or manufacture import brands. These plants use robotics and machining equipment imported almost exclusively from Europe, Japan, Korea or the US.
So, if producing foreign cars, designed and engineered in foreign countries, and produced using foreign machines, even though the cars are for domestic consumption, is a fair description of mercantilism, then Russia is spot-on. The duties on imported cars introduced by President Putin have worked. The only new home-grown Russian brand of car I am aware of in the last decade or so is Marussia. It's now bankrupt. A few years after its startup it invested a substantial amount in the Virgin Formula One racing team, which it promptly drove into the ground. It's now in receivership in the UK.
What does it matter if they are owned by foreigners? They produce in Russia, Russian made products and 60% of parts must be produced in Russia now, and that number will continue to rise to 90%.
Ford is an American automaker but can you call a Ford made in America an American car when 90% of the parts are imported from China or Mexico?
Further, in case of war, all those shiny plants get nationalized and sold off to local owners.
80% of Russian sold cars are assembled in Russia, almost 40% are Avtovaz.
Mr. Mishin:
"What does it matter if they are owned by foreigners?" Then you're not talking about mercantilism. You're talking about a market response followed-up with protectionism. The foreign companies entered the Russian market because Russians wanted their cars. The Russian car industry was a failure, making products people didn't want.
Current production is not a result of mercantilism because there is nothing homegrown about it. The expansion of auto production in Russia is due to direct foreign investment - investment that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet auto industry but before the latest round of tariffs and domestic content requirements. It grew precisely during the period when both of the failed policies of mercantilism and protectionism were absent. It grew because of market economics with the full cooperation of the government and the wholehearted endorsement of Russian consumers who flocked to the foreign brands and still do.
I would like to know the source of your statistics for the claim that 40 percent of cars sold in Russia (or 40 percent of 80 percent, I'm not sure which) are assembled by Avtovaz. It might be true, but hides the fact that, according to the Russian magazine Auto Review, foreign brands have about an 80 percent market share, and that Avtovaz builds the Renault Logan and Sandero - the second- and third-largest selling European models - and the Chevrolet Niva - the second-largest selling American model.
Your point about the content of the Ford actually proves my point. I'm not sure about the foreign content of specific Ford models, except to say that it isn't 90 percent sourced from China, though it's possible that more than half the parts come from Mexico and Canada. But Ford also has a large share of the market in Mexico and Canada. How many Ladas and Kamaz trucks are sold in Canada and Mexico? Furthermore, US auto manufacturers, especially GM, and European auto manufacturers, especially Volkswagen, have joint venture plants in China with Chinese automakers. Buicks and Volkswagens are among the fastest growing brands in the world's fastest growing car market. How many Russian cars are sold in China?
Most disturbing, however, is your revelation of the likely true intent of building up the auto industry in Russia using foreign direct investment. "Furthermore, in case of war, all those shiny plants get nationalized and sold off to local owners." But it doesn't take a war for Putin and his corrupt cronies to seize a business, does it? Any trumped up charge against an owner, any newly discovered unpaid tax bills, will do just fine. A company is fine as long as the owners toe the line, but if they don't, they stand to lose everything. Is this the fate that awaits French, American and other foreign investments in the Russian auto industry? Your comment speaks volumes.
Mr. Mishin:
Using data from the auto industry and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the website cars.com analyzed the domestic content of car models assembled and sold in the US. Of the ten top-selling models with at least 75 percent US domestic content, five are Japanese and five are American. This includes the two best-selling models in the US, regardless of content, for over a decade, the Toyota Camry and Ford F-150.
In a global car market, mercantilism and protectionism are losing strategies.
http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&subject=ami&story=amMade0712&referer=advice
Outside of the fact that Avtovaz represents about 1 million cars out of a 2.4 million total sold per year, so 40%...hardly a dislike by the local consumer, building locally by foreigners has everything to do with Mercantilism.
Mercantilism does not preclude foreigners from building in one's own country, the key point is: maximum utilization of your national resources and work force: build everything that can be build internally. This is done through high import tariffs and fertile pro-business internal policies.
While arguing against Mercantilism you are actually underlining its main points.
As for your point that Kamazes are not sold in North America, as proof of what? Russian trucks are sold all over the world, outside of N.America and Europe or as those living there like to think of themselves as "the world"...but in truth only 20% of it.
As for your rattle about seizing business in Russia, I'd pull that plank of your's out of your own eye. The West has a long and very recent history of stealing in mass assets of property holders. From America's laws on confiscation of property for the common good (which now includes giving whole neighborhoods to developers to make more tax worthy projects) to flat out pushing out the rightful owners of GM and Crystler in the US "bailouts".
The same can be said of the banking industries and many others. Shall we play this game?
It takes nothing for the Western Hypocricies to do as they please in their police states while preaching to the world the gospel of human rights. After all, critics can always be reducted to one of the US black prisons around the world.
Oh and don't kid yourself for a second if you think the US would not nationalize any German, Japanese or other plant should a war break out or even if those nations tried to run their own lives.
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/How_American_is_Your_Car/
Go ahead and read this.
Ford Focus had 20% US AND Canadian parts and is the category for the rest of these autos. So the US parts is lower still.
****For the 2013 model year, just 14 models had domestic-parts content above 75%, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the 2012 model year, 20 cars met that threshold; in 2011, it was 30. Past AMI regulars like the Honda Accord and Chevrolet Malibu have tumbled below 75% domestic content; the Ford Explorer, which ranked in fourth place for the 2011 American-Made Index, has just 50% domestic content today.****
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2013/06/american-made-index-fewer-cars-overall-1.html
Mr. Mishin:
Although you haven't mentioned it, I'm sure you know that Avtovaz isn't really a Russian company anymore, considering that Renault-Nissan owns a controlling stake. You do know that, right?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/27/us-russia-avtovaz-deals-idUSKBN0F20RW20140627
And you are no doubt aware that it was the Russian government's own Decree 166 that granted customs preferences on imported auto components in exchange for investors' commitment to meet a local content requirement of only 30 percent plus certain output minimums. This utterly contradicts your claim that "raising the number of automobile plants from 19 old ones . . . to 36 as of this year" happened "when stiff import duties were passed". No, it was precisely because the government offered preferential treatment on imported auto products in exchange for those producers' foreign direct investment that the expansion took place.
Did mercantilism, "the only nationalistic economic form, the one that built all the great nations of the world", build the newly expanded Russian auto industry? You described mercantilism thusly:
"Mercantilism's first pillar is maximum utilization of your own resources and population. This does not mean a communist or fascist dictatorial economy. Internally a free market is a fine thing with competition...internally. What it does mean is that you need protective barriers to cut down on imports and thus produce everything that can be produced at home, buying, as per the second pillar, only raw resources and only if you need them and selling finished goods."
Russia has all the raw resources it needs to build anything, ANYTHING, and a population of 143 million including millions of working age adults. In a mercantilist nation, why should it have been necessary, why was it viewed as desirable, to have a foreign company take a controlling share of the biggest car producer? Why was preferential treatment of imports, not the erection of protective barriers, needed to keep the Russian auto industry going? Simple: mercantilism doesn't work. From China to Zimbabwe to North Korea to Russia, mercantilism is an utterly failed ideology.
Mr Mishin:
You said "We just happen to be very very good at killing and since we have a long temper and the West the memory of a gnat, history repeats itself every 50-100 years." The first two claims are probably true but as for the last one, well, it seems you've forgotten something.
In fact you've forgotten a lot of things. Do any of the following jog your memory:
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka "Lenin".
Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jugashvili, aka Joseph Stalin.
Sergei Kirov. The murder of Sergei Kirov on December 1, 1934, set off a chain of events that culminated in the Great Terror of the 1930s. The murder was carried out by a young assassin named Leonid Nikolaev. Recent evidence has indicated that Stalin and the NKVD planned the crime. Stalin then used the murder as an excuse for introducing draconian laws against political crime and for conducting a witch-hunt for alleged conspirators against Kirov. Over the next four-and-a-half years, millions of innocent party members and others were arrested -- many of them for complicity in the vast plot that supposedly lay behind the killing of Kirov. From the Soviet point of view, his murder was probably the crime of the century because it paved the way for the Great Terror.
Stalin's First Five-Year Plan, adopted by the party in 1928, called for rapid industrialization of the economy, with an emphasis on heavy industry (mercantilism?). It also called for transforming Soviet agriculture from predominantly individual farms into a system of large state collective farms. Stalin focused particular hostility on the wealthier peasants, or kulaks. About one million kulak households (some five million people) were deported and never heard from again. Forced collectivization of the remaining peasants, which was often fiercely resisted, resulted in a disastrous disruption of agricultural productivity and a catastrophic famine in 1932-33. Although the First Five-Year Plan called for the collectivization of only twenty percent of peasant households, by 1940 approximately ninety-seven percent of all peasant households had been collectivized and private ownership of property almost entirely eliminated. Forced collectivization helped achieve Stalin's goal of rapid industrialization, but the human costs were incalculable.
I'll stop here for now. All information is from the previously top secret archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The documents are now maintained by the Russian Archival Committee under the Russian archivist Rudolph Pikhoia. They were previously available for viewing in the US Library of Congress and are now available for public viewing in Russia (at least they were).
"Shall we play this game?" I would rather not, but we can, and you'll lose. History indeed is not for those with a gnat's memory, yet Russia seems condemned to repeating history not just once, but again and again. Will we see another 1917 in 2017?
Mr Mishin:
"Mercantilism Works, Thank You EU"
Well, except for this one other exception to your headline:
"On 22 August 2012, the WTO welcomed the Russian Federation as its 156th member."
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/acc_e/a1_russie_e.htm
Foreign plants opening happened first and foremost because of the high import tariffs, which went from almost zero to 25% and then to 35%. Preferrable conditions helped smooth the rest of the way. Preferrable conditions are part of the protectionism, as they are in the short run more expensive then just importing finished goods.
***Russia has all the raw resources it needs to build anything, ANYTHING, and a population of 143 million including millions of working age adults. In a mercantilist nation, why should it have been necessary, why was it viewed as desirable, to have a foreign company take a controlling share of the biggest car producer?***
Because 70 years of communism and 10 years of outright Yeltsin oligarchial theft, and both communism and the Yeltsin years were heavily backed by Wall Street making a lot of cash and getting rid of a big rival. Before 1917, Russia didn't need it, Russian industry was on par with the US and the Russia economy was on target to surpass the US economy in 5 years, in 1914...then WW1 happened. US was in 4th place then Russia in a very close 5th.
Thank you for the brief history of Soviet Terror, another great Western import into Russia that failed, like Serfdom before it and democracy now. What exactly that speel had to do with my previous statement, I'll let you connect the dots...as it did not. But a good strawman argumental attempt.
Furthermore, care to go down the list of those communist leaders and pickout who was actually Russian? Soviet Union was ruled by minorities believing in a Western pipe dream imported into Russia first with German monies and then with Wall Street's. And before you even start to disparage that, start with some archieval works such as "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution".
Mr. Mishin:
You said, "Before 1917, Russia didn't need it (mercantilism), Russian industry was on par with the US and the Russia economy was on target to surpass the US economy in 5 years, in 1914...then WW1 happened. US was in 4th place then Russia in a very close 5th." Yet Russia had, and still has, a greater population and more natural resources than Germany. With German industry destroyed during WWII (and WWI), and given that Russia still had industrial capacity at the time, why did Germany excel after the war and Russia fail to stay ahead? Limited protectionist barriers in Germany? But why didn't your vaunted mercantilism work for the USSR?
After 70 years Russia still hasn't caught up. Maybe "Because 70 years of communism and 10 years of outright Yeltsin oligarchial theft, and both communism and the Yeltsin years were heavily backed by Wall Street making a lot of cash and getting rid of a big rival." Communism and theft are no doubt true, but how are these the fault of Wall Street? They were RUSSIAN assets, a RUSSIAN president, RUSSIAN oligarchs, and RUSSIAN theft. No need to look anywhere but Russia for the culprits.
George August
Mr. Mishin:
My oh my how you love to play fast and loose with the facts. In response to a list of manufacturers and their countries of origin I posted in my comment on your article "What Russia (Doesn't) Makes", you said, "Thank you for listing off so many companies that now manufacture IN RUSSIA, again supporting Mercantilism." Really? Which companies exactly?
Let's go through the list. Does the company have manufacturing facilities in Russia?
Large jet engines
- General Electric: No
- Pratt & Whitney: No, but it has many Russian customers
- Rolls Royce: No
Home appliances
- Indesit: Yes, a large facility in Lipetsk
- DeLonghi: None that I could find
- Smeg: No
- Bosch: Yes
- Liebherr: No
- Braun: None that I could find. Note that I incorrectly identified Braun as a German company. It's now American.
- Fisher & Paykel: No
Electrical Switchgear
- General Electric: None that I could find
- Siemens: Yes
Computers
- Dell: No
- Hewlett-Packard: Yes
- Lenovo: No
- Acer: No
- Asus: No
- Sony: No
- Toshiba: No
TVs and Stereos
- Note that all "yes" responses below have factories in Kaliningrad only. Kaliningrad is a "Special Economic Zone" with little restriction on domestic content for TVs. Responses apply only to TVs. I was unable to find information on stereos.
- Sony: Yes
- Panasonic: Yes
- Toshiba: Yes
- Yamaha: None that I could find
- Kenwood: None that I could find
- Samsung: Yes
- Harman: None that I could find
Healthcare Equipment
- GE: Yes
- Siemens: None that I could find
- Philips: Yes
Medium-Sized Jet Aircraft
- Bombardier: No
- Embraer: No
So of those in my list there aren't "so many companies that now manufacture IN RUSSIA" after all.
Let me also correct another of your errors. "Boeing's main design beuro" is not their Moscow office. According to Boeing:
"The Boeing Design Center (BDC) in Moscow is the largest design center for computer-aided design of aerospace structures in Eastern Europe." Big difference.
George August
Mr. Mishin:
***Soviet Union was ruled by minorities believing in a Western pipe dream imported into Russia first with German monies and then with Wall Street's. And before you even start to disparage that, start with some archieval works such as "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution".***
Seriously? You apparently have a much lower opinion of the strengths and abilities of the Russian people than I do. The works of Antony C. Sutton, the author of "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution", paint a rather grim picture of Russians' native abilities in the industrial, technological, political and military spheres. According to you and Mr. Sutton, virtually everything in Russia beginning in 1917 is based on some type of importation - finance, technology, military capability, political philosophy. Indeed it's almost as if political willpower itself was an import that came about only because of British, German and American help.
I don't believe this, and it's an easy way for you to blame others for the failings of Russia's own political and economic leaders, past and present. How do you square your belief in Sutton's arguments with your statement about Soviet mercantilism: "Before 1917, Russia didn't need it, Russian industry was on par with the US and the Russia economy was on target to surpass the US economy in 5 years, in 1914...then WW1 happened. US was in 4th place then Russia in a very close 5th." This indicates that the Russian people were clever and industrious even under Czarist rule. Yet in the post-1917 world, "the West" engaged with Russian elites in some sort of balancing act, one that benefitted not just Western banks and industrialists, but also benefitted the Russian elite just enough to perpetuate the system?
This view is utterly contradicted by recent events, where foreign direct investment in Russia has been far more beneficial to everybody - Russian and Western, wage-earners and salaried professionals - than the balancing act of the elites ever could have been. It should be manifestly obvious that if a Western cabal was somehow the primary force behind virtually all the major political and economic forces within Russia for the past 90-plus years, wouldn't it have served their greedy purposes better to allow the Russian economy to grow unencumbered by "70 years of communism and 10 years of outright Yeltsin oligarchial theft"?
The notion of yours and Mr. Sutton's that 1917 came about primarily because of assistance for Trotsky from Washington, Ottawa and London, and assistance for Lenin from Bern and Berlin, is absurd in the extreme.
George August
****Seriously? You apparently have a much lower opinion of the strengths and abilities of the Russian people than I do.****
Hardly, but then I also have a much better grasp of the historical record. Russians were, for the most part, never allowed anywhere near to much power, because as happened as soon as Russians got power, the SU came down. The SU introduced strict quotas on racial makeups of all jobs, and Russians were kept from being the majority in any top positions.
****utton, the author of "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution", paint a rather grim picture of Russians' native abilities in the industrial, technological, political and military spheres. According to you and Mr. Sutton, virtually everything in Russia beginning in 1917 is based on some type of importation - finance, technology, military capability, political philosophy. Indeed it's almost as if political willpower itself was an import that came about only because of British, German and American help.****
Its obvious you either did not read the book or at best skimmed it. Russia had a very well progressed industrial base. However, the civil war collapsed it, thus the imports. Soviet belief in the all mighty communism and their ideological decision making also collapsed the industrial heartland. This is why Lenin, after the civil war, switched from war communism to NEP. Again, historical record and actually reading the book would not have allowed you to make such a statement.
****This indicates that the Russian people were clever and industrious even under Czarist rule. Yet in the post-1917 world, "the West" engaged with Russian elites in some sort of balancing act, one that benefitted not just Western banks and industrialists, but also benefitted the Russian elite just enough to perpetuate the system?****
Again the historical record: Bolsheviks undermined military authority, collapsing the army, with millions of enlisted just going home. Kerensky annualled the police force as he opened all the prisons and allowed all the criminals political and otherwise out.
Then he annulled the officers in the military. When the military bulked, he gave out 40.000 rifles to the Bolsheviks and when his work was done, he got into a US Embassy car and left for self-exile in the US. That Kerensky and Lenin grew up together, tutored by Kerensky's father who was a radical, is little mentioned in most history books, but is again, a historical fact.
****The notion of yours and Mr. Sutton's that 1917 came about primarily because of assistance for Trotsky from Washington, Ottawa and London, and assistance for Lenin from Bern and Berlin, is absurd in the extreme.
****
Again, if you bothered to actually read the book, you would know that that was never stated and neither did I state that that was the sole reason. 1917 and 1991 was the only times in our history that the liberals won and instantly turned the country into a complete mess. While the Soviets had to be removed as the only power in 1991, destroying all state organs, as was done by Yeltsin and his Clintonian advisors and then giving everything away to a few Wall Street backed men, sure as hell was the not the solution...but having Wall Street backed oligarchs in charge made sure that Russia was kept obedient.
Even now, your dear Obama flat out states that the goal is to make the remaining oligarchs hurt so they do as dear old Uncle Sam dictates.
Pardon, but you should do much better google searches. Begin with GE opening a JV to build: gasp: gas turbine engine plants.
http://rostec.ru/en/news/4514898
In 2008 Pratt and Whitney started final assemblies of their engines in Russia, sending them in as kits as part of a JV with Helicopters of Russia.
At the same time P&W is acquiring Russian engine technology from Energomash Rocket Engines. It also formed a joint venture with Kilmov Corp to build engines in Russia. It further formed JV with Perm Motors and Aviadvigatil and spent $150 million to setup production in Russia.
https://books.google.ru/books?id=MHxU2sVXyUkC&pg=SA14-PA4&lpg=SA14-PA4&dq=Pratt+%26+Whitney+manufacturing+russia&source=bl&ots=L8GXNEK-WL&sig=IqfDSb-ONegRPOjDdyhpSjcwHbA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=c5-oVKaEHIHtULfMg-gC&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Pratt%20%26%20Whitney%20manufacturing%20russia&f=false
Bosch: Personal power tool manufacturing plant:
http://www.bosch.ru/en/ru/our_company_1/locations_1/locations-detail_18688.html
Bosch has three of its own plants in Russia. The company plans to further strengthen its rankings on the Russian market. The Bosch Thermotechnology division is building a new industrial and wall-mounted gas boiler plant on an existing Bosch site in the city of Engels in the Saratov region.
Bosch assembly plant for washing machines in St.Petersburg.
http://www.thinkrussia.com/business-economy/spief-2014-bosch-russian-business-climate-video
That's just the 3 easiest. You really should do better internet checks. If any of my employees missed so many obvious leads I'd give them a royal chewing out.
****You said, "Before 1917, Russia didn't need it (mercantilism), Russian industry ***
No I did not say that, that's you disingeniously adding (mercantilism) into my phrase. The topic was foreign ownership or plants directly in the Russian economy, not mercantilism. Before 1950s, and especially before WW1, all nations ran on mercantilism, even the US. That was the dominant form of government for all major nations.
German industry was destroyed in WW1? Really? Best inform the Germans of that. Maybe you can refresh my memory as to which German cities actually fell to any Allied powers in WW1? As a matter of fact, the only nation that actually entered German territory was Russia on the eastern front. The Western allies never stepped into German lands. This is one of Hitler's main planks that Germany was betrayed by its bankers, as Germany was never actually defeated. Again, knowledge of history is critical.
Which then explains why you do not understand why Germany excelled. Russian industry was destroyed in the 5 year Russian civil war, plus most owners, managers and engineers either died fighting the Soviets, were imprisoned and often worked to death by the Soviets or left in immigration. The floor workers did not prove adequate to run industry and because of this the Soviets retarded the economy by decades. Review the testimony of Albert Williams to the US Senate Overman Commission on why the US government and Wall Street supported the Bolsheviks.
Again, if you had actually read Sutton's works, you would be aware of it.
****Communism and theft are no doubt true, but how are these the fault of Wall Street? They were RUSSIAN assets, a RUSSIAN president, RUSSIAN oligarchs, and RUSSIAN theft. No need to look anywhere but Russia for the culprits.****
This proves either absolute ignorance of the dealings of the 1990s or subterfuge. Hardly difficult to find out about the deals and give aways made and the Clinton advisers who became millionaires as advisers and intermediaries.
Very sloppy on these points.
Mr. Mishin:
Let's further review who has been disingenuous.
You asked the question:
***Furthermore, care to go down the list of those communist leaders and pickout who was actually Russian? Soviet Union was ruled by minorities believing in a Western pipe dream imported into Russia first with German monies and then with Wall Street's.***
I showed that the leaders were born within Russia's current borders, or it's borders at the time of their birth, or countries in which Russia has some type of territorial claim. I also asked what minority you were referring to. All of that was part of my response, the one you haven't posted. So you asked the question and I answered it. What was your point?
I asked how you square your belief in mercantilism with Russia's accession to the WTO. Will Russian industry will face decline as more and more free trade rules begin to take hold? Perhaps this is just "the West" further conspiring with Russia's political and economic elites. Has the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, et.al., duped the clever President Putin? Has mercantilism already served its purpose, with Russian industry now able to compete in global markets without protective barriers? Response?
George August
Mr. Mishin:
You continue to believe without question everything that one author, Antony Sutton, has written. Not only did I read his book online, I also watched his interviews on YouTube.
Let's look at some of what you wrote in response to my comments.
***Russians were, for the most part, never allowed anywhere near to much power, because as happened as soon as Russians got power, the SU came down. The SU introduced strict quotas on racial makeups of all jobs, and Russians were kept from being the majority in any top positions.*** This has nothing to do with the West and everything to do with internal politics.
***Russia had a very well progressed industrial base. However, the civil war collapsed it, thus the imports. Soviet belief in the all mighty communism and their ideological decision making also collapsed the industrial heartland. This is why Lenin, after the civil war, switched from war communism to NEP.*** A civil war has nothing to do with the West; it's a CIVIL war.
***Bolsheviks undermined military authority, collapsing the army, with millions of enlisted just going home. Kerensky annualled the police force as he opened all the prisons and allowed all the criminals political and otherwise out.*** Once again, this has nothing to do with the West. This is manifestly obvious in the existence of political prisoners.
***That Kerensky and Lenin grew up together, tutored by Kerensky's father who was a radical, is little mentioned in most history books, but is again, a historical fact.*** So Kerensky and Lenin grew up together. Where? Russia. They were tutored by Kerensky's radical father. Where was the father born. America? Great Britain? Germany? No, once again this is an all-Russian affair.
So you have clearly shown time and again that events in Russia were primarily Russian. The actions of Russia's leaders and their followers have been primary drivers of much that you decry about Russian history. At the same time you absent these people from most of the responsibility for their own actions and repeatedly blame the West. The former is true, the latter is not.
George August
The West does not have anything to do with a civil war? Really? Shall we go down memory lane on how many civil wars the West and specifically America has sponsored and or initiated? Nicoragua, El Salvedor (and its US trained and funded death squads from the School of the Americas), Libya, Yugoslavia, Serbia's Kosovo, Syria, our own Chechnya. Again, you are either ignorant of reality or lieing.
As for Anthony Sutton, he's far from the only one who traced all this, he just did the best job of putting it all togather. But besides a light attempt at character assassination, you have yet to disprove or hell, even argue a single point he or anyone else has made on Wall Street's support of the Bolsheviks and the Russian civil war.
You have proven that you know very little about the WW1 and post WW1 Europe/Germany or the economic situations there or in the Soviet Union or in reality what was going on in the Soviet Union.
********That Kerensky and Lenin grew up together, tutored by Kerensky's father who was a radical, is little mentioned in most history books, but is again, a historical fact.*** So Kerensky and Lenin grew up together. Where? Russia. They were tutored by Kerensky's radical father. Where was the father born. America? Great Britain? Germany? No, once again this is an all-Russian affair.****
Again, you pick what you want from the statements and ignore the facts that he was given instant asylum and citizenship by the US, after destroying the internal order of Russia and handing power off to Lenin.
I am sure you are also "ignorant" of the fact that Trotsky was given US citizenship, lived like a king in NYC off of his sponsors and returned as a US citizenship (which was given on the order of no one less then Woodrow Wilson himself) to Russia. That he was freed from detention in Hallifax by the intervention of George Loyd (you do know who he was, right?) and the US State Department.
Yes, the US monies and special interests had zero involvment, I am sure....just ignore everything. Just like the US had "no involvment" in countless civil wars and direct US marine interventions in Latin America and SE Asia. Whom exactly are you kidding?
****So you have clearly shown time and again that events in Russia were primarily Russian. The actions of Russia's leaders and their followers have been primary drivers of much that you decry about Russian history. At the same time you absent these people from most of the responsibility for their own actions and repeatedly blame the West. The former is true, the latter is not.***
If you are not already working for the US government or its MSM you should definitly start. Such a pick of only the facts that you desire and a warped blanket of interpretation on them is hard to write with a straight face.
Where exactly did I excuse the actions of the Bolsheviks? Ahh...another strawman argument to keep away from the fact of whom their direct beneficiaries are and why they were backing them.
*******Furthermore, care to go down the list of those communist leaders and pickout who was actually Russian? Soviet Union was ruled by minorities believing in a Western pipe dream imported into Russia first with German monies and then with Wall Street's.***
I showed that the leaders were born within Russia's current borders, or it's borders at the time of their birth, or countries in which Russia has some type of territorial claim. I also asked what minority you were referring to. All of that was part of my response, the one you haven't posted. So you asked the question and I answered it. What was your point?****
In a Russian centric country, where Russians (and at that time Ukrainian was an unknown word) Russians made up 80%+ of the population, the country was taken over by minorities. In a time of limited travel, most people and cultures at the edges of the empire were not Russian and did not Russify.
Again, anyone seriously discussing Russia and not knowning these basic facts is not seriously discussing Russia.
As for the WTO, the only way its held in Russia is through the defensive tariffs that were raised. When these come down, chances are the parliament will properly get rid of it as the entire business community is against it and Russia has gained nothing from it.
Further, US and EU sanctions which are themselves illegal under the WTO have shown that the WTO is worthless as the US/EU will break any agreement or law it feels like.
WTO, for the record and free trade are crap. There is a reason Marx was a big fan of Free Trade.
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