Russia: Hitting bottom, again.

The coronation of Putin is playing well amongst some journalists in the west. the cbc is playing up the fact that the new, managed economy will mean a trade off, as in:

freedom vs. strong economy.

unfortunately, for the stalin apologists, this would be ahistorical, since this has almost never happened...not that the improper and often wrong headed approaches to liberating an economy (a la..oh say..russia, circa 1991) haven't caused havoc.

but the liberation of the people, and freedom are synonomous with prosperity. queue the chinese detente with the west, circa nixon period, 1975, etc and now the 20 year rapid expansion of the chinese economy....

the chinese must have been watching the liberation of the eastern bloc with some apprehension in 1989, and through the early nineties...hence the lack of rushing into democratic reform (..maybe a little too slow depending who you ask) but the trend is clear. china, someday will be free and prosperous and it will owe its prosperity to this freedom.

anyways, moral of the story: prosperity, freedom, liberal democracy and capitalism are tied to the hip. see: germany, chile, japan, USA, hell, all of europe, hong kong, singapore (mostly..this is an exception in a lot of ways), taiwan, south africa....and soon...india (the next china).

maybe we could include brazil and other south american countries in this list, but they aren't doing the best job..despite his socialist pedigree, lula seems to be doing okay.