Economic Situation, Off-shoring, and the Success of China's Economic Transition
The speakers discuss the impact of off-shoring manufacturing on the American economy, the disparity between the upper class and the labor force, and compare the economic transitions of the Soviet Union and China. The chapter also touches on the role of Hindus from Sri Lanka in finance.
Transcript
chevron_right
Play full episode
chevron_right
Transcript
Episode notes
In the words of historian and noted Russian scholar Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson, the Soviet Union was the only empire to fall without a war. To the ordinary Russian citizen, however, the 1990s were no less tragic as life expectancy, average income, and birthrates all plummeted as crime, alcoholism and unemployment all rose. As the nation descended into the depths of despair, a new Oligarch class emerged controlling the commanding heights of production, principally in the natural resource and heavy industry sectors, coming to dominate not just the economy but with politics under the Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Only until the current President Vladimir Putin rose to power, ironically with the help of major oligarch Boris Berezovsky who was later exiled along with many others, did the Russian people begin to recover economically and in national pride.
