Friday, February 27, 2009

Russia not immune to the crisis

"We are not afraid of the financial crisis, are we?" asked the showman at a club in St. Petersburg, Russia, one November night. "Ne-e-et," responded the young crowd and continued swaying to the techno music.

Although the global economic recession causes morbid consequences to the rest of the world, it prompted Russians to invent new, themed jokes and have a nice laugh over the crisis together. During my fall 2008 study abroad semester in St. Petersburg, I encountered widespread media banter about the economic recession that ridiculed investment bankers and made fun of the whole industry. Still, the majority of the Russian people remained indifferent toward news about the economic downfall. It seemed like they were immune to it.




However, Russia is impacted by the recession and to a great extent. "In the current crisis, Russia is confronting virtually all the negatives at once-sharply declining export earnings from energy and metals, over-leveraged corporate balance sheets and a chorus of bailout appeals, a credit crunch and banking failures, a bursting real-estate bubble and mortgage defaults, accelerating capital flight, and unavoidable pressures for devaluation," Stephen Sestanovich, a George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies, writes for the Council on Foreign Relations. Continue reading

The Mount Holyoke News

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i read a report made by the US it was some kind of a prediction for the year 2020 if i remembered right. according to the report Russia and Canada are two countries which are expected to prosper in the coming years. let us wait and see.

Magdalena said...

China and Russia have the most resources to pump up their economies but right now Russia is not investing its money in any sector. I hope that it will soon solve this issue and start offering its people a better standard of living.