Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Ed Dolan — The Economic Future (if Any) of “Novorossiya”


Ed Dolan analyzes the political and economic alternatives in Eastern Ukraine.

Ed Dolan's Econ Blog
The Economic Future (if Any) of “Novorossiya”
Ed Dolan

3 comments:

Ryan Harris said...

It is Putin's birthday today. Assistant sec. of state, Nuland, offered to lift sanctions if Putin could get his freedom fighters and Merkel's/Poroshenko's troops to stop killing each other. It's the headlining article all day on RIA.RU

Given Germany's rapid economic decline since the sanctions took effect, Europe and the US are sort of desperate to get out of the conflict and should take any face saving measures offered. Merkel has lost this little confrontation that she engineered with Russia by annexing Eastern Europe into her Eurozone. The US refuses to get involved in any real way to support her conflict, and the Latvian parliament will likely now come under increasing Kremlin control after the elections, fair to say Europe has lost this battle in the war to hold eastern europe. The Europeans need a truce to regroup and decide if they really want a conflict or prepare to escalate. Maybe they do need a war, to get around maastricht treaty budget limits while saving face with their neo-liberal populations who expect austerity.

Tom Hickey said...

This comedy of errors would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

Putin didn't take the bait and invade, and Xi isn't taking the bait and rolling the tanks into HK either.

The neocon's are outclassed in this round of the Great Game.

Ryan Harris said...

But he made his point loud and clear about further European expansionism.

Maybe I'm naive and bought into the hype about a multi-polar world when the reality is far from it, but I really do think the days are numbered for any country, be it China, the US, or Russia or Europe to be able to recreate a superpower dominated world where everyone is divided along strict lines. Some regional sphere of influence will remain but beyond that, we're much better off with fewer arbitrary lines drawn.