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by throwaway8451 1581 days ago
Russia biggest problem is that once they were a great nation. Now they are no longer but can't accept that. Since they have no way of keeping up with the others, all they can do is putting a spoke in the wheel of the others. If they hadn't been great or could accept that they are no longer, they could work their way up again for sure. Today they spend too much money on military and too little on development.
2 comments
peakaboo 1581 days ago
These exact same words could have been said about the USA also. I think all these big countries just become massively corrupt in the end.
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throwaway8451 1581 days ago
No, they could not been said like this. No matter what opinion one has about USA, it is certainly not economically weak or dysfunctional.
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AnimalMuppet 1581 days ago
Dysfunctional yes, and increasingly so. Economically weak no.
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simonblack 1581 days ago
I wouldn't call debts of 30 trillion 'economically strong'.

Anybody can live well if they are happy using their credit card and never expecting to pay it back.

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notch656a 1581 days ago
At interest rate of ~1.5%. Is that what a credit card interest rate looks like?

Interest on debt looks like ~450B / yr, like 2.1% of our GDP to maintain the debt. Would you say someone who spends 2% of their income to maintain debt as someone in danger of collapse?

I agree we have way too much debt and need to consolidate it and practice fiscal responsibility. But fortunately the debt is insanely far within manageable status. Were that money used wisely (it isn't) on investing in infrastructure and research, the yield would be much higher than the interest.

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simonblack 1580 days ago
Increase that interest rate just 1% to 2.5%.

Then the interest payments are the same number as the over-bloated defense budget: 750 billion a year.

So, the old question: Guns? Or butter?

An aside:

In my lifetime, the highest interest rate was roughly 20%. That would cause monetary collapse in the US today with an interest load of 6 trillion bucks a year.

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monkeydreams 1581 days ago
> I wouldn't call debts of 30 trillion 'economically strong'.

> Anybody can live well if they are happy using their credit card and never expecting to pay it back.

You realise that countries do not retire, yes? And they have a goal of ensuring that their inflation is set between specific, low-but-positive bounds? This is what countries do and have done for centuries - they pay off the interest until the principle is eaten away by inflation. When you are functionally immortal this is an effective strategy.

We live in a period of historically low bond yields and interest rates. If a country has to effectively pay near zero interest, it is in their interests to loan as much as possible. So long as the debt load year-on-year is insignificant compared to the GDP, it is money for jam. The bond terms do not change just because domestic interest rates increase.

This is why you rarely hear non-partisan economists complain about debt load in the US. It's not a huge problem, especially compared with the degradation of secular institutions.

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cjbenedikt 1581 days ago
Another one springs to mind...
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