In the economy

Go to the victory of populism!

April 8, 2010 Dmitry Sidorov

The globalization of the global economy caused an increase in competition, based both on new ideas moving the market forward and on their undisguised theft or borrowing. The above applies to all countries, from democratic to dictators of any types and characters. At the same time, borrowing ideas often takes on a strange character.

There is no need to go far for examples. Take at least Russia and the USA. Two statements that sounded from Moscow and Washington in the past two weeks have shown that the administrations in the Kremlin and the White House willingly “adopt” each other's “latest” economic and political achievements.

In the case of the Kremlin, theft or borrowing has become a good tradition. It is enough to recall at least the theft of the drawings of the atomic bomb in the 50th or rapid growth of industrial espionage in the United States, which we are observing now.

As for borrowing, here Moscow focuses on the best, or rather declares this, after which it recognizes the problems with execution. Take at least well -known stories with parking devices or a “service” to dragging the rules of car parking. But these are trifles in comparison with the Silicon Valley project, the essence of which was told by Vladislav Surkov, the main “democrat” of the country and the senior assistant to the “friend” of all free and progressive.

It is argued that the “fresh” idea of ​​creating a center for innovative ideas in the California example (Silicon Valley) occurred to the president (without a portfolio) Dmitry Medvedev. The latter, apparently, is simply obsessed with the thought of the cure of Russia from a "Dutch" illness, and therefore decided to borrow the best from the best.

I suspect that the success of the populist project of the Russian “Silicon Valley” will mainly depend on how successfully it will be possible to steal the funds that taxpayers will allocate to create this center in the city of Skolkovo. Its filling, in this case, equally, like an economic returns, the matter of a distant future, for which the current authorities will not be held any responsibility. If only they are not going to live and rule forever.

As for the administration of President Obama, she seems to have decided to import Putin’s policy known as the “social responsibility of the oligarchs”. It is difficult for me to explain it differently to the decision of Henry Vaxman, Chairman of the Committee of the House of Representatives for Energy and Trade, and Bart Stupak, the chairman of the subcommittee of the House of Representatives for Control and Investigations, and summon the leaders of the largest companies in the United States to the hearing at the end of April. Such as John Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon, and At & T.

Obviously, they caused serious dissatisfaction and forced both the White House and his friends in Congress, publishing their data on how much they will cost the medical insurance reform. Only for disbelief in its effectiveness, casting doubt on the populist impulses of the White House, the Obama administration and democrats in Congress are ready to break companies into ideological and economic parts.

The numbers given by the above public corporations are very different from the rainbow information that the White House and the Democrats in Congress issued.

Therefore, it is necessary to act with doubters hard and quickly. Almost in the way Vladimir Putin acts with the “ownership of the Zadarm” by the oligarchs, making them proposals, which cannot be abandoned. Is this not why, for example, almost all Russian oligarchs “from a pure heart” financially support professional sport or create charitable organizations, sharing the “loot”.

Despite the fact that American oligarchs are seriously different from the Russian, the appeal of the White House with them, with examples of the above four companies, reminds the Kremlin’s approaches to the same “problem”.

The difference is that Washington does not need to demand the emergence of additional charitable organizations or force the corporation to support sports federations. The White House (as, indeed, the Kremlin), if he wants, can use a whole palette of economic and legal methods to bring these companies to life. For example, announcing the beginning of the investigation against one of them, which will instantly lead to a fall in the quotations of her shares on the exchange.

Or (it seems that this is going to do the Congress at the hearing in April) to find out if there was an economic conspiracy of companies against the reform of medical insurance.

And, if the similarity described above seems to you with a pure coincidence or simply far -fetched, then it is worth recalling the populist phrase about the “fat cats”, which Barack Obama uttered on the “60 minutes” program on the CBS channel on December 14, 2009. True, she did not belong to the companies called to Congress, but to their financial counterparts, which became a good populist tone after the start of the economic crisis.

Unlike Russia, where the Kremlin establishes the rules of the game, lowering them according to the verticals created by him, Congress and the White House forgot that the American economy consists not only and not so much of the “fat cats”, but also from small investors and users of services provided by large companies.

These small investors will hurt every time the Obama administration will become large companies for no reason to shake. And the latter, of course, will increase the fee for their services in the event of an increase in costs for medical insurance for their employees.

Populism, of course, can lead to victory in the elections and strengthen the faith of the population in a bright future, but it has nothing to do with real numbers.

PS . The author does not and did not have shares of John Deere , Caterpillar , Verizon and At & T.​

Photo by RIA Novosti