Michel Camdessus, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that: “Globalization is simply the continuation of the trend toward greater international economic integr.

In theory, Russia was example number 1 to show the superiority of neoliberal success.

In practice it didn’t end up so.

Russian incomes dropped by 50% in the 11 years from 1990-2000 while China, which went much less in the direction of free markets and economic liberalization, had its incomes rise 3 times. And Russia underwent a painful financial crisis in 1998 which involved a default on its debt and a large devaluation of the Ruble.

I’ll be drawing heavily from two books in this post: No Precedent, No Plan by Martin Gilman and Once Upon a Time in Russia by Ben Mezrich. No Precedent, No Plan is the memoir of a senior IMF official in Russia. Once Upon a Time in Russia by Ben Mezrich is a non fiction thriller about the life of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky.

Was this neoliberalism’s fault? I argue not.

Here’s what went wrong in Russia

1. Botched privatization
2. A weak state
3. The 1998 Asian Financial crisis

Privatization: Outsiders may not apply

The ideal privatization would be like this: The government sells state owned assets to the public. The prices and terms of the deal are public. There is strong demand for the asset, and a wide variety of buyers bid for the asset transparently. Then, the highest bid is given the asset. In an ideal world there are no backroom deals, and any misdeeds are prosecuted immediately.

But this was not an ideal world. In the actual reform process this is what happened: The Russian government gave a 10,000 ruble voucher to each citizen so they could buy stocks in government owned companies. This didn’t go as planned. Managers typically had superior knowledge of their companies and so bought shares with an advantage. And the amount privatized didn’t meet the government's needs to fund spending. So, the loans-for-shares programs was announced.

Loans for Shares

When the government needed money it got people to bid for the right to lend the government money. The Russian government was not in good health then, so you might wonder why people lent to them.

The catch was that the collateral for the loans was shares in very valuable Russian mining companies. If the government did not pay the lo

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

Do your worst!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

They’re on standbi

Buenosdillas

Pilot on me!!

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

Nothing, he was gladiator.

When I got home, they were still there.

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

I won't be doing that today!

[Removed]

You take away their little brooms

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

There hasn't been a post all year!

Why

It’s pronounced “Noel.”

After all his first name is No-vac

What, then, is Chinese rap?

Edit:

Notable mentions from the comments:

• Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits

• French/Finnish art

• Country/Canadian rap

• Chinese/Country/Canadian rock

• Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap

There hasn't been a single post this year!

(Happy 2022 from New Zealand)

Nothing, it just waved

Him: I can explain everything!

(It's his best joke yet I think)

Bob

Just to clarify, 12345678

So that I could frequently say, "I am going to walk 5 miles now."

Edit: My most popular post on Reddit! 😀 Thank you for the awards.

Me grabbing a soda from my (what I thought was) half full 12pk...

Notices there's only 2;

Me: "Awe man... This is a damn bird box!" Her: "What the hell does that mean?!" Me: (Pulls both cans out & shows them to her) "It's only got Toucans."

I'm not ashamed to admit the look on her face was glorious.

I was just sitting there doing nothing.