Yesterday, I asked readers to guess the name of which nation has a very popular leader despite having a very bad economy. The answer is Russia.
$63 billion of capital left the country in the twelve months of 2013 but $70 billion has already fled the country in the first three months of this year.
In the mid-1990s, 50% of its exports was energy. Today, it is 70%. The nation is terribly vulnerable.
I don’t know who originally said that people vote their wallet, but suspect they only do that in the absence of patriotic fervor.
So, if the economy is lousy, start a war?