In its May’06 issue, The Atlantic Magazine,(formerly the Atlantic Monthly, the heroic and venerable nineteenth century Boston-based abolitionist gazette), Matthew Quirk, staff researcher, tells us inter alia in his “Calendar” segment on p.17, in connection with a U.S. planning initiative to encourage a democratic transition in the Cuban leadership upon Fidel’s death ( thought by some to be near), that the economy of the delapidated Antillean paradise is “humming thanks largely to tourism and economic partnerships with socialist Venezuela and communist China”. The use of the word “humming” to describe a subsidized economy which outlaws virtually all private investment in commerce and industry is worse than bizarre. ”Humming” desribes the U.S. economy under Bush rather than that of Cuba under Fidel. Indeed, historically, with no exceptions socialism and its accompanying repressions as exhibited by Fidelismo and similarly murderous regimes destroy humming economies rather that build them. The problem seems to be that Quirk, probably a graduate of an elite school of journalism, still follows the lights of Galbreath who right up near to its collapse praised the economic system of the soviet union lauding its fulfilled promises to its people and predicting that it would in due time overtake the U.S. Quirk, a true emporer’s clothier, might be well served to start rethinking his reflexive praises for socialist homicidal regimes and get closer to reality in the research and assessments on which he bases his writings.
May 6th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Do you have a link to the Atlantic Monthly article or can you post it? I’d like to read it.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
To this point, I am reading Allan Greenspan’s Autobiography, “The Age of Turbulence” where Mr. Greenspan provides some of the most articulate and consice first-hand explanations of the economics of the Cold War that I think I’ve ever read.
Based on his experience as Fed President and as economic consultant to presidents beginning with Richard Nixon, he provides numerous examples of the superiority of the capitalism relative to the communism. He sites the work of late ecomomist Joseph Schumpeter and his concept of “Creative Destruction”, that is, inovative more efficient products and services constantly replacing outdated ones, as one of the keys to capitalist economic success.
By contrast, reporting on his observations of the Russian economy after the fall of the Soviet Union, he points out the perverse circumstances that threatened to leave the crumbling empire in a new economic dark ages. For instance, the fact that many, from central bankers to common citizens alike, in the former Soviet Republics could not even grasp the importance of fundamental capitalist concepts such as property rights.
It is my understanding that Mr. McCormack is something of an expert on this topic. How about it, do you have any anecdotes to share with us on your experiences in the former republics post-Cold War?