President #Assad to the Iranian #Khabar #TV: If my leaving office is the solution, I will never hesitate to do so.

Here the OCDE better life index 2015 edition with every indicators

I'm not sure this is showing what you meant. It shows net financial wealth where I would have guessed it would be, really low.

This may also be part of the problem, from your own source, labor productivity. And it isn't good.

http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=PDB_LV

GDP PPP per capita of Equatorial Guinea is 23,270 PPP$ in international money. But still with 50% of the population living under UN standards , massive analphabetism and shanty towns all over the country and not a single proper road.

OK, so we;ll go with your own sited source. Russians net worth is poor.

Add to this lower discretionary spending, food prices have risen some with inflation at ~16%. And the stat you used to enjoy rolling out that the Ruble was the best performing currency (for a short moment) has settled back in to one of the worst.

I'm not sure what you're trying to defend here. That Russians have good purchasing power, quality of life, etc? Sure, OK. Compared to 25 years ago, you're right. Compared to what it should be with a 15 year windfall of booming oil prices? Pretty shitty progress. A petro state dependent on western technology to reach some of its resources, limited exports of non petro based or resource based products, etc.

My point was simple. Russia has the resources and population to do better. And they should be. Why so defensive about mediocrity and relative stagnation compared to other countries? Happy with very low labor productivity? Dont think it should be triple what it is? Fine, but saying everything is great and coming along seems disingenuous or myopic.

Complete bullshit

Actually, its not. Average credit card debt is between 7k-8k. Its readily available information.

When I talk about debt , I am talking about real measures wich mean: GDP/DEBT Ratio, saving Rates, central government debt total (% of GDP), total debt service (% of exports of goods, services and primary income) and more importantly Net international investment position.

I think the US has been able to operate partially isolated from the expectations in this regard. As the world's currency, that can also be created without many of the problems normally associated with this, the US debt ration may not have the same impact that it has in other countries. There are also examples of countries that operate higher ratios for decades and are still doing better than Russia. Whether this continues forever or not, it hasn't caused enough of an issue to wildly impact most Americans directly. Is it a healthy position? No, its horrible. But I'm not sure how pointing this out in one of the wealthiest countries makes Russian stagnation, corruption, incompetence, and lack of diversification appear somehow better. But sure, its bad in the US. Just not nearly as bad as in Russia. Agreed?

Western countries are are living quite beyond their means as I already wrote the only thing holding is credtiors trust in the case of some countries like France , UK or Reserve currency status such as the case of USA.

This may prove true, it just hasn't yet. Until then, we were referring primarily to Russia's failure at diversification and meaningful economic improvement aside from fluctuations in oil prices.

I took the fact that Soviet indigeneous industry was completely destroy by 80% and the fact that Russia was bankrupt in 1998

Bullshit. There's been minimal progress. And 80% was destroyed? How was it destroyed?

What relevant (monetarily) export does Russia produce that wasn't pulled out of the ground aside from weapons?

Russia massively improve as I already wrote and did a virtual macro economic revolution but to think there should have western standards of living right now and taking it as fact to blame the current elite is nonsenses.

It improved massively because oil prices have gnerally trended up in that time frame. If you're defending or proud of a petro state's coffers filling and fluctuating with the price of oil, OK. I just dont think its fair to speak of the improvements when you mean resource booms.

http://alphanow.thomsonreuters.com/2015/07/news-in-charts-rouble-under-pressure-as-oil-prices-fall/

And industries have been built in less than 15 years. There just hasnt been the will, direction, or leadership to do anything like it. Corruption and malaise are a problem. The "improvements" should produce more than they have.

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