Posted on 10/14/2010 8:59:16 PM PDT by tired1
Aside from the obviuous shortcommings of central planning, I'm interested in the circumdtances which caused the USSR to implode. Was it inability to meet foreign obligations?
Would appreciate opioions and any sources.
Ronald Reagan
internal cycles causing an economic vortex where the intake was greater than the outlay
Beat me to it
Uhhhh - Cause Communism doesn’t work?
Too many guns, not enough butter.
It was God’s will....He used Ronaldus Magnus......
Yep, Ronnie just sped up the inevitable. At the time I said that we and the Commies were like two cars in an endurance race, and the finish line is 100 miles away but they only have 90 miles worth of gas. And if we floor it, they have to as well, cutting their mileage and speeding up the inevitable.
Unfortunately, it is starting to look like maybe we only had 99 miles worth of gas...
“we win, they lose”
Victory by Peter Schweitzer
On the Brink by Jay Winik
Oil played a part.
In the early 80’s, the US started a “synthetic fuel” project which spooked the Saudies (OPEC). OPEC, in response, upped its production to make syntheic fuel too expensive to make. This crashed the oil price by half and denied the Soviets it’s primary cash source (oil).
Combined with a faultering centralized economy, unenthused work force, and an arms race from the US, the Soviet economy collasped.
2 letters - B2.
Once upon a Christmas Eve in 1991, . . .
A combination of $11 a barrell oil and a crashing ruble and Reagan forcing the USSR into a spending war to keep pace in arms when they could least afford it.The USSR never had an ecomomy other than arms manufacture and energy resources. When energy prices crashed, the ruble crashed wiih it. The perfect storm
This is strictly my opioion (couldn’t resist). RR got the best intel he could - he was surrounded by the smartest cold warriors and new conservative patriots.
They determined we could sweat the Soviets in a game of attrition.
Reagan called their bluff.
Hot water in only 25% of dwellings on the inside of this ‘worker’s paradise’ was a mitigating factor as well.
For one thing, you could be arrested
and I mean arrested
for “making a profit” on something.
Also some of the best jobs were for “snitches” for people to turn in their neighbor for being politically incorrect against Marxist Leninism.
Yes, the term “politically incorrect” originated with Stalin. It was a CRIME.
So you were spied on for money by your neighbors and you had no way of making a living, totally at the mercy of the state. Plus the USSR kept on a “war footing” with the West, so it was a survival during wartime mentality.
Coming soon to the USSA.
I’m fairly familiar with Reafan’s policies. Back in ‘84 I wrote an ecomons paper predictimg they would collapse based on econ data they published in the UN. Clearly they had cooked the books for decades. I’m curious about why one day they just said “screw it”.
The ruble was inconvertable and they could have simply inflated as they had in the past. They could also have restructured foreign payments, as Russia subsequently did.
Any ideas?
So you think it was hard currency deficit?
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