Russia's Economy: Putin’s Stagnation Now Longer and Deeper than Brezhnev’s

Eurasia: New Series ^ | Oct 2019

[OIFVeteran]

Thanks for the article. I’ve been researching IQ since I was given an IQ test back in 2010. I will have to read this more in depth but after quickly scanning the article two things jumped out at me. One-the author accuses IQ test of being used by racist. That’s usually an attack used by liberals use against IQ tests. Two-his graphs show some people with an IQ of 80 or 90 making 130,000 or more a year. I have had to work with low IQ people in the past and with the exception of Downs actors or other anomaly’s I have a hard time believing any of them are capable of earning that kind of money.

[Zhang Fei]

[How can this IQ data explain that the United States is way down on the list of High IQ nations? And yet, so many entrepreneurial geniuses were made in America. ]

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These are average numbers. It’s not average IQ people who design Boeing aircraft or bootstrap entire new industries. The US average is weighted down by blacks, who average about 80 IQ (20 points lower than whites). The reason Ashkenazi Jews are so well-represented in finance, tech and creative industries? An average IQ of 107 to 115.

Japan is actually very highly-ranked in terms of its GDP per capita. If you subtract out the effect of American natural resource endowments, US output per capita would probably be around Japan’s. I’d say its relative lack of individual innovation has to do with its patent system, which favors domestic megacorps that file first for junk patents without any technical substance and squashes startups that file later, but actually have a working product. China is surging because of its high IQ population, combined with a dismantlement of the command economy that dictated work assignments, housing and food allowances.

[Zhang Fei]

[Two-his graphs show some people with an IQ of 80 or 90 making 130,000 or more a year. I have had to work with low IQ people in the past and with the exception of Downs actors or other anomaly’s I have a hard time believing any of them are capable of earning that kind of money.]

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There are a lot of low IQ blacks in high-paying racial quota positions. When a white person has an 80 IQ, he’s usually a funny-looking person (FLP), i.e. he has Down Syndrome or some other genetic abnormality. 80 IQ black people are not only not FLP’s, they’re perfectly normal in every way, except they’ll never figure out calculus, or perhaps even algebra or trigonometry.

[Zhang Fei]

[How can this IQ data explain that the United States is way down on the list of High IQ nations?]

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In fact, when you take out the effect of the roughly 25% of the US population that is black or Hispanic, you end up with a US average that is probably higher than every European nation. It’s not the average that gets you a Microsoft or a Boeing, but the guys at the very top. A high average is just an indicator that you have a higher and more numerous top end than the guys with a low average. We have the advantage, thanks to Europe’s antipathy to Jews, of housing more Ashkenazi Jews than exist in Israel.

[Bommer]

All the lowest IQ’s are in Africa? That racist just because it’s true!

[poconopundit]

Good analysis. I suspect there are a lot of farmers in China who have never seen an IQ test, so I’m not sure how the average worked out for them.

Another story for your intellectual amusement — H.L. Mencken Predicted Donald Trump.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3453208/posts

Some very nice discussion about the intelligence of the public — from the 1920’s.

Cheers.

[NorseViking]

“” “” The Russian economy has expanded during Putin’s tenure because oil prices went from about $20 when Putin took office to about $50 today. If oil prices go to $100, the Russian economy will do well again. Think of Russia as the Saudi Arabia of the north, with deserts of ice instead of sand.”” “”

This myth was many times debunked. It is not even interesting to start arguing it again. Russia has roughly five times the population of Saudi Arabia and sells about as much hydracarbons.
Following simple mathematic principles if your theory is true the average Russian has to be five times poorer than Saudi but it is not the case.
It is especially not the case if you compare above individual level. In terms of overall national economy Saudi Arabia is a midget comparing to Russia.
That comes out of a fact that oil is literally 100% of Saudi economy and only a tiny part of Russia’s.

“” “” Russia could have become a manufacturing destination the way much of Eastern Europe has. “” “”

The share of manufacturing in national GDP in Russia is 68% higher than in US. It is a manufacturing destination. Could do much better but far from worst.

“” “” The problem is the Russians kept jerking foreign investors around, to the point that investors became gun-shy. Between that and Putin’s kleptocratic ways, the net result is that Russia is basically a petrostate whose economy revolves around oil prices.”” “’

Now I see. George Soros, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and William Browder paid New York Times shills to write it so it must be true.

But the reality is that the ruble denominated Russian stock indice gained 25% this year alone. Russian currency gained more than 10% against the dollar this year alone.
Investors are screwed big time. To figure out what to do with that huge returns might be a torture.

[NorseViking]

“” “” It’s not the average that gets you a Microsoft or a Boeing, but the guys at the very top.”” “”

It seems like Boeing run out of smart guys and who do you think work at Microsoft? Many aren’t Americans.

[Zhang Fei]

[I suspect there are a lot of farmers in China who have never seen an IQ test, so I’m not sure how the average worked out for them.]

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Anyone who understands the farming business at all knows that it’s a tough business. Terrible harvest? You won’t have enough crops to sell, so you’ll starve. Excellent harvest? Everyone else will have one as well, so the prices you get from the wholesaler will be rock-bottom, meaning you’ll also starve. Given that China, as a longstanding unitary empire, has lacked, on average, the wars that depopulated Europe every few decades, its numbers have always skirted the Malthusian edge. Only the smartest farmers passed on their genes through repeated famines over the millennia.

The issue with China isn’t a lack of good genetic material, cognitively-speaking - it’s terrible government, including the current one. However rotten the government though, the fact that they’re sitting on a gold mine of human resources means that things can only get so bad before a functional (though crappy by Western standards) leader seizes the reins of power.

[Zhang Fei]

[This myth was many times debunked. It is not even interesting to start arguing it again. Russia has roughly five times the population of Saudi Arabia and sells about as much hydracarbons.
Following simple mathematic principles if your theory is true the average Russian has to be five times poorer than Saudi but it is not the case.]

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Saudi Arabia has oil and gas. And sand. Russia has oil and gas. Diamonds. Gold. Iron. Aluminum. Uranium. Coal. Lumber. Rock quarries. Vast expanses of cultivable soil bigger than Saudi Arabia’s total land area, complete with water supply. *And* a 10-IQ point advantage.

[NorseViking]

Like most other nations China has exactly the sort of government which fits them.

[zeestephen]

Thanks for your excellent charts.

I know it takes extra effort and time to locate them and post them, and I appreciate that.

I only watch natural gas prices in the USA, so I did not realize how much higher they are internationally.

I also had a complete black out on high oil prices from 2010 to 2015 - probably because my Exxon stock has been going down for almost 5 years.

The IQ chart is very interesting.

Just this afternoon I read a long report on a discrimination lawsuit brought against Harvard by Asian students.

Harvard won the case, but it was forced to release a lot of a data I’m sure they did not want in the public domain.

For instance - intellectual ability. The percentage of applicants who were ranked in the highest category was:

Asian applicants - 60%
White applicants - 46%
Hispanic applicants - 17%
Black applicants - 9%