What happens during real resource austerity? | 43 comments (43 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (none / 0)

I do not have time right now but I can tell you a lot about this topic as Serbia was under sanctions for quite some time and I lived there at the time...

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Tue Jul 31st, 2012 at 02:45:39 AM EST

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (4.00 / 3)

I think both similarities and differences can be illuminating. I am thinking that the ideological trends could be interesting to take a look at, Sweden in the 40ies had the Soc-dems settled into power and central planning was by and large viewed as efficient, while the 90ies had neoliberalism spreading through the world not least through the work of IMF (Yugoslavia in the 80ies being one of the first victims).

For example in Sweden in the 40ies there was (of course) a black market but it seems to mostly have involved the usual small-time criminals and one of the few cases of corrupt official I remember was very low in the hierarchy (stole coupons that was to be discarded, iirc) and was punished with jailtime.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jul 31st, 2012 at 11:54:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (3.75 / 4)

Surely there is also the difference that a serious shooting war between major industrial powers is known to be time-limited. Whereas economic sanctions against a government the US State Department does not like are indefinite (not permanent, but without any forecastable termination condition).

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Jul 31st, 2012 at 12:32:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (4.00 / 6)

through the work of IMF (Yugoslavia in the 80ies being one of the first victims).
--------------------
Yes...in the 80ies there was a lack of foreign... money (to pay debts) and in ex YU they found solution so we were not to import stuff like coffee, components for laundry powder,chocolate etc. so there was none of these stuff on the market.Black market obviously flourished and inflation started to kick , but it was nothing compared to what happened later... Also we were exporting electricity abroad and that's why we had to have restrictions. Then came Ante Markovic...Suddenly dinar : D Mark parity was 1:7 and stable and everything was better then ever before that people could remember.
But it did not last long...Markovic was kicked out by leadership of all republics and here came the war...

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Wed Aug 1st, 2012 at 02:50:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (none / 0)

I wonder to this day what actually happened and why? Why west let go of Markovic? My husband has a theory...

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Wed Aug 1st, 2012 at 08:54:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (4.00 / 2)

It seems his recipe had similar consequences as elsewhere.

Ante Marković - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He became prime minister in March 1989 following the resignation of Branko Mikulić. After that decision had become public, the U.S. had anticipated cooperation because Marković was known "to favor market-oriented reforms"^[4] - the BBC declared that he is "Washington's best ally in Yugoslavia".^[5] At the end of the year, Marković launched a new and ambitious program of unprecedented economic reforms, including stabilization of currency and privatization, as well as a program of limited trade liberalization. The result of his monetary reform was a temporary halt to inflation leading to a short-lived rise in Yugoslavia's otherwise plummeting standard of living. Nonetheless, the short-term effect of economic reforms undertaken by Marković led to a decline in Yugoslavia's industrial sector. Numerous bankruptcies occurred as the state-owned enterprises struggled to compete in a more free market environment, a fact later wielded against Marković by his many ethnic nationalist political opponents. By 1990, the annual rate of growth in GDP had declined to -7.5%. In 1991, GDP declined by a further 15 percent and industrial output decreased by 21 percent.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Aug 2nd, 2012 at 03:45:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (4.00 / 6)

I was just going to comment on Serbia and Bosnia.

There were many articles about grandmothers in Serbia who had always warned their children to keep their woodburning stoves. There were a great many in use during the 1990s.

Don't make fun of me for getting my information from a comic book but, in Joe Sacco's "Safe Area Gorazde," Sacco goes to great lengths to write on some of the contraptions built to keep energy flowing. The people of Gorazde, surrounded on all sides, used jerry-rigged hydroelectric barges that were each connected to individual homes. Sacco drew a river full of them.

You can see the pictures here of the mini-centrales:

http://thefunambulist.net/2012/04/18/bosnia-gorazdes-mini-centrales-self-sufficiency-in-war-time/

by Upstate NY on Wed Aug 1st, 2012 at 01:19:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (none / 0)

Oh yeah...you wouldn't believe or imagine what people can do when it is necessity...

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Wed Aug 1st, 2012 at 08:58:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: What happens during real resource austerity? (none / 1)

Something to read here:

http://www.transparentnost.org.rs/dokumenti/d012.html

If we for the moment forget about sanctions as such and just take in to account consequences of austerity, there are things to be learned here.
Our conservative leaders somehow have fate in private sector but all I can say is hahahaha...
With a globalization in place private investors are running around the globe and even if it is hard to follow the money it is kind of visible for those who want to see.Because money is hard to hide...

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Wed Aug 1st, 2012 at 09:38:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

What happens during real resource austerity? | 43 comments (43 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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