Putinomics

It's a mad, mad, mad, world in which only the Communists are making sense.

Prior to the Prime Minister vote in the Duma, Russian Communist Party leader Gennadi Zyuganov noted, correctly, “that under Putin’s rule…Russia’s population declined and many highly educated citizens moved away. Food and utility prices have climbed…and infrastructure, factories and heavy machinery have fallen into disrepair."

All true.

Unfortunately, Zyuganov only plays into Putin's strengths. After the Duma voted 392-56 to make him Prime Minister, Putin vowed to enact "great and grandiose" state spending projects to rebuild transportation, infrastructure, and education, among others. He simultaneously pledged to cut inflation – now at 13% a year and rising.

Never in the history of modern economics, has an oil state cut inflation during a period of record high prices, all while dumping billions in free money into the economy. Quite the contrary.

Still, Eternal Remont is holding to the belif that Russian scientists have discovered a secret economic theory, previously unknown, which will allow them to flaunt the laws of economics. The Russian government certainly wouldn't lie to its citizens. Otherwise, how could they do both?