Did you mean they were better at collapsing than America? not actually better than America. Now I support Russia's sovereignty and hate the crooks we have over here, but no way jo-se!
I just did a scan through it on the initial paragraphs as IMHO the readings does not seem to warrant serious attention. You can't compare apples with oranges. The facts may be there but USSR seemed to be far more adulated with the author's views. He definitely has the rights to his views. USSR at its peak has a GDP of $1.2 trillion which is still much lesser than even China of more than $3 trillion. To sum up my own personal opinion, I would rather face the collapse in USA than in USSR anytime any day.
My opinion is the same. The Soviet Union could not even feed itself. The US still has its industrial and agricultural base intact. There may be some hard times ahead. But there wouldn't be a collapse.
In a market based economy its very hard to collapse an economy since the market players can adjust, sometimes excess form but they do not cause collapses. If the US did collapse it would of happened in 1930 not in 2008.
It took WW2 to get the US out of the Great Depression. Even after the New Deal the US slipped into recession in 1937. It's tough to envision that happening again.
The credit markets have already started improving. I think things will be fine. And I think, as much as people love to hate them, we'll largely have Ben and Hank to thank for it. So we'll have a recession, we have to have them once in a while. And some of us might get a good deal on a house in '09 or '10.
IMHO it is still too early to tell. Remember as in an iceberg, what you see is only 10% of the problem. Somehow I feel that there is far more to come before anything stabilized. A recession seemed to be a foregone conclusion. It is just a matter of how deep and how long the recession is going to be.
The recession is just starting and is estimated to last three quarters. New York alone is expecting 165,000 job losses. Houses should decline another 20% and that will trigger more bank losses. Usually unemployment peaks the next couple of years after a recession has finished. That was the case for the 1973-1975, 1980-1982, 1990-1991 and 2001 recessions. This recession may be a lot deeper than the last two recession and more like the 73-75 or 80-82 recessions. Most people are unprepared for a recession that severe. Another issue is that the US is spending too much money to early into the recessionary cycle. Many US States are already facing budget deficits and many billions will be needed for unemployment benefits.
Bogart the collapse of Russia was a total failure. It was the equivalent to the Great Depression what we are going through now pales in comparison.
The collapse of the Soviet Union may have been a bigger failure than the Great Depression. Life expentancy for males was reduced to early 50s and people were reduced to eating buttered bread and onions. The vast natural resources of Russia have allowed some recovery. The US housing bubble was also fueled by foreign banks. So the deflation of the US bubble will not cause a collapse. But they will be some hard times ahead.