Bardonomics

Photo: EPA-EFE Two years ago, things looked dire for Russia’s horse-riding, bear-wrestling, tiger-hunting president. Vladimir Putin’s Russia was teetering. The country had entered a deep recession, its currency had plunged, and inflation was rampant. But how things have changed since then. A recent cover of The Economist featured Putin’s authoritative visage, his figure decked in regal clothing: the new tsar. His country’s economic future is far from assured, but things are looking up, with the country exiting its 2014-2016 recession. In this article, we look back at Russia’s economic and currency crisis.   The ruble’s slide in 2014 began after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Western sanctions that followed it. By the end of 2014, however, the currency’s was plummeting at an alarming rate. At one stage, it was down fifty percent for the year against the US dollar. Moves of even a few precent up or down are considered significant in currency markets.   ...

Image: Pixabay The humble chicken, normally not much discussed beyond the dining table, assumed an unlikely prominence in development circles this past year. The rise of this avian began with a post by Bill Gates on his influential “gatesnotes” blog. In it, he advocates the distribution of chickens in sub-Saharan Africa as a means of alleviating extreme poverty—improving the lot of people making less than US$2 a day.   Gates argues that chickens are “easy and inexpensive to take care of”, requiring only cheap vaccines and having no special feeding needs. He additionally claims chickens are a solid investment because of their relatively high market price—he cities the figure of US$5 as being the standard in West Africa—and their ability to frequently reproduce.   Ultimately, he calculates that a woman who raises a flock of chickens could generate income north of US$1000 annually, all while also combating malnutrition within the family and empowering herself as an ...