Bardonomics

Image: NBC Things have not been going well for Russia’s horse-riding, bear-wrestling, tiger-hunting president. Scarcely a couple months ago, President Vladimir Putin confidently told business leaders that his country could withstand any economic storm. Now, though, the Russian economy is teetering, and the ruble has plunged.  The ruble’s slide started following the Russian invasion into Ukraine, and the Western sanctions that followed it. In recent weeks though, the bottom has simply dropped off the ruble. At one point, the currency was down fifty percent for the year.  Russia’s crisis was triggered by the plummeting oil price, with crude as much as forty percent off its highs. Russia’s economy failed to significantly diversify: energy exports are responsible for half of government revenue and sixty percent of exports.  Oil was bound to fall. A glut of supply from American shale production coupled with weakening demand from China and other economies was inevitably g