This confusion is understandable. Things like the profit motive and the inverse relationship between risk and reward are still hard for these people to grasp. These ideas that are so basic to a free market banking system fly in the face of Marxist principles. One thing about bankers is universal though and that is the fact that changes come slowly. The government badly needs revenue to pay public employees and to make interest payments to holders of Russian bonds.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that the non-financial economy is doing quite well.
This happy situation cannot last, however, as the government debt crisis filters through the financial markets to the real economy. Hopefully and presumably, the powers that be in the Kremlin will move to action sooner rather than later. Jeffrey Caughron is a Financial Strategies Consultant with James Baker and Associates. He is responsible for risk management consulting and investment strategies for institutional customers. Mr. Caughron received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Oklahoma and did his graduate study in Political Economy at Harvard University.