Ah yes, we should definitely believe Russian reports of how rich Russians are. Damn, I’ve seen a lot of articles like this recently. It must be really ugly for Russia if they’re trying to convince us it’s bad for us when we’re not at war lmfaooooo
known kremlin mouthpiece, UBS lmao
famous Putin puppets they are
Business Insider is American, UBS is Swiss.
I almost spit up my drink that headline was so funny. Introduce us to the 2nd richest country and your long-time friend.....North Korea!
Indeed. Money is only worth something if you can buy something with it.
I'm gonna steal that line for the next apocalypse.
Yeah, if only Russia had countries to trade with https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/economy/russia-china-trade-new-record-intl-hnk/index.html
What does the lower exchange between the ruble and the dollar mean then? The ruble is worth less dollars than before.
UBS (a Swiss bank) doesn't really have reason to lie about the wealth increase. Is the exchange rate thing just because rubles are less useful internationally because sanctions?
The US has inflation, and if the ruble is worth less dollars then that means Russia has even more inflation.
Obviously all our media wants to paint a picture of Russia doing terribly, but I wonder what the actual picture is. All the companies that left Russia left behind all their shit for Russia to use which if anything helps them keep more production in their own borders.
Lower rouble means that Russian exports are cheaper and more attractive allowing government get more money domestically after conversion thus helping balance the budget. It also means that imports are higher of course, but seems that exports are what's relevant for state budget in Russia. Deficit in Russia is only around 2% of the GDP, compare that to the astronomical deficit US is running.
Also worth noting that rouble value against the dollar doesn't have much practical meaning given that there's very little direct trade between Russia and the west.
The American deficit is less than 5% of GDP, so it's larger relative to the economy but not exactly what I'd called astronomically higher.
5.3% is very much still in line as a fairly ordinary deficit compared to many other countries in the world. A little towards the higher end, but not out of the ordinary by any means. The 2027 projection is a fair cause for concern, but the point of this report is explicitly to make sure the American budget doesn't head that way. To quote:
"CBO’s baseline budget projections are meant to provide a benchmark that policymakers can use to assess the potential effects of changes in policy; they are not intended to provide a forecast of future budgetary outcomes."
Thing is though is that US has been able to run a large deficit because the dollar is the reserve currency. Since, until recently, countries had no choice but to use SWIFT for global trade and energy was traded exclusively in dollars, that meant countries had to buy dollars in order to trade them for these resources. Dollar based economy is rapidly shrinking now because US in its infinite wisdom decided to cut one of the biggest commodity producers out of it. So, now we're seeing more and more bilateral trade happening where countries use their own currencies. This process is developing much more rapidly than anybody expected, and what that means is that the value of the dollar is shrinking.
Ya'll can't even pay russian border guards to keep out other russians, let alone Ukrainian saboteurs.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Russians got richer last year even as the war in Ukraine raged on, while the US and Europe lost trillions of dollars, UBS reported.
There were also 1 million fewer American millionaires by the end of 2022, although the US still accounted for over 50% of the world's ultra-high-net-worth individuals, the bank said.
UBS acknowledges that "wealth trends in Russia are difficult to determine at this time," but did highlight it as one of a handful of countries that had gotten richer in 2022.
Rising oil prices could be one factor behind the wealth increase, with exports of the commodity a key economic engine for Russia.
The cost of a barrel of benchmark Urals crude jumped by about $7 last year, data from Refinitiv indicated.
Mexico, India, and Brazil all also added significant amounts of wealth in 2022, UBS's report suggested, while the US, Japan, China, Canada, and Australia lost the most.
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