Lol, no, sorry but need to correct you. After the communist system broke down politicians (the only segment with power) split off in three directions: a) emigrated to other countries and were never heard of again, b) remained in politics and now hold positions in various ministries, c) used their political connections plus the opportunity in the hours of total chaos to amass undervalued assets that would have never been such undervalued had there been fair auctions, markets, and competition.
The third group was what later became known as "oligarchs". Most washed their hands even in blood, killed people either single handedly or had them killed, worked closely with the quickly in power rising mob, but still maintained their briberies to politically related "entities" in order to be "allowed" to continue to exploit the system. People who are now several billion USD heavy had not had to be necessarily smart and some really are not.
Let me ask you , has it ever occured to you in the whole human history that people can gain wealth in the tune of several billion dollars from nothing through honest and ethical work and that in less than 10-15 years? Really the only 2 groups of people that come to mind are a) speculators who seized the opportunities of bubbles such as the tulip mania, and on the other side entrepreneurs who started IT companies and sold them years later at 10000%+ markups. Both groups made their money through honest and legal work, in transparent and liquid markets. Russion Oligarchs in my view are nothing but gangsters who bought themselves into London real estate and Swiss Ski Resorts in their belief the world will now respect them for something they never deserved. There are two regions that I believe will fail miserably because wealth was created because of fotunate events but not hard work: Russia, and the complete oil-blessed middle East. The likes of Dubai and Quatar will go where they come from, camel riding bedouines. I never invested nor will I ever invest a single penny in those two regions. Look at what happens to multi-national oil companies when they started negotiating a fair share of their business. They get sacked and are forced to "sell" their ownership share at flee-market prices in investmensts such as Sakhalin 2. Or like to take a look at the must expensive hotel that, I think, just opened last year. A country in the desert who wants to make tourism their major source of income? Which but some eco tourists want to spend their annual vacation counting sand? Oh, dont forget the billions those idiots invested in US investment banks of which some dont even exist anymore. Have those sovereign wealth funds ever made a penny on their investments? Please point it out I must have missed it.
So question remains: Would you want to invest your hard earned dollars with some totally retarded and unskilled people who currently may be lucky because they sit next to a gold fountain which, however, may stop working any moment? A casino looks like a money market account to me in comparison.
The third group was what later became known as "oligarchs". Most washed their hands even in blood, killed people either single handedly or had them killed, worked closely with the quickly in power rising mob, but still maintained their briberies to politically related "entities" in order to be "allowed" to continue to exploit the system. People who are now several billion USD heavy had not had to be necessarily smart and some really are not.
Let me ask you , has it ever occured to you in the whole human history that people can gain wealth in the tune of several billion dollars from nothing through honest and ethical work and that in less than 10-15 years? Really the only 2 groups of people that come to mind are a) speculators who seized the opportunities of bubbles such as the tulip mania, and on the other side entrepreneurs who started IT companies and sold them years later at 10000%+ markups. Both groups made their money through honest and legal work, in transparent and liquid markets. Russion Oligarchs in my view are nothing but gangsters who bought themselves into London real estate and Swiss Ski Resorts in their belief the world will now respect them for something they never deserved. There are two regions that I believe will fail miserably because wealth was created because of fotunate events but not hard work: Russia, and the complete oil-blessed middle East. The likes of Dubai and Quatar will go where they come from, camel riding bedouines. I never invested nor will I ever invest a single penny in those two regions. Look at what happens to multi-national oil companies when they started negotiating a fair share of their business. They get sacked and are forced to "sell" their ownership share at flee-market prices in investmensts such as Sakhalin 2. Or like to take a look at the must expensive hotel that, I think, just opened last year. A country in the desert who wants to make tourism their major source of income? Which but some eco tourists want to spend their annual vacation counting sand? Oh, dont forget the billions those idiots invested in US investment banks of which some dont even exist anymore. Have those sovereign wealth funds ever made a penny on their investments? Please point it out I must have missed it.
So question remains: Would you want to invest your hard earned dollars with some totally retarded and unskilled people who currently may be lucky because they sit next to a gold fountain which, however, may stop working any moment? A casino looks like a money market account to me in comparison.
