I can accept all that! The distinction I am groping for is that the Cold War was not anchored on individual countries, but two abstract, incompatible belief systems that each made a great sales pitch—freedom vs. communism. It was a religious war with roughly equal numbers.
I would enjoy learning more about those loans in general. My understanding is they were done not out of political motives, just capitalists and bankers doing their thing, but a side effect was to stifle dissent in the short term and help bring down the regimes in the long term.
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it's a super-interesting topic; my recollection is that Kotkin has some discussion in UNCIVIL SOCIETY.
@BuddyYakov you probably have other recommends? -
Hmm. There is an really good paper on the cmea investment bank by Stone.
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A famous Polish dissident said "the depoliticization of sausage was the greatest achievemnt of the third republic", meaning post-89 Poland. He also said the blackest, most dispiriting time for democracy movement was the late 60's early 70's consumer boom, fueled by western loans.
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I've been semi-joking for some time that pork prices will eventually be seen as a bigger story than Hong Kong this year.
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