• Russia’s GDP…may plunge as much as 8.5 percent.
• This year Russia is the worst performer among the G-20 group of the world’s largest economies.
• Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International ranks Russia by far the most corrupt.
• Nor is Russia a member of the World Trade Organization, unlike all other G-20 countries.
• [The] crisis is not financial but systemic. Russia is suffocating from the dominance of corrupt state corporations and red tape — and oil isn’t going to save it this time.

Kotkin sums up the dramatic effects of globalization has had in the emerging world:

Asia’s economic surge is among the grand stories of modern times; it was part of — yet broader than — the collapse of the Soviet Union…As late as 1981, Mr. van Agtmael says, the value of all shares on emerging-market stock exchanges was a mere $80 billion. Today it is more than $5 trillion.

Rather than delve into countries and policies, however, van Agtmael’s book picks the 25 top-performing companies from the emerging world and explores their success.  Criticized for being a little verbose, I am going to check it out.

From the perspective of many company bosses, these firms offering “bad money” have a lot going for them. They pay more, intrude less, demand little. Sure, they don’t have the experience or inclination to get involved improving a company’s operations. But, many bosses see that also as a plus. They are usually, rightly or wrongly, pretty sure of themselves and the direction they are moving. The “good money” PE firms can be seen as nosy and meddlesome. The “bad money” guys as trusting and fully-supportive.

I particularly like his quote on the current investment climate in China:

“Stampede” isn’t too strong a word.