Economics through the looking-glass: only Iraq thrives in world slump•

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From Russia

Russia’s two leaders, meanwhile, have wasted little time in blaming the crisis on the US. President Dmitry Medvedev this week memorably accused the US administration of “economic egoism”. Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, said: “Confidence in the US as the leader of the free world and the free market… has been undermined – for good, I think.”

Cuba
Cuba’s isolation from global financial markets has largely protected it from capitalist contagion, allowing it to watch the turmoil with relative equanimity. “It was expected,” Fidel Castro noted in his regular column in the communist party newspaper, Granma. He did not elaborate. Cuba is facing its own crisis after a series of recent hurricanes devastated its agriculture and infrastructure.

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Iraq
The Baghdad bourse is booming, with the general index of Iraq’s stock exchange up by nearly 40% last month. The floor was heaving with investors and brokers on Thursday, many glued to their phones and eager to snap up bargains on the second day of trading after a national holiday. Hotels and banks were the hottest picks among the exchange’s 95 listed companies.

But Iraq’s 2009 budget depends on oil staying above $80 a barrel. Prices – above $140 in July – have fallen below $90 in recent months.

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Venezuela
Venezuela is bracing for the petro-state to curb its free-spending ways after President Hugo Chavez said his socialist revolution was not immune from the global financial crisis. State bonds on international markets have dropped to their lowest levels in five years and plunging oil prices are expected to squeeze next year’s budget. Consumer spending on cars and other big items has already started to shrivel.

Chavez says he hopes the crisis will prompt other Latin American leaders to forge ahead with his cherished plan for a Bank of the South, to counter the influence of the World Bank.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/busi…..omy-europe

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