August 7, 2008: Russian Riches

[xoxoxoBruce]

Privatization of so many things formerly controlled by the Party/State, has made a few Russians wealthy. Some of them very (read billionaire) wealthy.

I suppose acquiring that much wealth in a short period of time, is bound to cause some of them, what I would call, Lottery Winners Syndrome.
You know, spending money by the bucket-load, buying everything they ever dreamed of when they didn't have money, no matter how crazy.

Supposedly, one of them had 40 lbs of gold, slapped on this Porsche. When I heard that I thought, "C'mon now, 40 lbs of gold leaf would do a fleet". But looking at the pictures, it doesn't look like gold leaf... it looks like little plates or something.




Even at $1,000 an ounce, it looks to me like the labor might even cost more than the gold.

And don't forget, that ain't no YUGO.