Via colleague Dwight Merriam, comes this story from today’s New York Times, “Even Loyalty No Guarantee Against Putin,” about the post-Soviet version of crony capitalism:
A prominent businessman who knows Mr. Yevtushenkov said that Mr. Putin had eroded the very notion of property rights in Russia, even for those who displayed fealty. He said that Mr. Putin himself had described private ownership of strategic industries with the Russian word to roost. “A chicken can exercise ownership of eggs, and it can get fed while it’s sitting on the egg,” he said, “but it’s not really their egg.”
We suspect the notion of “free” enterprise only goes so far in other locales also (see here and here). And before we throw stones, we also may have some explaining to do.