c6c5f56e   
   XPost: soc.culture.baltics, soc.culture.czecho-slovak, soc.culture.russian   
   XPost: soc.culture.nordic   
   From: anton.usenet@gmail.com   
      
   David Friedman kirjoitti:   
   > In article ,   
   >  Anton  wrote:   
      
   > Individual western businessmen weren't interested in promoting the Cold   
   > War--they were interested in making money, as per the famous Marx quote.   
   > So your argument depends on western governments preventing their   
   > citizens from buying raw materials from the USSR or selling goods to the   
   > USSR. But that didn't happen, save for the special case of restrictions   
   > on military or military related technology exports--and even then, such   
   > restrictions applied only to the particular countries that imposed them.   
   > On the contrary, western nations were happy to buy oil and chrome and   
   > other things from the Soviets, and sell stuff to them.   
      
   Your questioning of my argument is based on the assumption that it only   
   takes one party to make a deal. You are ignoring the fact that one of   
   the parties in a trade with the USSR... well, always also included the USSR.   
      
   > That's possible. On the other hand, it doesn't take much skill to figure   
   > out that selling goods at below the market price and buying goods at   
   > above the market price is a losing game, economically speaking. The   
   > Soviets may have been ideology driven, but they weren't stupid.   
      
   > Which suggests that if the terms of trade really were as you and Eugene   
   > claim, it was probably a bribe by the Soviets to the Finns, in order to   
   > purchase political support.   
      
   Barter based trade also could be used as ideological propaganda.   
   Communism is after all pure socio-economic ideology.   
      
   --   
   Anton   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)