Sarah Paine

We're not using market prices.

You're setting different prices, giving people ration cards and things.

The thing is about the Soviets is they kept it forever.

They never got rid of it.

So that's one piece.

Another problem with the Soviet Union is all of the data.

So I don't know what data you've seen, and I know the data I've seen, is it's hard to know because rubles are non-convertible currency, and a lot of things they measure in weight and other things.

Like, they're the greatest TV producer in the world.

They said, why?

Because they made the heaviest TVs in the world.

Right?

I'm serious.

When I was there, this was it.

And they would spontaneously combust, which is not the normal thing a TV should do for you.

Burn down the apartment building.

So they're going to measure their heavy TVs as a positive.

And the ruble is non-convertible.

So...

There was a guy named Murray Feshback, and I can't remember which part of the U.S.

government he was, but he was really good at looking at their statistics and then adjusting them.