True colors ... of Ukrainian Politicans

That's how Ukrainian politicians were caught on tape recently fighting over the "right" to plunder their fellow citizens. That of course is what an election is, after all: a contest to see who gets the "right" to be the chief thief, plunderer, and destroyer of liberty (ht to Thomas DiLorenzo)

One Third of Ukrainians Had Mental Disorder in Their Lifetime

Here is a very interesting paper about psychiatric and alcohol disorders in Ukraine.
Here is its abstract:
This study presents the lifetime, 12-month, and 1-month prevalence estimates of nine psychiatric and alcohol disorders in Ukraine assessed as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health (WMH) research program. The Ukraine WMH survey is the first psychiatric epidemiologic study in a former Soviet Union country to administer a structured psychiatric interview to a nationally representative sample. Method In 2002, a national probability sample of 4,725 respondents ages
18 and older were interviewed with the WMH version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI). Prevalence estimates, age-of-onset curves, comorbidity, demographic and geographic risk factors, and treatment seeking were examined.

Results: Close to one third of the population experienced at least one Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) disorder in their lifetime, 17.6% experienced an episode in the past year, and 10.6% had a current disorder. There was no gender difference in the overall prevalence rates.
In men, the most common diagnoses were alcohol disorders (26.5% lifetime) and mood disorders (9.7% lifetime); in women, they were mood disorders (20.8% lifetime) and anxiety disorders (7.9% lifetime). The odds ratios for most pairs of disorders were highly significant. Age of onset was primarily in the teens and early 20s. Age, education, and living in the Eastern region of Ukraine
were significant risk factors across disorders, with respondents older than 50 years having the highest prevalence of mood disorder and the lowest prevalence of alcoholism and intermittent explosive disorder. Only a minority of respondents talked to a professional about their symptoms.

Conclusion: Prevalence estimates of alcoholism among men and recent depression among women were higher in Ukraine than in comparable European surveys. The results argue for the need to develop and implement educational programs focused on the recognition and treatment of mental and alcohol disorders for the general population, psychiatrists, and general medical providers, who are the main source of mental health care.

A Lesson of History: From Sir Robert Walpole to President Victor Yanukovych

History can teach us really good lessons. For example, the British history can shed light on the current events in Ukraine and other former Soviet states.
So here is a tough question for you. What do Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745) and President Yanukovych have in common? If your answer is political corruption, you are the history buff.

In the 18th century the House of Commons was useless link in the British government. The House of Commons stood aside doing nothing when the British government expenditure got out of control. The British National Debt experienced a ten-fold increase over the course of the 18th century.

While the British government was approaching the debt crisis, the government of Sir Robert Walpole, First Lord of the Treasury and the de facto first British Prime Minister (1721-1742), went in all history textbooks as the "government by corruption". Walpole who was the Crown's favorite manipulated individual members of the parliament and the aristocratic groups to wield control over parliamentary nomination. He bought and sold seats in the British parliament. The parliamentary members also received bribes for their votes. The legislative branch of the British government became a commodity that was sold and bought. Does it sound familiar?

So what happened to the pervasive corruption in the British Empire? The government implemented several reforms to eradicate the corruption. Intellectual elite actually pressured the government to change the situation. The main advocate for the change was Adam Smith, Scottish political economist. Yes, the same Adam Smith who wrote the Wealth of Nations (1786). Actually, his seminal work was the foundation for critical review of the British government policy.

The British government had economic advisers who represented the Mercantilist school of economics. The Mercantilist economists believed that international trade can reduce the government debt if the British Empire exports more than imports. The Mercantilists were fools who believed that free market is a zero-sum game because someone always gets hurt. The connection between the Mercantilism, socialism, communism, and interventionism is obvious, right? All these fools believe that free market is a bad institution. By the way, American electronic libraries are reporting a significant increase in online search requests for "the Mercantilist school" from China, Russia, and Argentina.  

Agricultural Staticulation

Staticulation is a manipulation of statistics (ht Darrel Huff). Here is an example. Since 2009 production of corn has doubled in Ukraine. The output of corn increased from 10.5 to 21 mln. tons between 2009 and 2012. Great news! It looks like "free market" economy allocated resource efficiently in Ukraine. 

Wait a sec. The corn yield, however, declined slightly from 5 to 4.8 tons per hectare. If the corn yield declines, the total output of corn must decline too, right? Yes, unless the harvested area increases enough to offset the decrease in the crop yield. Indeed, the harvested area has also doubled since 2009. The harvested area increased from 2.1 to 4.4 mln. hectares. Something tells me that farmers foregoing the conventional crop rotation in Ukraine. To double the cropland area for corn, you need to decrease the harvested area of other crops. Otherwise, where did the additional 2.3 mln of arable land come from?