>>> investors would rather hold scarce assets such as equities and real estate.
Real Estate is not the investment it once was and homes have yet to recover their initial value since the crash in 2006. I doubt this is something people would be actively investing in like they used to.
"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."
True, but I don't think Putin has thought out his Ukraine folly and Russia will suffer in the long term. The West has become so dominant that Putin can rattle his rusty sabre and everyone says "meh".
I don't think there's any question about dominance, rather, it's about complacency.
If in the coming years Russia takes Ukraine, and or other countries like Latvia or Moldova, it'll be due to the West being complacent. Putin - or any dictator - 'winning' the first four rounds due to other nations having an attitude of not giving a shit, would match up with what typically has happened throughout history.
"The West has become so dominant" that Putin was able to successfully leverage anti-western feelings in a semi-democratic way for 15 years now, with no end in sight. "The West has become so dominant" that Bin Laden is still considered a hero by millions of people. "The West has become so dominant" that anti-Western sensibilities still hold solid democratic majorities across the Middle East and South America (Egypt etc).
Honestly, where did you get this feeling that "the West has become so dominant"? From a military standpoint, Europe is bent on disarming: not even the UK can now afford the sort of effort that a close US partnership still imposes, and the US government itself is busy cutting everything it can. In fact, only a massive threat from Putin might be able to revive European defence budgets. Most European armies are creaking, from a technological standpoint; the only European nation pumping fresh cash in their armed forces is Russia, which is why Putin can afford to be so bullish. 1995 was almost 20 years ago, the world has changed. Bin Laden and Afghanistan militias showed that "the West" is, in fact, long from being "dominant" both at the military and cultural level.
This has always confounded me why people like to point to Europe as the best example for free social services. When in fact, both political parties here could be looking at Australia for their talking points.
I agree that Australia seems to have a very good balance of capitalism and social welfare programs.
Real Estate is not the investment it once was and homes have yet to recover their initial value since the crash in 2006. I doubt this is something people would be actively investing in like they used to.