Essay Questions

How does Maddow explain what she calls the "resource curse" and why does it weaken nations like Russia?

Maddow explains that countries that are seemingly blessed with natural resources of their own, such as oil or gas, should be rich, because people pay to come into the country and extract these resources. However, what actually happens is that selling off natural resources in the commodities market actually has the opposite effect to this and tends to leave a country worse off because the economy is uneven and money is generated only by one revenue stream. This means that politicians and owners of the resources get extremely rich but the rest of the country do not. This also explains why this is a phenomenon seen predominantly in communist countries where those in political office thrive financially at the expense of everyone else.

What does Maddow believe is the solution to the resource curse?

Maddow believes that the countries where the commodity traders reside have a responsibility to make sure that these companies are responsible global citizens and also to implement regulations to prevent big businesses from leading economic democracies, such as America, bolstering despotic Communist regimes in the countries from which they are purchasing the natural resources. As these countries need the money from these companies, there should be more effort made to use this trade as a bargaining chip and a way in which the people of the resource rich nation can benefit from the resources as well.