Pleasant surprise

The stock market is up 50% in the last two months. The central bank is selling the currency to keep it from rising. This is Russia today and it sounds like a tale. But a conjunction of rising commodity prices and sound fiscal policies seems to have brought an early thaw to the Russian economy. If the government keeps toeing the same realist and reformist lines, it could turn into a lasting spring. It took a little while, but it looks like proponents of free-market policies and strict fiscal disc...