Life in Russia must be a lot better than the consensus belief. Faced with an economy expected to contract close to 8% this year and comically reliant on high commodity prices, the government decided that now was a good time to throw 400,000 people out of a job in the name of clean living. Back in 2006, then president Vladimir Putin started on a campaign to clean up Russia's gambling industry. On July 1st, every casino in the country is being shut down, thereby eliminating close to half a million jobs.

Having dismissed the notion that the overly leveraged US consumer is going to lead the world out of the economic abyss, many have shifted their attention to the BRIC countries. If the world is seriously pinning their hopes (in part) on a government currently contemplating bailing out large banks rotting from bad loans by taking board seats and willing to voluntarily place hundreds of thousands of people into unemployment, the BIC countries better pick up the pace.