The New Yorker magazine had a good article titled the "Sochi Effect," calling this Winter Olympics the "greatest financial boondoggle in the history of the Games." The article goes on to state:
But an economic boost based on corrupt spending is an illusion, the equivalent of a sugar high... in a pathbreaking study nearly twenty years ago, [IMF economist] Mauro found that countries with high levels of corruption spent little on education. In economist-speak, corrupt politicians put too much money into physical capital and not enough into human capital. Crony construction capitalism leaves us with too few teachers and too many ski jumps to nowhere.Sadly, the Olympics have become window-dressing for bad actors, be it Russia, China, or even Greece (which spent plenty of money it clearly did not have). How much better would it have been if Russia took care of things at home and spent some of these funds on longer-term projects, such as a space program that does more than shuttle cosmonauts to the International Space Station? Yes, many countries have wasted their treasure on such white elephants, but I look forward to the day the human race has greater designs for the future than winning a medal n figure skating.
