Russian Czar president prime minister Valdimir Putin delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos today and, God help me, I read it.

One thing I learned is that Putin is a fan of banal metaphors. For instance:

“Regardless of their political or economic system, all nations have found themselves in the same boat.”

“There is a certain concept, called the perfect storm, which denotes a situation when Nature’s forces converge in one point of the ocean and increase their destructive potential many times over. It appears that the present-day crisis resembles such a perfect storm.”

“Although the crisis was simply hanging in the air, the majority strove to get their share of the pie … and did not want to notice the rising wave.”

“This pyramid of expectations would have collapsed sooner or later.”

“[W]e could face far greater complications if we merely treat the symptoms of the disease.”

“In our opinion, we must first atone for the past and open our cards, so to speak.”

But the speech wasn’t all platitudes. It also featured some fun stick-in-the-eyeing of the United States:

In the last few months, virtually every speech on this subject started with criticism of the United States. But I will do nothing of the kind. I just want to remind you that, just a year ago, American delegates speaking from this rostrum emphasized the US economy’s fundamental stability and its cloudless prospects. Today, investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exist. In just 12 months, they have posted losses exceeding the profits they made in the last 25 years. This example alone reflects the real situation better than any criticism.

Take that!

But what was genuinely interesting about Putin’s speech was his full-throated defense of capitalism:

Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence is another possible mistake. True, the state’s increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent. The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation….

[T]he spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.

Not that I want to be taking economic advice from Mr. Putin, but the language struck me because of (1) the source, and (2) the contrast between what this Russian leader said today and what Nancy Pelosi said this past weekend. As the New York Times reported:

In an interview Sunday on “This Week” on ABC, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, alluded to internal debate when she was asked whether nationalization, or partial nationalization, of the largest banks was a good idea.

“Well, whatever you want to call it,” said Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California. “If we are strengthening them, then the American people should get some of the upside of that strengthening. Some people call that nationalization.

“I’m not talking about total ownership,” she quickly cautioned – stopping herself by posing a question: “Would we have ever thought we would see the day when we’d be using that terminology? ‘Nationalization of the banks?’”

Indeed. And who would have thought our own leaders would be out-capitalismed by Russia’s prime minister just a few days later?