He wrote "When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people. That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it."

Pundits aren't super far out over their skis.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6kh3dw/ive_h...

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When...