Posted on 09/24/2014 10:14:40 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Goldman Sachs has an office in Moscow. So do Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, too.
Russia was supposed to be a growth market for Wall Street. It is quickly turning out to be a potential financial nightmare and a political hot potato.
With the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, and a series of punitive sanctions clearly slowing Russia’s economy, Wall Street banks are facing a conundrum: Should they stay or go?
Wall Street’s involvement with Russia has long been a source of controversy. Some critics contend that Western banks have quietly helped enrich the government of President Vladimir V. Putin while he ran roughshod over the rule of law, often confiscating assets from political opponents. [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at dealbook.nytimes.com ...
Yes it is an area of interest and the world as we knew it has changed and not for the better. It is far more dangerous than ever. You just can’t deal with the truth and are entrenched into your previous world view which was valid at one time. But things have changed and have crept in like an insidious disease like cancer or diabetes which come upon you all of a sudden. I have not created anything in my head but got it from valid sources. I wish it wasn’t this way but it is.
No, the world is currently less dangerous than the Cold War, and no, you do not have valid sources explaining that NATO is dissolving and that some NATO countries are going to form a military alliance with Russia, nor that Poland has no interest in the United States and is powerful enough to breakaway on it’s own, (it is just the opposite, they are screaming for our help and forward NATO bases in Eastern Europe) or that the small and limited Russian military of today is mightier than the Soviet military, etc, etc, etc, the nonsense just keeps pouring forth, and from your imagination.
No this is not imagination but reality. The world is far more dangerous as WMD (chem, bio, nuclear) technology can be much more easily manufactured and proliferated. This technology can get into the hands of radicals of any kind and cause bigger problems than you can possibly imagine. This is a threat condition that is far wider and more dangerous because it can reside in the hands of the many rather than the few like it did during the Cold War. The old alliances are not as strong as they once were and the world also teeters on economic collapse. The political/socio dynamic is volatile and unpredictable. The ability to destroy by nuclear weapons on a grand scale very much still exists on top of this. You sir are in denial of what is really happening and are a dinosaur in your way of thinking. Many politicians are pragmatic and will make adjustments(temporary) to deal with what they call the most imminent or dangerous threat. Just think about the formation of the Big Three (US, UK, USSR) during the Second World War. We were allies with our future enemy. Man has consistently done this throughout history and will continue to do so.
Welcome to the Age of Assymetric Warfare!!
Gosh you sound young, if you think you wake up feeling lucky to have survived the night today, then you just don’t remember the 1980s.
I love how in your mind NATO is dissolving with some nations switching to Russia, Poland having become so powerful militarily that they are striking out on their own now, and that the old soviet Empire was no military match for this russia.
I remember the 80s well and good. I look back on it with fondness as it was far less stressful. Detente always is. Let me tell you something about NATO and politics. Lots of nations have a public policy and they also form a secret one. They see the deteriorating situation in the US and they will make back door deals to ensure their survival and like I said they will make deals with other NATO members to insulate themselves from any threat or even make deals with Putin himself. It’s the real world babe. Remember Roosevelt made deals with Stalin who was a much worse person than even Hitler in the way he treated his own people (killed 60 million of his own). The Russia of yesteryear had a very unpopular govt and people really did not believe in their system. Putin on the other hand is quite popular with many Russians and amongst their military who will very much fight for him. The old soviet military relied on the special military groups and today’s Russian will fight. Any force who believes in what they fight for ultimately wins.
If you remember the 1980s as being less stressful for those facing Russia then, than now, then you clearly don’t remember them accurately.
And then of course, you go back to your rambling about your internal fantasy stuff, trying to defend that incredibly bizarre claim of yours that the Russian military today is mightier than the Soviet.
You really don’t see how nuts that is as you create a long narrative inside your own head.
I remember it well and good and I was far less worried. I was of age where I could have been drafted should the need have arisen. I was far less worried about it spite of the strength of the Warsaw Pact. Having thousands of nuclear bombs on both sides was a effective deterrence from serious aggression being carried out by any of the major players.This is no fantasy and the enemies of today can be far more insidious as mistrust runs high. It is only nuts to you who does not understand what is going on. You are thinking inside the box on what you see and read. You don’t deal with it bub. You are out to pasture. Be content to live in the past but you will suffer greatly when the future comes and bites you in the posterior and it will.
I don’t even know what you are talking about, there was no draft in the 80s and there wouldn’t have been time for you to deploy to Europe if you had been drafted, as it was, we predicted 25% losses of our reinforcements that would have been flooding in to join our 440,000 American men we already had there, and NATO had another 5 million active, against what you call weaker than the 244,000 to 380,000 of the current Russian army that is stuck back in Russia now.
I guess you were never in the military as your posts and ideas seem to indicate, you really don’t know what it was like or what we were facing, or the level of fear and tension among the people facing Russia then versus now, you have some dreamy little packages of fantasies about then, and about now.
The homo-loving NYT sissies are pissed at Russia.
I come from a military family and know what you were facing. It was scary. Yes there was registration for the draft when Jimmy Carter was president and all of us had to register for it when we turned 18. This came about because of the Iranian hostage crisis and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. There was plenty of fear and tension among my generation. I did not fear it because I had a real good understanding of what the military capabilities of both the East and West were. I also knew about our strategic capabilities. We had an abundance of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons which is the reason that war scenario never happened. We still do.
If you can’t remember this then you sure do not understand the changes that have occurred in military science for the last 30 years. I have watched this evolve carefully and have seen these weapons and delivery platforms advance. What we have today though less still has staggering lethality and range. It is available in enough quantities to cause global destruction of civilization. The growth of terrorism is a much bigger problem than it was during the Cold War and combining this with national tensions we have a greater capacity for catastrophe because many of the terrorists are ideologically driven and are not rational.
I have to go eat now and catch up with my family.
One still has to register for the draft.
Evidently you have never known much about it and still don’t.
One reason that you sound so young is that you seem to think that someone who has a strong interest and knowledge in the Cold ware and the balance of power and military matters and that actually was a part of it, suddenly stopped paying attention to it when he left the military.
Another reason is how you ignore facts and the big picture, and realities, and prefer little bits and pieces of articles about a new weapon system, or an upgrade, or about some complaints within NATO, or something negative about the American military that titillate your imagination and that you blow up into huge narratives, that is how you come up with the Russian Army being more powerful today than when it was the vast Soviet Army aimed at Western Europe, and your absurd claims that NATO countries are pulling out and seeking alliance with this all powerful Russian military that amounts to about 766,000 people and with little capability to do much, and your ideas about Poland being so powerful that it is going off on it’s own, and the world being more dangerous right now than in the mid 1980s.
I have qualifications and recognition in my field that will stun you. You have not proven in any shape or form that you really do not know much about what has happened military science wise when you could not identify the Onyx Yakhont which is a major development. Tell me what the Frog is and what was it used for. I bet you cannot do that without Google.
You cannot defend yourself except by making personal attacks. When ever anyone does that they have lost the debate and you have. You try to frame things in your mindset to have an imagined feeling of superiority because you have really lost it. Do you have anything better to do than post all day on Free Republic. I bet not. You repeat yourself ad-nauseum and you don’t jack you obsolescent old fool.
I said Poland was independent enough for themselves to go make other alliances. You distort things too and I am not surprised. I know exactly what kind of person you are.
You already stun me, and there you go again mentioning a weapons system just like I said you do as though it explains your nonsense, you have offered no explanation for your bizarre utterings for instance that NATO is dissolving and NATO nations are considering aligning with Russia, you cannot challenge to to what you learned in post 28, no explanation of why the Russian army today is more powerful than the Soviet Army of the 1980s, no explanation of your claim that Poland has become so powerful that it is not interested in the US and is breaking off on their, you just keep spewing silly stuff with no explanation, stuff that just isn’t even real.
“”These charges against Obama are true and most of those nations will either go it alone or with new alliances among themselves within NATO or even Russia as it suits them pragmatically. Obama’s presidency has badly fragmented the West and has harmed NATO which nobody really wants to admit. Poland can care less about the US and is independent and strong enough to form their own alliances.””
What nonsense, NATO is pulling together, and Poland is asking us to set up bases farther East, Poland is deeply committed to NATO and the U.S., and they are not strong enough to break off.
Please explain your flat out bizarre and fantastical claim that the Russian army today is more powerful than when it was the Soviet army, but do it with some proof, not with your useless descriptions of your own personal fantasies.
Do you know what Ops Research, Fire Power/Lethality and Threat Assessments are? Do you know specifically what advances have been made in science that have effected weapons technologies? For one example in explosives to make it easy.
Technology effectiveness and readiness are crucial to make intelligent answers. Top level numbers like you posted on here in an earlier post are not reliable quantifiers. If you cannot answer these questions intelligently and in some depth then I know you don’t know jack about quantifying military strength by modern methods of analysis which is the standard practice to make as accurate as possible a statistically proven measure of performance. Then I will not answer you or any post you make. I will coldly ignore you.
It doesn’t look good for you if cannot identify what a Frog is. A very popular piece of Cold War hardware that nearly any Cold War grunt should know and ID easily. Any person who is credible in military strength assessments should be able to talk about these things in basic terms.
...”It really doesn’t matter what the US intends in Europe”....
Yes I agree...but it does matter to Obama...and we saw that evidenced as Obama had to ‘strong arm’ some of the European countries who were resisting regarding sanctions....he payed plenty to get them on board. And now he wants them going along with Syria....there’s division in the UK regarding doing so...they have no problem going against ISIS in Iraq...but Syria?.....not so much.
Please, lay off the BS and post some sources for your bizarre claims and why post 28 isn’t accurate.
You have offered no explanation for your bizarre utterings for instance that NATO is dissolving and NATO nations are considering aligning with Russia, you cannot challenge to to what you learned in post 28, no explanation of why the Russian army today is more powerful than the Soviet Army of the 1980s, no explanation of your claim that Poland has become so powerful that it is not interested in the US and is breaking off on their, you just keep spewing silly stuff with no explanation, stuff that just isn’t even real.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.