Ukrainian best-wishes card for the ruble - "May you grow to be a 100!" 
Posted on 12/15/2014 11:16:32 AM PST by elhombrelibre
The Russian ruble tumbled 9.5 percent Monday to new record lows as falling crude prices pulled the rug out from under the currency of the oil exporting nation, with analysts saying the Kremlin needs to act to stop the free fall.
The plunge in the ruble came as the central bank warned the low oil price could trigger a contraction of nearly 5 percent next year and tensions surged with the United States over Ukraine.
The ruble broke through the level of 64 to the dollar and 78 to the euro for the first time even though the Bank of Russia apparently intervened Monday and has already spent about $6 billion so far this month to slow the currency's slide.
Russian news agencies said the ruble briefly jumped from 61 back to 60 on the dollar at around 1300 GMT, possibly due to the latest central bank intervention, but it did not stop a further slump.
Having lost over 49 percent of its value against the dollar this year, the ruble's slide is now worse than the 48 percent of the hryvnia in Ukraine, which is fighting a war and is on the brink of bankruptcy.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.news.yahoo.com ...
I think the trick is to NOT bring her over to the US.
I would think that US military retiring after 20-30 years might do well to become an expat in Eastern Europe. His US-dollar retirement pay would allow him to get a decent apartment, and a cute "housekeeper" and live rather well.
Great. Russian elites can ski at Putin’s 50 Billion Dollar boondoggle that made his construction cronies rich. Good to see you’ve a soft spot for the Putinista elites in Putinstan.
Comrade, they raised the ski prices because the ruble devalued. Almost exactly the same amount. I’m sure you’ll be back to crow again when they raise then again.
BTW, do you know what a “convetional unit” is? Time to brush up if you don’t.
Comrade Mac truck thinks its good that rich Russians can ski for nearly nothing and buy up more of the Russian economy. He’s as smart about economics as Putin and in love with him!
Isn’t it shocking that a ski resort would be booked up on New Years eve? Russian New Year is a famous weeks long holiday bender.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/15/russia-new-year-drinking-binge
Well, it’s also cheap for the cronies of Putin, too.
Putin’s returned them to their roots, a nation of drunks ruled by a small clique of thugs.
Careful now, you might hurt some people’s feelings with that kind of talk.
Sochi's largest ski resort, Rosa Khutor, has hiked the price of holiday ski passes by more than 40 percent as the falling ruble brings an unexpected deluge of Russian skiers unwilling to pay European prices.
You suggested it was northern Europeans hitting the Sochi slopes. The article does not confirm this as you can see from the quote above.
It's being driven by Russian nationals. Unless you consider them to be northern Europeans. The Russians can no longer afford to travel, apparently, so they're stuck going to Sochi.
it’s the Russian people who take the beating.
Its beginning to feel like Russia around here!
[Serious question]
So what will Putin do to respond to this? His economic options must be getting tight.
How could he hit back at the US? Would he help Iran in getting the bomb? Would he pick a fight in Ukraine to rally his folks and drive up the price of oil due to “war.” Will he cut off gas to Germany? Will he establish “sanctions” against the US? Dump US treasuries?
I cannot believe he will go much longer without doing something. I simply cannot figure out is options beyond the obvious bad ones.
Does not help that PutyPut is a one trick economic pony.
When my youngest son moved to Texas after graduating college, he has been heavily recruited by oil companies but they are boom and bust operations. I told him if he gets in on the very high end, but lives like a pauper to save up for the dead end, he’d be okay. Looks like he was wise to “think about it for a bit.” It’s already in the bust phase!
While he supposedly looking for a real job, he’s currently “suffering” through coaching a big high school lax team. They’ve moved up to division one and doubled the team size, and with his connections across the country to lax coaches, he’s gotten some kids into good colleges. So a lot of parents want their kids playing lax with him. He does not make a bunch of money, but he’s in lax heaven.
He’s talking about starting up some lax summer programs for high school and under kids (younger brothers and their friends want to play so he organized grades 4-8 lax teams this year) and that is where the money is.
Up until he arrived, football was the only game in town. Now Lacrosse is catching on big time. There is football and then there is armed football in a Northeastern, gentlemanly, sort of way. You are treated like absolute dirt if you INTENTIONALLY injure a player. My son will kick you off the team in the most humiliating way possible a nanosecond. He’s booted two hot-headed, abet good players and now everyone knows that Lax is not football and you DO NOT want to get the coach mad at you. It’s more dangerous so you need to exercise absolute self control.
I live in a big Lax town. It is a great sport. I am glad to see it starting to grow.
I still like baseball, but the speed of the sport is just amazing. I am a sports photographer and I have done some MLL games—which is like heaven to someone who enjoys the game.
Tell him to do what he loves for as long as he can. Even a couple of years won’t kill his chances for an alternative career—and there are plenty of connections to be made as a coach.
Good for him. Tell him to have fun.
Ukrainian best-wishes card for the ruble - "May you grow to be a 100!"
Good for him. Tell him to have fun.
Both my sons played Lax through college and I have fantastic professional, blown up pictures of them shooting goals. Photographers seem to like to take pictures of the of the intense faces and body contortions involved in shooting goals. It was a lot of fun for them. A lot of work for me and dad.
My husband has only been to one of his team’s games and he was swarmed by parents bragging on him for raising up such a good son. Our son laughed at him, knowing he was overwhelmed and was not prepared. Dad just kept saying, “it’s him, not me.” He’s the opposite of an attention whore, if you know what I mean. The strong, silent type. I doubt he’ll return.
The only people who spend as much time obsessing over Russia’s President as you do are gay rights fairies like Jamie Kirchick.
Just saying...
I don't really care who's driving it, the fact of the matter is the ski resorts in Sochi are fully booked and they're raising their prices. That's a far cry from the bilge about declining tourism some idiot up thread posted.
If you want to quibble about how many Austrians are standing in line for the ski lift at Rosa Khutor this weekend...be my guest.
And the only other people who obsess over Putin’s defense and fags are in the Westboro Church. Just sayin’...
Most likely he’ll crack down on dissidents. That’s about all a guy like him knows, really.
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