"In any event, it's looking like the most powerful economic weapon we have against Russia may turn out to be all the oil flowing out of North Dakota and Texas."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/12/15/the_russian_ruble_is_in_freefall_thanks_north_dakota.html
I’m happy to see Putin in trouble. However, I don’t think he’ll be like Dylan Thomas’s father. He will not go gently into that good night. That’s what worries me...
Russia is an energy company masquerading as a country. A steep drop in energy prices should cause the ruble to fall greatly. Economics 101 stuff here.
Russian economy has been knocked out now. I am sure Obama will take credit, although I suspect he did very little.
I believe the important thing now is that west should not save Russia again just to let their imperialist asses start warmongering after a decade.
And the one play Putin can make to save Russia he won’t, get out of Ukraine including Crimea.
As the Russian economy tanks so does Russia’s planned military buildup.
Ali al-Naimi— “Why should we cut production.” Nov. ‘14
This is actually pretty troubling. Anybody remember the lead up to Pearl Harbor and the second world war?
For those of you that don’t, it was all about the money. Their economy was being squeezed. Russia could be very dangerous in a situation like this.
The bright spot is that it is OPEC (namely the Saudi’s) that are screwing with the price of oil to damage our production and that is hurting Russia more than so far it is hurting us.
Poking one’s finger in Russia’s eye may not be wise. Russia could very easily change the equation in their favor by sponsoring an attack by Iran on the Saudi’s.
Just saying... These are dangerous times.
Time to go for the kill. Pass crippling sanctions on Russia and its CIS allies, everything except humanitarian supplies. Cut off all travel to Russia. Tell Europe to not buy Russian energy or goods. Export to Europe the energy they need. Subsidize fracking if necessary, and encourage the Saudis to flood the market even more. Put pressure on the Chinese to cut off Russia and behave themselves. Remove Assad from Syria and attack Iran’s nuclear reactors.
1. The US economy will go into orbit. Big cars and trucks will come back and Detroit will regain dominance in that market. More people will have more money to spend on vacations. The peripheral industries will come back, too.
2. That level of production costs will totally crush the OPEC cartel and also the Russians.
With cheaper energy and lower taxes and less regulation (January 2016), we can put to rights what this administration has done during it's evil regime.