Posted on 12/16/2014 4:41:16 AM PST by elhombrelibre
(Reuters) - The ruble plunged more than 10 percent for the second day on Tuesday and recorded its worst fall since the Russian financial crisis in 1998 as confidence in the central bank evaporated after an ineffectual overnight rate hike.
The rouble opened around 10 percent stronger against the dollar following the overnight 650-basis-point rate hike, but it reversed gains in early trade and fell to record lows, pushing losses this year against the dollar to over 50 percent.
At 0637 ET, the rouble was down over 11 percent against the dollar at 73.00 after dipping past 74 rubles per dollar for the first time. It was more than 15 percent weaker versus the euro at 92.99, dragged lower against both currencies by falling oil prices, increasing market panic and Western sanctions over Ukraine.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
"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...
wanna bet Obama takes credit for hurting the Russian economy
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.
No by Saudi “led” OPEC as an ‘f’u because of the Syrian umbrella that Russia provides.
I am not sure I know how this works. Congress voted 411-10 on a bill that allows sale of advanced weapons to Ukraine. Is this working now or does Obama need to sign it? I was happy to see the 411-10 vote, but some cynical people have said this can still be ruined and even that Democrats set this bill up to fail.
Depending on the Senate vote, that’s a veto proof bill so even if he doesn’t sign it, if the Congress can get 2/3rd of the members to vote for it, they can override his veto.
That sounds really stupid, who is to say that the Ukranian weapons won’t end up in Islamist hands? Or that they won’t fall into Russian hands?
So far Ukrainians have been really productive in killing Russians. Both regular and muslim kind.
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.
Yes, it’s awfully hard to modernize the military when all the available revenue is going to be needed to pay debt and meet spending for routine social spending. I’m very curious now who is paying the pensioners in Crimea, for example. Granted, the Ukranian currency is now worth more than Putin’s funny money. But it seems unlikely that Ukraine will pay that bill. After all, they’re now enjoying the benefits of Putinism.
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.
Russia does not have conventional military parity with its potential enemies. All of its former captive nations now are free. The Russians hate this, but it's true. So nations like Poland, Hungary, and the rest will not be able or willing to aid Russia.
NATO is weak, but not as weak as Putin thinks. If you look at how strong Japan was relative to the USA prior to Dec 7 1941, Japan was much stronger than Russia is compared to the rest of the world.
Putin's using surrogates, paid trolls, full spectrum information and disinformation, and goofball threats. We need to stay strong and realize that even Putin is not suicidal for a neo-Russian empire enough that he'll start WWIII. He can return to the family of nations very easily. And if Russia really wants him as their president for life and to rename the country Putinstan, they can. Just end his unprovoked and undeclared war on his neighbors and he'll have all of Russia for himself and his rich cronies.
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