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 ...
You arm chair generals forget what they did to that little corporal from Austria. Numbers of this and that and the other thing mean nothing in the real sense. They are tough people and will be disrespected at our own peril. I do not feel any pride at our own illegal government.
You yourself are a sleeper Russkie troll, probably recruited by the Lubyanka to troll on FR since you could speak English and immigrated to the west at some point. As you well know, the Russkie mindset is somewhere between the Goblin and the Orc. Most are low IQ or deranged from drugs and alcohol abuse and are dependent on government subsidies for their existence:
"The population at large is, statistically speaking, not very bright. Many are deranged from overuse of alcohol or drugs. A big number are simply aging elderly rooted in USSR-centric mindset who never adjusted to the modern world. Most of them do not “work” in the sense we understand full-time employment here: they occupy placeholder positions sponsored by the government. Being dependent their whole life on government help, they are psychologically unable even to think government can do something wrong."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3189416/posts
They are also by and large predatory and corrupt. Criminality is normal in Russia amongst every social class. They only seem "tough" because they are used to living as slaves in very pitiful conditions. To this day, in their little apartment complexes, they're still crapping in hallways or beneath stairwells. They make the filth of India look normal by comparison. If these people ever had a culture or any authentic pride (these losers beating their chest and frothing at the mouth for Vladimir Putin is not "pride" in the normal sense), it was destroyed after five generations of Communism. Even during WWII, these "tough" Russians resorted to cannibalism, chewing on the bones of human beings like rabid dogs.
“You yourself are a sleeper Russkie troll”
Your trollish fantasy hatred/Russian Persecution Complex is really funny. I do suggest you see a psychologist.
Do it for the children, please.
Russia is actually in better position right now, especially since Obama is our leader and he wouldn't lift a finger to assist Europe.
“Until we begin to address, as a nation, why the manufacturing jobs left America in the first place...”
... The US became less competitive (more expensive) than the other options. Also, the total number of manufacturing jobs globally has been declining due to automation.
The US became more expensive due to several reasons, including taxes, regulations and legal costs. Those factors are controllable by Government - The US raised them while competitor countries lowered them.
Other factors are important, skills of workers, labor rates, infrastructure, shipping costs, etc. US labor costs are very high by global standards, but skill levels are also very high, so we are more competitive for some types of manufacturing, than we are for for stitching t-shirts or gluing together sneakers.
Energy is big cost in many manufacturing processes (e.g. cement, steel, etc.).
Interestingly, the fracking and horizontal drilling in the US has made the US relatively more attractive for manufacturing, and new manufacturing investment has started rising in the US over the last few years along with hydrocarbon production - especially for things which are energy intensive and/or labor non-intensive. Many commodities are made directly from oil and gas as their feedstock - plastics, fertilizers, fabrics, etc.
Also of note, is that China is no longer a truly low cost producer - wages have doubled and tripled. The flow of new manufacturing investment began shifting elsewhere over ten years ago, and now there is essentially no growth in new manufacturing investment there. Vietnam, Ethiopia, you name it, have eaten China’s lunch on new low skill manufacturing. The low skill jobs are moving from China, and they have been much less effective at capturing higher skill manufacturing.
If the US were to cut corporate tax rates and enact favorable regulation, we could see a surge in domestic manufacturing - we are well positioned for it. The money would be great, but jobs would grow more slowly than profits and tax revenues, because productivity due to automation is an accelerating trend in manufacturing.
That said, the support Ukraine IS getting is rather interesting:
Speaking of brains I noticed on videos from war zone that Ukraine has now high technology weapon. Small drones that correct fire and make work of artillery more precise I saw pretty much similar videos on youtube from war in Iraq and Afganistan. Mostly Apache helicopters shooting rockets from 8 kms distance. In Ukraine no helicopters because Russian anti-aircraft everywhere, but there is very small drones, quadrocopters, lot of them with high resolution cameras on board transmitting the picture to Ukraine artillery.
6 month ago no one here knew what is quadrocopters, there was no communicating system for correcting fires. No night vision devices and similar high tech toys. Now Ukraine has more and more of that stuff. Obviously our army being supplied with this by unofficial channels.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/maydan/updatedecember11.html
Putin has little time left to stop the utter collapse of the Russian economy. Nations just don’t recover from what is happening to Russia right now in anything short of decades.
Even if Putin pulls back, nobody ...NOBODY will be investing in Russia in any way shape or form under the current regime and even with Putin and his cronies gone it will be a long time till Russia will be welcome back into world of foreign investment. The Chinese will take advantage of Russia and the Russians will get the short and pointy end of that stick.
Some of us were predicting exactly what is happening now, months ago and you dismissed our economic logic then and you still don’t get it, Russia is in economic ruin. They have lost.
Putin could go to war that is certainly a possibility but he can’t win there either just get millions killed.
Watch as Europe gets new reliable natural gas supplies, there will be some pain there but they know they can’t depend on Russia for anything other than aggression and insane pride.
You know Putin almost makes Obama look smart by comparison.
Thanks! good to know.
Currency trading - your at-home casino.
I have heard they are building these on their own. Might be a cover story, but on the other hand I have seen software development in both highly bureaucratic organizations and free situations and can tell that a couple of boy geniuses whipping together a software that is almost as good as what military paid many millions for is very plausible. Then you will just need a toy chopper and fit it with an iPhone running your custom software.
Could be. Ukraine is pretty far along, in some areas of tech. They just have not put it into their own military in a widespread way, in the past.
I'm sure you're correct, but that would have been but a trickle of a start. As with most things that have truly earth shaking repercussions, it takes many years, even generations for the momentum to build and careful nurturing by the forces that wish it to move in manipulating the press and maneuvering around potential obstacles before they can even appear and pose a threat.
For example, none of these things could have taken place from this issue to glo-BULL warming to "peak oil" to the entire environmental movement to abortion without the minds of our children being transformed and molded to the liberal doctrines. This was plainly accomplished by the infiltration of liberals into all levels of American education beginning in the 1950s.
It's kind of like the growth of Islam. Spread initially by Jihad they would swarm with their armies across the face of Africa and invade. There, motivated by the sword, those adults who originally worshiped in polytheistic fashion found it quite acceptable to switch to a monotheistic dynamic in order to stay alive.
It wasn't until they began to raise the children in that form that it really became embedded and permanent. As the generations passed it got worse.
Wow a whole 7 points ... after raising interest rates 17%, that is terrible considering how far the ruble has dropped. Let’s revisit this next week and see where Ruble is and what other happenings are happening to the Russian economy.
Bottom line, Russia will be getting no foreign investing for a long long long long time, nobody trusts them and that factor all on it’s own is their economic ruin....then add the other factors like oil prices, interest on their debt, near zero exports, to mention but the top few nails in the Russian coffin.
Link of interest:
I once heard that Standard Oil was selling to Japan prior to Pearl Harbor. Or something like that. Did it fall under embargo? Not saying anything political, just curious.
Perhaps somebody here has more accurate info. Thanks in advance.
I think you just answered my previous question on an oil embargo back then.
I do not like what Putin represents but I can’t help wishing we had an American statesman of his caliber. I worry what will happen if we push him (and Russia) too deeply into a corner. As John Ross wrote in his masterpiece, Unintended Consequences; “Stripping a motivated people of their dignity and rubbing their noses in it is a very bad idea.” We did that with both Germany and Japan and look what happened.
“Stripping a motivated people of their dignity and rubbing their noses in it is a very bad idea.” Hmmm, sounds like what Putin is doing to Ukraine and his own people. Is that what you meant?
No. Prior to WWII we - through the treaty of Versailles - told Germany to divest themselves of any industry that could make weapons. We also told Japan to get out of China. We cut Japan off from their supply of oil for not doing our bidding and Germany descended into a terrible depression. Both countries resorted to the fall-back tactic of rejuvenating their economies by going to war.
Now we’re telling Russia to get out of the Ukraine. We’re driving the price of oil down to reinforce our demand. Their economy is suffering which means the Russian people are suffering (you can bet that Putin still eats well!) If their economy doesn’t rebound soon they may also resort to war. According to recent data, our nuclear stockpile is at about 15% of what it used to be. Is theirs? Where we used to maintain an uneasy “peace” through the fear of mutual destruction, that may no longer be the case. In the event of a full-scale nuclear war WE may end up as the glass parking lot.
None of this is rocket surgery. It’s just a mixture of common sense and history. Is it unreasonable to expect our legislators to read and understand ‘cause and effect’ when they make decisions that affect us all? Evidently.
To make a further point, let me ask a question: Where do WE get the authority to tell ANY country how to conduct their business? Protection of U.S. citizens residing in a politically unstable situation MIGHT warrant our intervention but even that is “iffy.” As I remember, that was the same ploy Hitler used to start the festivities in Europe.
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.