Especially ones with nukes.
Posted on 12/22/2014 4:39:46 AM PST by elhombrelibre
Gallows humour is back in Moscow. Asked what he would do to stop the rouble spiralling out of control, the former governor of Russia’s central bank replied: “I would pick up a pistol and shoot myself.”
This was the week when the country’s long-festering crisis turned virulent. A last-ditch attempt to defend the exchange rate by raising interest rates to 17pc failed within hours, yet the shock is surely enough to set off a chain of corporate failures and push banks over the edge.
Traders in the City watched open-mouthed as the dam broke on Black Tuesday. The event exposed the awful reality that the Kremlin does not have the infinite foreign reserves that many had supposed. “What is happening is a nightmare that we could not even have imagined a year ago,” says the central bank’s deputy chief, Sergei Shvetsov.
The currency has since stabilised at 60 to the dollar. But it has lost half its value in a year. Russia’s $2.1 trillion (£1.3 trillion) economy has shrunk to $1.1 trillion, half the GDP of California.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
It was vintage Putin, a three-hour tirade, with a strong hint that the oil price crash is due to a plot by the US and Saudi Arabia to cripple Russia. It contained a warning to his enemies at home that there is no safe line between opposition and “Fifth Columnists”."
Our president is not that smart.
Asked what he would do to stop the rouble spiralling out of control, the former governor of Russia's central bank replied: "I would pick up a pistol and shoot myself." ...The currency has since stabilised at 60 to the dollar. But it has lost half its value in a year. Russia's $2.1 trillion (£1.3 trillion) economy has shrunk to $1.1 trillion, half the GDP of California.There's not an end in sight for the oil price crash, we're probably looking at 12 to 18 months before it starts to recover (figure on it arriving in the spring/summer of 2016, leading to an economic slowdown to benefit the Democrats in the election; that suggest that Ted Cruz, a Texan, will be the Republican nominee), and Putin's dream of a neosoviet empire will have plenty of time to crumble. Interestingly enough, Zero's (illegal) re-establishment of relations with the (illegal) regime in Cuba was a cheap shot on Putin's influence in this hemisphere. The entire Castro family will be dead soon enough, and Venezuela's similarly hitting the skids, bigtime. We won't have to fire a shot.
Putin: “I know! Let’s raise taxes!”
Fall guy Dmitry Medvedev: “This increase will be temporary, y’know, like life is temporary.”
TASS: Economy - Russia’s government to impose grain export duties
http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/768430
China Offers Russia Help With Currency Swap Suggestion [pwned!]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-22/china-offers-russia-help-with-suggestion-of-wider-currency-swap.html
It’s good to see that Ambrose is still going strong. He is a good friend of the USA.
Lite reading and amusing. Wonder who all is invested in Russia?
I don’t think anyone, especially from the US or Russian banking or political sector understood the understated Russian situation that has gone on for two decades.
Go and review the whole Cyprus banking failure and ask why so many Russian billionaires came into Cyprus and did their investing into Europe via this ‘gimmick’. They simply didn’t trust the Russian banks, or the economy. They took their profits and moved them into Euro or dollars. The guys who stayed around and played with the Russian economy....keeping their cash there....they’ve lost big-time.
Russia is unable to sustain itself. I seriously doubt that Putin is still around in a year...considering the lack of a recovery phase.
The Russian economic meltdown demonstrates the vulnerability of export driven economies to market pricing of the products they export.
The US could bring the Chinese economy to its knees by slapping a 30% tariff on imports. China would then have to choose between increasing its export subsidies (despite the claims of free traders China does subsidize exporters and capital employed building factories producing exports), devalue its currency, or absorb a dramatic drop in demand as new US factories come on line. Any of these actions would divert resources from its military buildup as well as create social unrest.
The time to deal with China is now, before it develops superior military capability and while there is some remaining US industry on which to build. Continuing on our current path will lead to economic collapse, military defeat, and third world status.
Especially ones with nukes.
Funny thing is that a couple years ago there were a number of Russian stocks that were very promising, but it seems having an idiot in charge of the country is super bad for business...
-——Russia is unable to sustain itself———
That is the essence of the problem, succinctly stated truth.
Russia never made it to the 21st century and possibly never will.
>>>Russia’s $2.1 trillion (£1.3 trillion) economy has shrunk to $1.1 trillion, half the GDP of California.
That is smaller than Mexico. Some people have been convinced that Russia is a great economic power and therefore must be appeased. It is pretty funny to take these sentences now and replace Russia with Mexico.
Seriously you think our president is doing anything but playing golf?
he’s an empty suit his underlings and handlers are calling the shots because he can’t or won’t.
To this day I believe Panetta gave the ok to take out Bin Laden not fauxbama
If Russia is in a tight spot, Obama will ride to the rescue.
“Our president is not that smart.”
True, but the Saudis are. Also, Obama has people around him smart enough to realize a good plan when someone like SA lay it in their lap. Every part of the plan is good for the US with the exception of the oil/energy companies. This is also good for Obama’s supporters(wacky liberals)who want to slow down US energy growth.
Notice I said slow down not stop. Fracking/horizontal drilling shale plays will continue in the US at a slower rate than before. What OPEC was really in fear of was its spread to shale plays all over the world. They can not stop the inevitable. They can only slow it down. As technology is mass produced, it always gets cheaper. China will be drilling its own shale plays. That is the market OPEC and Russia are really fighting over.
What, you doubt this? ;’) Not only that, but Russia’s economic power has led to the tipping point for the US dollar! Yeah, it’s gonna be dumped as a reserve currency any minute now, then the Chinese will pull the plug on US debt, and we’ll be begging bread in the street. :’D
Not just an idiot, a greed-head who will confiscate whatever becomes successful.
The Chinese are rats on a wheel — they have had to maintain the trade surplus with the US by buying US debt. If they stop, their own export-dominated economy collapses. The US did the same thing with Japan, except that Japan was also paying top dollar for real estate (Hawaiian golf courses, the Rockefeller Center, etc). China has to keep the yuan value from creeping up against the dollar. On one hand, the dollar will be boosted because the price of oil has dropped. OTOH lower oil prices benefits the yuan. OSAH, their energy costs will decline.
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