Posted on 08/22/2008 5:44:17 PM PDT by Kaslin
The Georgia Invasion: In contrast with the West's otherwise tepid response to Moscow's new nationalism, one group has taken a tough stance — investors, who are leading the march out of Russia's markets.
Until Russia's move into Georgia, there seemingly had been only massive capital inflows, thanks mainly to the rising price of oil, which makes up 20% of Russia's gross domestic product.
Now, it seems, investors are fed up with the rampant militaristic nationalism, red tape, corruption and anti-investor sentiment in Vladimir Putin's Russia. Some have decided to head for the door and take their money with them.
Last week's decline was the largest since Russia's 1998 currency crisis, which led to a collapse of the ruble and rampant triple-digit inflation. So far this time, there's no major visible impact on Russia's economy. But if the flow of money leaving Russia turns into a flood, it could send Russia's markets into a tailspin, creating massive problems for Prime Minister Putin and his handpicked president, Dmitri Medvedev.
No doubt, foreign investors weren't cheered by another signal sent by Russia's regime last week. Without comment, Russian authorities decided to keep oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose biggest crime seems to be he became Putin's political foe, in prison — despite his being eligible for release.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Why do they always wait until the Kremlin has picked their pockets clean?
Ask BP how great its been doing business with Russia.
This is the part of capitalism that Putin never learned in the KGB.
I am reading a biography on JFK (President Kennedy: A Profile of Power) and the author, Richard Reeves, detailed how Kennedy, who had allegedly graduated from the London School of Economics, was overwhelmed by Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961 as he was completely unfamiliar with communist theory.
This would appear to be a mirror image. Putin is completely unfamiliar with capitalist theory.
putin’s evil.
as the article points out, he’s in for a surprise when his economy doesn’t keep pace with the u.s., china’s euro’s, india’s
which are hi-tech based.
gorby said that “we misunderstood the value of human capital.”
If the kleptocrats that run Russia can’t buy their next monthly Bentley due to a downturn, Putin is in trouble.
“Investors Looking To Leave Russia?”
Just DO it!
With the coming oil glut, and investors storming the exits, things are about to get pretty rocky for old Pooty-Poot.
Always a bad sign. Will those with the wisdom to keep their money in Russia once Putin started nationalizing companies, closing newspapers and killing opponents now switch their fund directions to Venezuela??
Crying a river of tears in America...
Kennedy- so unfamiliar with communist theory?...the same Kennedy who first sent troops into Vietnam to counter the communist insurgency?..who started to back an effort to topple a Communist leader in Cuba?...whose brother Bobby, the AG went after the communist backed unions ?...
And Richard Reeves wrote this?...hard to believe...easier to believe that Kennedy did not want to stir up the democratic left in this country so as not to upset his voting base so early in his Presidency...Remember Kennedy eventually made Kruschev reverse the boats that were carrying nuclear missiles to Cuba ...
But just as Kennedy was playing the politician’s part- not the misunderstanding President’s part, so too is Putin playing the chess game of RealPolitik, sly old KGB apparatchik that he still is...He is a thief,a murderer and an overall thug.
Anybody that bought into the "Russian Investment Bonanza" deserves what the hell they get! Maybe next they will buy "Santa Claus Futures"???
What companies and what investors? Any we can get in touch with to give them some advice,leave the new Soviet Union.
What companies and what investors? Any we can get in touch with to give them some advice,leave the new Soviet Union.
“With the coming oil glut, and investors storming the exits, things are about to get pretty rocky for old Pooty-Poot.”
Yup, the AlGoreans and Putinites have been counting on the inelasticity of oil demand and the inability of people to adapt through substitution and exploration for new resources. What happens when inventive free people sidestep hamfisted oligarchs like Putin?
Richard Reeves wrote an excellent book and he details how Kennedy was clobbered by Krushchev. In Vienna in 1961, yes he was unfamiliar with communist theory.
He came into office, wanting to do something and got off into the Bay of Pigs. Even when Dean Rusk told him he was incredulous that Kennedy wanted to send 1500 Cubans to face 20000 Castro troops, Kennedy didn’t bat an eye. When William Fulbright brought reporting in that contradicted the reports from the CIA, Kennedy was disturbed but he went ahead with it anyway.
Afterwards, he talked to Eisenhower who clobbered him on the bad decisions made. Yet Kennedy blamed Eisenhower (probably because an aide mentioned him and that was the magic voter button).
Subsequently, he pulled out of Laos. Hating defeat, he made the point that he’d had two defeats in the first year of his Presidency, he could not afford a third.
Then Kennedy was confronted by the Berlin crisis. Khruschev was sealing off West Berlin to stop the educated from fleeing East Germany. Kennedy was at a loss of what to do. When the tanks were in Berlin, there was a banner with a message to Kennedy. “Kennedy: words don’t stop tanks”. Kennedy did send in the tanks and that was the resolution of the crisis.
So in this period of two failures, Kennedy reviewed VietNam and decided this would be his victory.
He was not someone who understood theory or the big picture all that well. He was into details and control.
The author substantiates all this, methodically.
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