Posted on 10/06/2014 9:04:43 AM PDT by Alter Kaker
MOSCOW, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The value of the Russian ruble hit a historic low Monday when compared with U.S. and European currencies, the Russian Central Bank said. It took just over 40 rubles to buy one U.S. dollar, or just over 50 rubles to buy a euro, in Monday trading, the bank said.
The bank said last week it was struggling to keep Russian inflation in check because of U.S. and European sanctions on Russian energy companies. Sanctions were imposed earlier this year because of Russian policies in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Kremlin rebels are fighting for more authority.
Exports of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas account for nearly 70 of all Russian export revenues in 2013. The World Bank finds Russia's export-based economy leaves it vulnerable to geopolitical tensions.
Victoria Nuland, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said last week sanctions "can and will" be rolled back provided Russia respects Ukraine's sovereignty.
Nuland left Sunday for Kiev to discuss the status of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
A falling ruble won't lower the price of oil. Oil is priced in dollars and the price is the same (more or less) worldwide, regardless of the local currency.
Is Russia a net importer or a net exporter? That tells the tale. If they’re a net exporter this is actually beneficial to their economy.
Oh they have a huge trade surplus because exports are what their entire economy is based on. It isn't beneficial to their economy, it's necessary, because US and European sanctions are making Russian exports more expensive and debasing their currency is their only way of staying competitive.
Beneficial in the sense that a falling Ruble is helpful rather than harmful to their economy, then?
I believe it. The Soviets do not share our fear of nuclear war and mass murder. Their writings and military plans make it plain, and these plans, and the people who made them, did not go away just because the Soviets changed their name to the Russian Federation. It is only stupid Americans, comfortable in their riches, who do not understand the mentality of the totalitarian bloc.
The dollar will follow in it’s foot steps, just a matter of time.
The budget is in rubles and the exports are in dollars.
The exporters’ operational costs are in rubles too.
The lower the ruble rate the more is leftover income for the companies and taxable operations volume in rubles per same dollar sales which also eliminates the budget deficit for the government.
It also props national manufacturing and agriculture, getting a cost and price advantage over imports.
There are collateral damage of course, in form of inflation and the savers are getting screwed too.
Savers with accounts denominated in other currency actually get additional appreciation, so I’m not sure what you mean.
I mean the majority of people who aren’t in an exchange market.
“The Russkies have been preparing their people for nuclear war for awhile, not just physically, but mentally, with non-stop anti-American propaganda. Nuclear war may just be what the Russkies actually want.”
I do think the Russians have a very different world view, and their leaders have in the past been willing to sacrifice a large number of their own population if it would lead to greater ends. They do have the best civilian nuclear shelter program in the world, perhaps China as well, but there is no doubt we are still “Glavni Vrag” (the main enemy).
We on the other hand think the type of thinking is long gone in Russia today, and that could be a mistake on our part. Do we even have any fallout shelters left?
I think your opinion lacks perspective. The entire strategic arsenal on each side is no longer 25,000 nukes, but 1550 strategic weapons.
And keep in mind we tested close to 1000 weapons before the nuclear test ban treaty, as did the Soviets. The world didn’t end.
I didn’t know they were still using the ruble. I know the Germans lost use of the Krugerand gold piece, all in the name of one-world and the EU. I have a yen for a ruble.
Russia conducts far more trade with Europe than it does with the United States and the cheaper ruble will make its domestic products more competitive with the products it imports. This will drive domestic consumption and spur economic activity in Russia over the longer term. Sluggish economies in Europe which don't have this flexibility in their currency will only grow more stagnant as their exports to Russia become more expensive and Russian exports to Europe get cheaper.
They make decent ammunition. I wish more of it could be reloaded.
Yeah, the planet didn’t suffer a nuclear winter because we didn’t detonate thousands of nukes at the same time, these detonations were spaced out over the course of 15 to 20 years. It is my understanding that more than 30 detonations simultaneously (of a certain yield) will kick enough sediment into the atmosphere to cause a nuclear winter.
“I believe it. The Soviets do not share our fear of nuclear war and mass murder.”
No, they do share our fears, otherwise the Cold War would have gone hot. Several times, both during and after the Cold War, the Russian military took careful measures to confirm with American officials before launching at us. There were several instances where their radar misinterpreted something for American ICBMs, each time they got on the horn with Washington to ask what it was. That is not the action of a State hungry for nuclear annihilation.
The Russians understand that the nuclear situation is like a Mexican stand-off, the first to launch are the first to die.
The Russians are rational. Of course the price of nuclear war was too high to pursue their expansionist doctrine in the Cold War, but their military doctrine is quite different than ours; their strategy is that if they do have to fight a nuclear war they plan on doing their best to win it. We seem to think we don’t have to try to win, but just not let the enemy win. Subtle but significant.
So they take the subject arguably more seriously than we do, which is more defeatist, as is shown by our total abandonment of civil defense in a nuclear war, as well as our dismantlement of a national surface to air missile force in the 1970s when we took down the Nike Hercules system in the US. The Russians continue to modernize theirs.
And the whole concept of nuclear winter is as questionable as the global warming “theory”, having much agenda packed behind it from the anti-nuclear groups in the 1980s who were for unilateral disarmament. The Soviets played along with that free propaganda to their advantage, but they were claimed not to be believers in the end. Some volcanos probably put out more smoke and ash, but the Nuclear Winter idea is nothing that can be proven until tried, not that I want that, but what matters is what our potential adversaries think on the subject.
They have only the fear of losing. They do not fear starting the war and winning.
That is not the action of a State hungry for nuclear annihilation.
The USSR is a country that has killed some 60 million people, and is still today developing their chemical and biological weapons to kill people in mass numbers, even after we have long disarmed such weapons. They tested many of these weapons out on their own people to check their effectiveness. They are also modernizing their nuclear weapons, and have their fingers all over world-wide Islamic and Communist terrorism, as well as close friendships with such groups and regimes that preach mass genocide of our people (Iran). You are simply naive.
“They have only the fear of losing. They do not fear starting the war and winning.”
Yeah, because the Russian people are so enthusiastic about going to the Ukraine. The morale of the Russian people and military is severely low.
I’m aware of the Soviet atrocities and WMD programs, but Putin doesn’t have the strength to replicate even half of that. I’m also well aware that Putin supports the Islamists in Iran, but Putin is the foolish one. In just a few years, Muslims will make up half of the Russian Army conscripts. Putin has spent the last decade arming and training “his” Chechens, who will turn on him once they have they chance.
I’m no fan of imperialist Russia, but Putin is the face of a dying Russia, our really big issues will come whenever Russia becomes a Muslim majority country. THAT is when we will be in deep shite!
Considering that much of Russia is already an environmental wreck due to the Soviet era, it wouldn’t take much in the way of nukes to finish them off. You can dig a shelter as deep as you like, but its all for naught if you cant grow anything on the surface. I was going to mention super-volcanoes, the Lake Toba eruption reduced the Human population to less than 50,000. I’m not a scientist, but if it doesn’t take many nukes to produce the same amount of ash, then the planet is screwed. I think that the only people dumb enough to launch salvos of nukes are Islamists, and maybe the North Koreans.
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