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 ...
Great charts. And the other thing that many fearmongers may not realize is that Putin’s army today is best at fighting weak countries close to Russia. He could win a tactical battle but not a long war. He’s stupid, but he’s not that stupid. Rename the country Putinstan, enrich himself and his cronies, and forget the dreams of empire.
Time to go for the kill. Pass crippling sanctions on Russia and its CIS allies, everything except humanitarian supplies. Cut off all travel to Russia. Tell Europe to not buy Russian energy or goods. Export to Europe the energy they need. Subsidize fracking if necessary, and encourage the Saudis to flood the market even more. Put pressure on the Chinese to cut off Russia and behave themselves. Remove Assad from Syria and attack Iran’s nuclear reactors.
The first thing Congress should do in January is to pass a bill declaring Russia (and its CIS allies) a terrorist state, with sanctions that reflect that status.
If you look at financial news you see Putin’s Russia is falling over right now. As one clever commentator jokingly said - some say the west plays checkers and Putin plays chess, but nowadays Putin has to beg money so he could buy his chess set.
“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.”
My point was that all Russia has to do is stir it up in the middle east and his hands are more or less clean. Then walla, the price of oil goes up. He’s an ally of the Iranians and the Iranians and the Saudis already hate each other.
“Yes, I’ve thought of that. But Iran is in deep trouble too with the collapse of oil prices.”
That gives them even more motive to play footsie with the Russians and wound the Saudis. Take out their oil fields is all that it would take, but I’m sure Iran would also like to take out the royal family as well.
Sub rosa or not, Iran is probably aware of it. IMHO Israel is the only player that can damage Iran. America would probably be on the side of Iran, but we are too weak to do anything unless it went nuclear. And NATO is just a bunch of sissy’s... Wonder where India and Pakistan would come in. Those two are key because of their nuclear capability.
I personally don’t give a crap how these people kill each other as long as Israel stays safe... Unless of course it turned into a WW3 situation (and it could, IMHO).
1. The US economy will go into orbit. Big cars and trucks will come back and Detroit will regain dominance in that market. More people will have more money to spend on vacations. The peripheral industries will come back, too.
2. That level of production costs will totally crush the OPEC cartel and also the Russians.
With cheaper energy and lower taxes and less regulation (January 2016), we can put to rights what this administration has done during it's evil regime.
Do you suppose missile launches from submarines onto the Saudi oil fields might coincidentally help Russia get more money for its oil?
Yes, it started with Imperial Japan in the 1930's setting up a puppet state in Manchuria and then invading China. The Rape of Nanking in 1937 killed 300,000 people.
In response to the invasion of China, FDR started to impose economic sanctions against Japan in 1938. They had little effect in stopping Japanese aggression. In 1940 the Japanese signed the tripartite agreement with Germany and Italy to form the Axis powers.
Responding to continuing Japanese aggression in China, the U.S. froze Japanese assets in the U.S. on 26 July 1941 and on 1 August established an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan. The oil embargo was an especially strong response because oil was Japan's most crucial import, and more than 80 percent of Japan's oil at the time came from the United States.
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.
Yes, these are dangerous times, but we don't need a Neville Chamberlain approach that just ignores or rewards aggression. The Russians seized Crimea and is now embarking on aggression in Eastern Ukraine. The Russians started this and need to pay a price, especially that piss-ant Putin.
My point was that all Russia has to do is stir it up in the middle east and his hands are more or less clean. Then walla, the price of oil goes up. He’s an ally of the Iranians and the Iranians and the Saudis already hate each other.
Impossible. If that happens the Gulf arabs with western support will take out Assad and put that pipeline to Europe in. With his best customers gone, Putin will be cleaning gas station toilets for his Chinese masters.
“No by Saudi “led” OPEC as an ‘f’u because of the Syrian umbrella that Russia provides.”
Exactly, and the Saudis side with the Isis/Syrian rebel crowd as long as they keep it out of the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia causes most of the misery in the world when you get right down to the root. They need their oilfields seized and mecca liberated and made into an open city, with Christian churches, bars, that grand mosque open for tourists,,,everything.
If I were Putin, I would find ways to discretely encourage ISIS to start hitting inside the Kingdom, their fields are insanely vulnerable. And an insurgency in the Kingdom would drive the price of oil sky high.
Russia isn’t prepared for war, nor capable to conduct large scale invasions and fight against a real enemy, and they can’t afford to lose their military in a useless gesture against the United States and the 27 other NATO countries.
See post 20, this is Russia, not the old Soviet empire.
Exactly. If you kicked in the door to Russia, the whole rotten house would collapse. I bet the entire NATO operation would only take 4 to 4 months.
I agree. Now, is the time for bold strokes to restore a normal market for oil unhindered by cartels and crackpot dictatorships like Putin’s.
Things have mellowed since a couple of months ago, but for a while we had the pro Russia guys here pushing the idea that Russia was a modernized Soviet Union made up of the world’s best trained, best equipped soldiers, unbeatable on the battle field, even Putin was saying how he could be in Western capitols in a week and so on.
Those were some bizarre threads, I guess they learned that the Russian Army may actually be as small as 240,000 by some estimates, and that they still depend largely on poorly trained, poorly equipped 1 year draftees, and with little capability to resupply them once they started moving in their vulnerable trucks and tanks.
“”Consider the situation today. East Germany no longer exists, while Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and every one of Russia’s other erstwhile Warsaw Pact partners are now members of NATO. So are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which in 1989 were parts of the Soviet Union itself. In 1989, the Red Army had almost a half-million troops and 27 maneuver divisions (plus enormous quantities of artillery and other units) on the territory of its three main allies. Today, it has a total of seven divisions in its entire Western Military District, all of which are based on its own territory. Indeed, the entire Russian army today boasts about 25 divisions, fewer than it had forward deployed in its Eastern European allies during the waning days of the Cold War.
Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States. And this raw count doesn’t take into account the general deterioration of Russian forces since 1991, a quarter-century that saw little equipment modernization. By the late 1980s, NATO already enjoyed a significant qualitative advantage over the Warsaw Pact, and that edge has only increased since then.””
I guess that quote didn’t ring a bell for you. So ill help you.
‘we have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.’
Adolph Hitler, just before operation Barbarossa. As fun as the eastern front was, American soldiers have no place there.
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