Posted on 12/16/2014 1:45:51 PM PST by elhombrelibre
Switzerland
Not nearly as much as what the US has lost...
Right. This nation is headed towards a reckoning that nobody will be able to fix..except Putin....
” I seriously doubt these Russian oligarchs would have their portfolio in rubles. They stashed their money in US $ or Euros long ago.”
No doubt they are diversified and have some overseas properties and investments, in case they ever need to bolt. For many years, rich Russians have been buying up high end art, which is stored in the West and Far East.
Part of the drop in the ruble is due to capital flight, as the rich Russians rebalance their investments, to increase their overseas and foreign currency holdings, and to launder funds before any new sanctions might come after them.
New business investment in Russia is going to plummet for a while, with a nose-diving economy, sky-rocketing interest rates and and all the political and legal uncertainty. It is going to be a dramatic swing, and will drive extreme actions. This week’s rise in Russian interest rates by an additional 6.5%, up to 17%, is probably not the last huge measure that they will have to take.
Huge swings like that, and the currency devaluing by half in one year, are going to drive the need for dramatic political action as well. It is a crisis in Russia much bigger than the financial crisis was here.
Oil prices are falling because the King of Saudi Arabia, who controls OPEC, wants them to fall in order to destroy the economy of Iran, the Saudis’ arch enemy.
The Saudis do not want Iran to produce nuclear weapons. The U.S. and Israel have claimed for years that they don’t want the Iranians to produce such weapons either, but they have done nothing to stop them. So Saudi Arabia is going it alone.
If Russia and other oil-producing countries are suffering collateral damage from the Saudi’s anti-Iran efforts, they can solve their problems by helping the Saudis. All Vladimir Putin would have to do to reverse the Russian economy’s collapse is to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities into oblivion, and then stop supporting the Iranian government.
But will Vladimir Putin do such a thing, or is he as weak and frightened as the leaders of the U.S. and Israel who never carried out their promises to destroy Iran’s nuclear program? Unless Putin takes action, oil will stay low...at least until early next year when the Israelis will have a chance to vote in a new, more courageous prime minister. Then the Saudi’s goal might be reached, and we can all live happily ever after.
Russia destroying Iran's nuclear program would work out so much better than the US or Israel having to do it... or nothing being done about it at all.
The longer the Russian people cling to their psychotic “strongman” Putin, the longer they will suffer, until finally, they are destroyed.
Some of Putin's problems have to do with countries not wishing to do business with an expansionist tyrant. To say those countries' policies are "diabolical and sociopathic" is nonsense. To say that countries shouldn't exercise their right to freely un-associate themselves monetarily from Putin because of the fear that Putin will do something rash is appeasement.
Beyond all that most of Putin's problems have to do with declining oil prices brought about by the US shale boom. Obama has nothing to do with the US shale boom.
And I would add, nobody uses calculators and protractors anymore. It's been decades since they have.
Beyond all that....good post. LOL.
History repeats itself doesn't it.
Obama has done little to hurt Putin. If Putin holds out he's not going to like a possible President Ted Cruz.
Putin is not going to bomb Iran’s nuclear reactor because he built it for them. Russia is not ever going to stop the Iranian nuclear threat because Russia is the source of the Iranian nuclear threat.
Oh okay. LOL.
“When a company loses 8.7 Billion, where does it go?”
Usually into Democrat or Union coffers!
All caps is my angry grammar communist voice :-). (As opposed to grammar Nazi)
#1 Islamists. #2 Liberals. #3 Democrats.
Except you are wrong about the dollar; it’s been getting stronger. The fall in oil prices will hurt some of our producers, but the US consumer will have more disposable income, too.
Accept they cannot hold their oil off the market. They need it to finance their budget and their debt. They’re really in a bad situation unless they want to live in complete poverty, which would probably be fine with Putin.
Your right only if you think that paper money has value. I would prefer to own tangibles than paper currency, I judge wealth, not by paper money value, but by tangible holdings.
That’s the point. If you’re forced to sell a commodity, you have to take whatever is offered. Some people here don’t understand that you haven’t lost anything until you sell at a loss.
Putin has to sell his oil at the market price, but Putin based his future economic plans on 100/bbl oil, so he’s screwed. That pleases me, even though I own oil royalties myself.
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