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Hey FerFal,
Love the website and the book! I think you have the most sensible
approach to “survival-ism” I’ve encountered.
I came across this article this morning. I think you’ll find it very
interesting. Here’s a quote:
“Six months ago, 34 rubles would buy a dollar. On Tuesday, it took
almost 70 rubles. So Russians holding rubles have lost half their
wealth. In desperation, the Central Bank tried to break the fall,
raising interest rates from 10 percent to 17 percent. It didn’t
work.”
(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fast-moving-russian-economic-collapse-causing-panic/)
I’m sure it sounds familiar from your experience in Argentina. It will
be interesting, to say the least, to watch what happens in Russia.
Thanks for all you do,
– Robert
Thanks Robert for your email, I’m glad you liked my book!
The situation in Russia is interesting and it can get worse, not only for Russia but for the rest of the world as well. If Putin goes for the old trick of fueling conflicts with other nations so as to deviate attention from local problems that could be bad for everyone. That kind of inflation sure is a problem, but Russia is still capable of dealing with it. Argentina has been getting by with 25% -30% inflation every year for the past decade. Russia is also bigger and has a stronger industry, so I wouldnt be surprised if they can deal with that kind of inflation for some time.
The price of oil dropping sure isnt helping him and today’s news of USA now being in good terms with Cuba is another blow for Putin. You lose allies, you lose money, it could get pretty desperate for him. Lets just hope he doesnt do anything too crazy.
FerFAL
5 comments:
Hello, FerFal!
Hope I can provide you some inner view of the situation.
Yes, ruble felt up to 80 rubles per $ at Tuesday, but two days later 1$ is 59 rubles and price is doing down.
This was clearly a speculative attack against national currency, because there are no fundamental reasons for such a drop. Actually, some people (who don't have much rubles on hands) just laught, others spent money on large TV, new cars or something like this. We have survived at least two such crysises - at 1998 and at 2008, and currenty we don't see anything worse than in those years.
1) US sudden courtship of Cuba may reflect the ongoing confrontation Washington is
having with Putin. Cuba is only 80 miles from the USA and while the Russian long range missiles were removed in the 1960s, the big airfields and Bear bombers were not.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20141113/NEWS/311139818/1116
2) Bear bombers flying up the US East Coast in Atlantic international waters could be
a serious threat to New York, Washington, and our other major cities, especially if they carry the new stealth Kh-102 cruise missiles armed with 250 kt nuclear warheads.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080804151642/http://www.janes.com/extracts/extract/jsws/jsws9082.html
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-test-fires-six-new-air-launched-cruise-missiles/
3) A May 2013 briefing by the US Air Force Global Strike Command listed the nuclear Kh-102 as deployed -- see slide 5 of
http://fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/nuclearweapons/AFGSC-CommandBrief-May2013.pdf
4)Reported Range of Kh-102 that I've seen is 3000 km, maybe 5000 km. Whereas combat radius of our hugely expensive $67 billion F-22 stealth fighter/interceptor is only 760 km.
Sigh.
Last time I checked, those Bear bombers don't have to pass through US Customs. So maybe this opening to Cuba by Obama is less magnanimous than is being reported.
6) Plus Russia is deploying a new generation of ballistic missile submarines (Borei class). If Russia could base those subs in Cuban ports it would ensure that Washington would have little to no time to react to a launch -- and would also let Russian surface navy vessels based in Cuba protect the missile subs against US attack submarines. Pravda recently noted that basing Russian missiles in Latin America would provide a hedge against the threat to Russian ICBMs posed
by US deployment of anti-missile systems in Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/23-07-2014/128126-cuba_russia_usa-0/
7) The other thing that is stealthy is how Exxon-Chevron's plan to export gas out of Turkmenistan via the Ukrainian distribution network --and displace Russia as supplier of 30 percent of EU's natural gas -- is slowly dragging us toward nuclear war. Because Russia sees NATO on her border as a lethal threat.
Meanwhile our ferocious news media watchdogs utter loud snoring.
Something from a 1990 FEMA report that may be of use if this fight with Russia heats up:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/columns/pix/benson0201-5.gif
Hmmm. Looking on the bright side, we would no longer have California and James Wesley Rawles around to annoy us.
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/opinion/russia-today-argentina-tomorrow.html?_r=0
Uh-oh.
"If Putin or Obama or Merkel or... goes for the old trick of fueling conflicts with other nations so as to deviate attention from local problems that could be bad for everyone."
That shoe fits the interests of any buffoon who won a popularity contest also known as election. Yet, so far, none of we the people were better for it.
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