Tuesday, March 4, 2014

You can't make this up.

Some blasts from the past on Ukraine:




Then there is this blast from the February 2014 past:

U.S. intelligence estimates conclude that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine. This, despite the launch of a massive, new Russian military exercise near Ukraine’s border and moves from armed men to seize two key airports in the country's Crimea region. Article

All sarcasm aside, here is a sobering piece on the crisis in the Telegraph(UK) today:

The West’s response to Russia’s Crimean adventures has so far centred on rhetoric and symbolism. The likes of the US, Germany and Britain are threatening to boycott the G8 summit in June, set to be hosted in Russia. Along with Mr Hague’s strong words, the UK has also cancelled a visit by the Earl of Wessex to Sochi, which he was due to undertake next week as patron of the British Paralympic Association.

Like Mr Hague, US Secretary of State John Kerry has condemned Putin’s “brazen act of aggression”, warning of harsh retaliation in the form of a diplomatic and economic squeeze. While there has been no detail, such measures would presumably include visa bans, asset freezes and restrictions on Russian investment and trade with the West – actions that would no doubt provoke an instant tit-for-tat response. But, as a document seen yesterday in Downing Street made clear, Britain is very wary about introducing any sanctions.

Although sanctions are theoretically possible, given that Russia, unlike the Soviet Union, isn’t an economic island isolated from the rest of the world. It is, in contrast, more or less integrated into global commerce and, from the chaos of the early Nineties, has grown into the world’s eighth-largest economy. On what economists called a PPP basis, in fact, adjusting currencies for purchasing power, Russia is the sixth biggest economy on earth, well ahead of the UK and France.

A few days into this crisis, economic sanctions against Russia hardly seem necessary, as the markets are doing the work of those wanting to pressurise Putin. The main Russian stock market index plunged 12 per cent yesterday, wiping out $58.4 billion of shareholder value, more than was spent on the Sochi Olympics. State-owned companies such as Gazprom and financial services monolith Sberbank were particularly badly hit.

The rouble has also plunged in recent days, with Russia’s Central Bank being forced to raise interest rates “temporarily” from 5.5 per cent to 7 per cent. Among currency dealers, rumours abound that Russia sold more than $10 billion of its dollar reserves yesterday, in an attempt to prop up the rouble.....

Western energy security also looms large, of course. Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer. Any hint that the flow of Russian crude might be interrupted would cause havoc on global markets. In recent days, as the sanctions rhetoric has cranked up, oil prices have spiked at $2-$3 a barrel. This can only harm Western crude importers such as the UK.

Disruption to natural gas could be even more troublesome, given that Russia is the world’s largest exporter, supplying more than a third of Western Europe’s gas. So Moscow has its thumb on our economic throat. The situation is complicated by the fact that Ukraine hosts a network of Soviet-era pipelines that supply over half the gas Russia sends to the European Union.

Since 2006, Moscow has twice cut off supplies to Ukraine due to payment disputes – with the knock-on effect of halting gas to Western Europe. During the most recent episode, in 2009, European gas prices spiked a painful 20 per cent in a fortnight, causing howls of protest from Western firms and households.

Another tool in Moscow’s anti-sanctions armoury is its own fiscal strength. While the Russian economy has lately slowed, with growth currently bumping along at 1.5 per cent, it has expanded tenfold in dollar terms since the late Nineties. This has allowed Putin to pay off almost all the country’s debts – gross government liabilities are less than 10 per cent of GDP, by far the lowest of any major economy, and in net terms Russia is one of the world’s few sovereign creditors. In addition, Moscow has reserves totalling $450 billion, the world’s fourth-largest haul..... Rest of article

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama is easily the most incompetent POTUS in the history of our country.

Anonymous said...

I think Sarah Palin said it best last night..."Obama wears mom jeans."

Anonymous said...

… uh, because, you know, i-i-it is just wonderful to be back in Oregon, and over the last 15 months we’ve traveled … uh to every corner of the United States. Uh, I’ve now been in fifty … ss-seven? states. I think one left to go. Uh, one left to go — eh, Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to, even though I really wanted to visit but my staff would not, uh, justify it.

Barack Obama, 2008

Anonymous said...

We were nearly 11 trillion in debt after "W" left office. Russia now has money in the bank, and we are still cash strapped thanks to wars that we can never win.

Russia wants what they feel is rightfully theirs back. What can we do? Nuke them and destory the world? Launch a ground occupation of Ukraine taking troops from where? Try to cripple their economy how? They have vast natural resources.

It does not matter who is in office at this point. Russia has awakened, and by doing this proving they are indeed a superpower again.

We are easentially powerless to stop an invasion into a region that is welcoming Russian troops as liberators. Its what we thought was going to happen after SHussein and the Taliban fell...

Anonymous said...

Yes, POTUS is probably incompetent. But to be fair, I doubt any other president could do better under the circumstances. Does anyone believe that Russia is just going to hand back the Crimea? Of course not. An armed response by outsiders is out of the question. Economic sanctions will not work, since US trade with them is low, and Western Europe needs Russia more than it needs them.

Anonymous said...

Jan. 20, 2009, gross federal debt was about $10.627 trillion.

Oct. 24, 2013, gross federal debt was about $17.1 trillion.

It does matter who is in office.

Anonymous said...

But to be fair, I doubt any other president could do better under the circumstances.

Laughable statement.

Anonymous said...

don't blame me, I voted for Sarah Palin.

Anonymous said...

"We were nearly 11 trillion in debt after "W" left office."

Representin the accumulated debt run up by GWB and 43 OTHER PRESIDENTS COMBINED.

The $7 trillion added since then in five years - that is something Obie all by himself can take credit for. Sure glad all that stimulus spending got our economy roaring again. /sarcoff

Pugnacious said...

I voted for the A-Rab!

snip..
"My advice to Obama is to try and organise his people, because from day one he's going to be a prisoner of the giant corporations, who control the government he presides over. There will be a lot of economic crisis, wars in Iraq and on the Afghanistan-Pakistani border, and growing unemployment. So he doesn't have much room to maneuver, unless he builds more political energy among the people. Does he have a personality for that? No, he doesn't have a challenging personality, he has an accommodating personality to power and that doesn't spell very good news for the American people. he is very belligerent toward Russia, toward Iran, towards the Afghanistan-Pakistani border. Barack Obama's foreign policy will be very much like George W. Bush's second term. If anybody thinks otherwise, they better be prepared to be disappointed,” Nader said.

Anonymous said...

12-26 here. i didnt defend the current president, nor condemn. the point is we have a 17 trillion dollar debt while russia has 450 billion in the bank. even if mccain OR romney won, we'd still have debt and russia does not. it absolutely hurts our leverage in this situation. we cant isolate russia because they are dealing out of a position of fiscal strength rather than weakness. we are borrowing hand and fist from whomever will hand it out. until we as a country stop spending what we dont have, russia and china can have their way...

how much govt stimulus is given here in our state? pearl outlets for example? iin russia, you pay the govt to even open up shop. look at the cost of the sochi olympics. the govt there spent it in RUBELS not loans! (unlike olympics held here)

we need a president and congress to make deep realistic cuts to turn the financial corner. we cant borrow our way to win another cold war

Pugnacious said...

If TBA is trolling tonight, maybe he'll translate the gibberish that follows the conversation--recorded by Russian intelligence- between US Ambassador to Ukraine and the Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, who just so happens to be the wife of Arc-NeoCon/Think Tank mogul, Robert Kagan.

Isn't the internet wunderbar... it allows to go where the MSM doesn't want us to go.

Anonymous said...

Russia has natural gas, but Ukraine has all the water.

Big Daddy said...

The fact that commenters on this post are claiming Russia is playing from a position of "fiscal strength" because they didn't run a deficit this year tells you about all you need to know about the intelligence of the people who frequent this site (excepting myself of course)...

Big Hungus said...

Okay, y'all get that? Everyone reading here going forward isn't as intelligent as "Big Daddy".

Y'all got that? Big Daddy IS IT! He's the TOP of the Big Dick Chain.

The anonymous poster now here @ JJ who calls himself "Big Daddy" is the most intelligent, and most experienced and most worldly commenter in the universe AND the most "MOST" commenter, in any category, EVER in the history of Jackson Jambalaya.

PLEASE. Turn off your devices. No need to go any further.

Check in only once a day and await further edicts and directives from Big Daddy.

That is all.

Pugnacious said...

The genesis of the troubles in the "construct" nation-state of Ukraine originated, not in Kiev,but from the Machiavellian "networking" fifth-columnists lurking behind the curtain at the White House and in the smoke-filled rooms at the Department of State.

Pugnacious said...

We[Ocenia] are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.~(adapted)1984, George Orwell

Anonymous said...

And you speak of the national debt as if we have a chance in hell to actually pay it off.....or slow it down. It does matter who is in office, but if anyone was actually paying attention during the govt shutdown... The compromises that were squabbled in at the last minute mainly for republican states; money for colorado to rebuild after torrential rains, money for a 'dam' project in Kentucky, and we sent money to Africa with the intention to hunt down Kony....in a jungle....

Grammar nazis, please save your energy for your future bratty kids....you'll need it, trust



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