for the Banksters either. The Megabanks have been speculating in Commodities and driving up the prices for everyone. I hope they really get burned on this one.

Jump you Fuckers.

But I do believe there is some serious Karma regarding the terrible impact on the Russian economy. Putin's support for the Assad regime and similar posturing has eliminated much of his clout with the Saudis/Arab States.

What I'm trying to figure out is who the Saudi's are trying to harm with this... The Russians? The Iranians? American producers? They may implode their own economy in the process.

Their problem is servicing their Debt. At the beginning of the War on Iraq, $40/Barrel was needed to break-even. Saddam was undercutting them, thus he had to be taken-out. I don't know what the figure is now, but I think they still have some margin left and have enough reserves to hold out for a while.

in reserves and the Russians have four hundred and fifty billion, so the Saudis can afford to sit this out for a while.

You want to know why gasoline prices go up when they should go down? How they stay high when all indicators point lower, and sometimes (as now) visa versa? The price of crude and the retail price of gasoline have since the early days of OPEC been political and economic manipulative instruments of major US and OPEC producers. I am a graduate student (MPA). One of my Saudi classmates told me how in their country where oil is plentiful by comparison, and of course has always been nationalized, they pay roughly $3 US per TANK of gasoline--repeat: not per gallon, per tank! He says paying $45 or more to fill up in the US is a budget cruncher.
Oil, like other basic commodities in the US and elsewhere, should rationally, ethically, morally, be nationalized. In the hands of private, for-profit industrialists it is a tool of economic-political manipulation and subjugation.
What we are witnessing is a planned, complex international power play, a big-oil version of Skyfall, "last rat standing".

their economy was spiraling down the drain well before oil prices started going down.

The % of their GDP they owe to China already is so large, I'm not sure they'll get more unless they basically sign over so much future oil to them that it kills them over the long haul.

Нефт

"Nyeft" i.e. oil.

The oil price is way down, and so is Putin's war chest. Unfortunately for the Russians, so is their state budget.

Makes you wonder if Crimea was worth it, and who the hell's gonna feed 'em all?

First the Banks, now maybe those poor Oil Companies??
How will they ever manage to stay profitable on just public funded subsidies and huge tax breaks?

(I shed a tear!)

It hasn't been a free market since the early 1970's.

It can't be when a group is basically a monopoly and can control price and supply.

Putin may have to increase his grip on power with even more crackdowns on dissent, more persecution of scapegoats like the gay community, and more neo-Nazi death squads. Of course, if he wasn't such a freaking head case with a Napoleon complex, Russia wouldn't be in such a bad place economically in the first place.

Obama is sticking it to Putin and other adversaries that depend on oil money.

...but in addition to narrowing the shale gas market opportunities for the U.S. in the EU, the $400 billion dollar-valued deal recently signed between Russia and China, will all be paid for in Roubles and Yuans. No Petrodollars need apply.

- If you'll recall, that's the move that cost Saddam Hussein the job we gave him......

[center]21st Century American Ingenuity
[/center]

Russia was in a stronger bargaining position.

1998 bailout
On September 23, 1998, the chiefs of some of the largest investment firms of Wall Street—Bankers Trust, Bear Stearns, Chase Manhattan, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and Salomon Smith Barney—met on the 10th floor conference room of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (pictured) to rescue LTCM.

Long-Term Capital Management did business with nearly everyone important on Wall Street. Indeed, much of LTCM's capital was composed of funds from the same financial professionals with whom it traded. As LTCM teetered, Wall Street feared that Long-Term's failure could cause a chain reaction in numerous markets, causing catastrophic losses throughout the financial system. After LTCM failed to raise more money on its own, it became clear it was running out of options. On September 23, 1998, Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Berkshire Hathaway offered then to buy out the fund's partners for $250 million, to inject $3.75 billion and to operate LTCM within Goldman's own trading division. The offer was stunningly low to LTCM's partners because at the start of the year their firm had been worth $4.7 billion. Warren Buffett gave Meriwether less than one hour to accept the deal; the time lapsed before a deal could be worked out.[22]

Seeing no options left the Federal Reserve Bank of New York organized a bailout of $3.625 billion by the major creditors to avoid a wider collapse in the financial markets.[23] The principal negotiator for LTCM was general counsel James G. Rickards.[24] The contributions from the various institutions were as follows:[25][26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management