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Related: About this forumSorry, Putin. Russia’s economy is doomed
Sorry, Putin. Russias economy is doomedWonkblog
By Matt O'Brien December 15 at 6:30 PM @ObsoleteDogma
A funny thing happened on the way to Vladimir Putin running strategic laps around the West. Russia's economy imploded.
The latest news is that Russia's central bank raised interest rates from 10.5 to 17 percent at an emergency 1 a.m. meeting in an attempt to stop the ruble, which is down 50 percent on the year against the dollar, from falling any further. It's a desperate move to save Russia's currency that comes at the cost of sacrificing Russia's economy. So even if it "works," things are about to get a lot worse.
It's a classic kind of emerging markets crisis. It's only a small simplification, you see, to say that Russia doesn't so much have an economy as it has an oil exporting business that subsidizes everything else. That's why the combination of more supply from the United States, and less demand from Europe, China, and Japan has hit them particularly hard. Cheaper oil means Russian companies have fewer dollars to turn into rubles, which is just another way of saying that there's less demand for rublesso its price is falling. It hasn't helped, of course, that sanctions over Russia's incursion into Ukraine have already left Russia short on dollars.
Add it all up, and the ruble has fallen something like 22 percent against the dollar the past month, with 11 percent of that coming on Monday alone. As you can see below, the Russian ruble has fallen even further than the Ukrainian hryvnia or Brent oil has this year. The only asset, and I use that word lightly, that's done worse than the ruble's 50 percent fall is Bitcoin, which is a fake currency that techno-utopians insist is the future we don't know we want.
Source: Bloomberg
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Sorry, Putin. Russia’s economy is doomed (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Dec 2014
OP
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)1. Russians are going to pay a high price for backing Putin.
I almost feel sorry for them. Maybe they will learn a lesson from this.
blm
(113,063 posts)5. Sad for them, really. But, a number of DUers joined corpmedia attacks on WH and
Kerry for their strategic moves against Russia, and I don't see any of them backtracking on their attacks.
blm
(113,063 posts)2. US and RW media put Putin on a pedestal as outsmarting Obama and Kerry
who were mocked mercilessly for their sensible approach in every way possible - even here on DU.
Same with their approach dealing with ISIS. GOP hates the approach, corpmedia will call it weak.
Corporate media has become stenographers for the GOP's 'political strategist/propaganda' machine.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,464 posts)3. Sarah Palin: Barack Obama known for 'mom jeans'
Sarah Palin: Barack Obama known for 'mom jeans'
and:
Slumping oil prices paint grim picture for Alaska state budget
By NATALIE VILLACORTA | 3/4/14 6:08 AM EST Updated: 3/4/14 9:59 AM EST
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a man known for wrestling bears while President Barack Obama is known for wearing mom jeans.
People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil, Palin said to Fox Newss Sean Hannity on Monday night. They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans and equivocates and bloviates.
and:
Slumping oil prices paint grim picture for Alaska state budget
blm
(113,063 posts)4. Not just Palin and RW media - some DUers attacked Kerry and Obama
repeatedly as being 'schooled' and 'outsmarted' by Putin.
Seems Obama and Kerry are 'floundering' and 'naive' and 'treasonous' and 'foolish' and just can't seem to get anything right, no matter what.
"Some say", anyway.
; )
edhopper
(33,580 posts)6. The same kind of
hubris and overreach that brought down the USSR.