"A Paradigm Shift Western Media Hasn't Grasped Yet" - Russian Ruble Linked To Gold & Commodities

Do you feel safer if you think of those you don't agree with as 'conspiracy nuts'?

 

When it comes to current global events, I couldn't agree more.

 

Unfortunately that's not going to make any difference. We like to IMAGINE that something will surely come along to save us, when we feel the pinch of life - even though there's no time or place in modern history wherein the people were saved from the realities of the cost of living. We know it's an absurd fantasy, yet we hold on to it. We believe that 'goodness and sanity' will somehow prevail, as though the corporations running the joint possess the kindness and charity of the individual. Our horror at the circumstances compels us to always believe it's temporary.

Consider .. there are 8 billion humans on earth, and an ever increasing number who will be able to pay the price of living going forward - even after it becomes beyond what the least can afford. Because we've spent decades seeing the least fed and housed (the good few decades in which we lived in a reality which could never last), we pitch that as the bare minimum. It never was, and likely never will be again. We're on our own now .. just as we've always been. It's the natural state for human societies. The good years between 1950 and 2020 were VERY much the aberation.

 

Do you remember the cause of the inflation? It’s supply chain. If supply chain is rebalanced then we will definitely see a significant decrease in inflation. It seems to me, the war in Ukraine made the world forget about Covid, which means there are less restrictions and red tape. Sanctions on Russia also indirectly help the process as many are forced to look for businesses or raw materials elsewhere, which establishes new supply chains.
So, if supply chain issues are fixed this year, then one can realistically expect inflation to get back to normal. The shelves in my area have been pretty full, so I hope that’s a good sign. Recently I was informed that a dining table that I ordered with expectations of delivery in September is supposed to show up by May. Again, a good sign.

 

I’ve been on this forum for a while now.
I know our local conspiracy nuts in this online community.

 

Of course it makes sense -- to those that have some. The port in Crimea for example was a strategic interest of Russia ... one they have held for 400 years . and didn't want NATO in there. NATO putting ABM's on Russia's border.

Was Syria putting ABM's on the US border .. something there the US could claim was a theat to National Security. Same with Iraq, Yemen, Libya.

 

That's a pretty dark picture. It also assumes no further progress. Just to give you a sense of how difficult it is to project the future, a 120 years ago there were 75,000,000 people in the US and we were a horse drawn society.

Had those people tried to plan for a nation today, of 330,000,000 they would have declared it impossible for the plain fact that we do not have the arable land to even grow just the hay for all the horses that many people would require, much less the food they would need to eat.

The future is always uncertain, so both courage or fear are valid choices. Just being born in the US at this period of history probably makes us some of the most fortunate people who have ever lived.

We are certainly working through some weirdness. Not enough of the world joined in on the sanctions to make them really bite like we wanted them too, but, Russia is still selling oil at a 30% discount, that's a hell of a haircut.

 

And how long did it take the Marshall Plan to restore Germany? Just months? How about Iraq? How long did that take? So your notion that only Bush could have saved Russia is totally incorrect.

 

Iraq is an object lesson in what happens if you invade without a plan to restore order afterwards. This is not my idea, btw, it's been around a while.

There is a real question whether or not even a Marshal Plan would have worked..

But there is simply no doubt that, as George Will predicted, that they soon went back to autocracy..

 

Russia under Putin returned to autocracy which was 10 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union so it was not soon. Since we did not initiate a Marshall type plan in the early stages we will never know what Russia may have become. Keeping NATO in place was no incentive for Russia to have a friendly relationship with the rest of Europe and the US. Like I said earlier Putin was probably Yeltsin's gift to the US and Western Europe knowing he was former KGB and a very paranoid by nature individual who did not trust the US for good reason.

 

If you were hoping for a century of peace, 10 years is too soon.

I would think by now you would have figured out the odds of Europe having a peaceful relationship with Russia. It was zero, Putin intended to put the Soviet empire back together.

At the time, Putin was liberal and an advocate of democracy. Just as importantly, he was clean, he didn't accept bribes. Most everyone did.

He looked like a safe choice, it's one of the reasons we took so long to see him for what he was. Or, perhaps, what he had become.

If you want a simple possibility, Russia was a profoundly corrupt country before Putin. Putin demands a 50% cut from his oligarchs. The Economist estimates Putin added 20% more corruption. One recent estimate had Russia as having the worst income inequality in the world. They say power corrupts, and the prospect of raking in billlions would tempt anyone. He's one of the richest men in the world, now.

 

Dude, supply chains are just one little element in a huge array of events contributing to the paradigm shift. What we're seeing are the death throws of Western supremacy - and it's been on the cards for years. Pandemics, wars, oil, climate, supply lines, reserve currencies, grain stores, etc etc .. rectification of one or even several, is not going to change the trajectory. It's done, make peace with it - and do what you can now to secure the standard of living you hope to retain. We may not be nuked, but we WILL get to experience what the East is long accustomed to. Deprivation, limitation, loss of freedoms, etc etc.

But put it this way - it'll make us stronger. And one day that strength might see us return to supremacy ... though that's many generations away yet. We haven't even begun to pay the price for our profligacy and self-indulgence.

 

Well said.

 

I can only assume you regard it as 'dark' because you fear the loss of First World life? I don't, because we simply can't go on the way we have been .. our First World existence is outrageous on so many levels.

So yeah, I choose 'courage', though don't think it requires any such heroics. Ordinary pragmatics are all that's needed. Keep your ducks in a row, and observation of events becomes an intellectual exercise and discussion. Nil emotion, other than perhaps a little inspiration here and there to line up my ducks a bit straighter and tighter (which I immediately do, and thus never reach the point of 'anxiety')

 

I see. Is that code for people who say worrying things about your First World delights?

Sounds like you need religion or something. Something promising you 'salvation and certainty'.

 

YTD the Ruble is the strongest gaining currency in the world.

Ruble Rally Powers Ahead.

"Russia’s currency extended a rally that’s taken it to the strongest level versus the dollar in four years."

"The Russian currency is by far the best performer globally this year with a gain of about 30% against the dollar."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ooser-capital-controls-to-climb-for-fifth-day

How Sanctions Have Increased Russia's Oil And Gas Revenue

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"There is no way to remove Russian oil from the market entirely without sending oil prices much higher, possibly above $200."

"Russia’s oil and gas revenues hit another record high despite sanctions designed to hurt the Russian economy."

"New data! #Russia's oil and gas revenues hit another record high in April. 1.8 trillion rubles in a single month, after 1.2 trillion in March. After only 4 months, Russia's federal #budget has now already received 50% of the planned oil and gas revenue for 2022 (9.5 trillion)."

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"As oil prices go higher it increases the appeal of Russia’s oil. China and India, for example, have tremendous incentive to buy discounted Russian oil."

Never underestimate Biden's ability to fk things up.

 

Everything is getting wrecked!!

 

Is it? Isn't it just changing?

 

Nothing is certain.

But one thing of which I'm confident is that authoritarian regimes such as those in Chin and Russia will never be a serious contender with us for sustainable economic growth and global power and influence.

 

No doubt. The force of your will to retain power over the globe, will ward off all pretenders. The sheer might of your need to retain First World comforts and all the resources necessary for same, will squash the dirty rustic peasants!

In the meantime the no-limits partnership of the Eastern superpowers, makes daily gains in the face of that old arrogance. They make those gains in large part because of that old arrogance.

 

Freedom holds much more sway over people than authoritarianism. No one trusts China because it's a dictatorship. America invests in other countries and makes them greater. China, like the USSR before it, would exploit or swallow up other countries to benefit imperial and colonial ambitions.

 

The primary causes of inflation are increased minimum wage, money supply, and energy.

 

Supply and demand and operating expenses, fuel costs being the main factor at play today. Minimum wage has nothing to do with it, especially with it being as low as it is.

 

You obviously aren't a businessman or entrepreneur. When you have to pay someone 20 bucks an hour to make pizzas your pizzas are gonna have to cost more. When minimum wage in the most populated states gets as high as it is CPI and PPI go up...

 

Minimum wage varies by state, but nowhere is it $20. Not that it matters, really; prices don't go up because of minimum wage. They go up because of other far more impactful business expenses.