Posted by: fairleft | Oct 5, 2015 6:16:23 AM | 103
Thanks for the heads-up. I particularly appreciate “(except with China)”. I’ve cut it out and will have it framed in the morning.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 5 2015 10:58 utc | 104

@100 never mind
100% one-sided report, all based in what Turkey said … Reuters … used to be known as the classy European wire. The entire MSM stable is working for the same pimp these days.

Posted by: jfl | Oct 5 2015 11:22 utc | 106

Hoarsewhisperer @105:
It’s just my take. If you think any specific assertion in the chain of reasoning is unrealistic or contradicted by the available evidence, I’d appreciate you explaining that. Rather than resorting to the black hole of non-specific ridicule, which doesn’t help anyone or advance any understanding.

Posted by: fairleft | Oct 5 2015 12:28 utc | 108

I’m not sure how long the US can continue to act like an Empire – guest 77
There appear to be many crises coming to a head: political (but without movement from below), social (health, poverty), education… The Great Recession, which just continues getting worse, I can’t bring myself to look at Shadow Stats for the latest labor participation rate etc. because it makes me cringe, just see zero hedge, shedlock, etc. Then there is Wall Street and the dollar, the signs there seem very ominous. The Police-prison-surveillance State – terrifying. One could go on. But the US is in all these aspects is very immovable, sclerotic.
Creating one’s own reality, which others must accept or study (Karl Rove) is a pipe-dream. This can only be done with naked power, domination and control (holding the entire world is impossible) and the efficient use of proxies is limited. Other means see reality, that bitch, kicking back, resisting, presenting shocking surprises (e.g. Crimea.) Then, the ‘own’ reality is voided – it shatters into ugly shards of glam pictures and distorted mirrors, word-salad from the tele-prompter, murky photos, etc., Signalling a loss of humanity; physical violence combined with rigid bureaucracy or ‘principles’ and ‘red lines’ increase, in a downward spiral.
*One* of the reasons for this ‘Empire’s’ slow or coming demise is that it has always been too vulnerable to outside influence. When a country is run by oligarchs (Transnational Corporations, professional groups), Bankers (the Finance Industry), corrupt hangers-on (Pols and the Media), all in a heady, hallucinating stew, it is very open to deals of all kinds with anyone anywhere, and not only ‘deals’ but ‘new’ sorties, spheres of action, etc. Influence, personal agendas, hot-house gossip, various in-groups plotting this or that, the profit motive, treachery, fraud, and blackmail, and so on, rule. The winners tend to be Corporations, because they have clout. Ukraine is a kind of mini-me USA 🙂

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 5 2015 17:21 utc | 110

@Virgile@69
Virgile, what I posted was Tyler Durden’s opinion at “Zero Hedge,” not mine. Personally, I’ve been waiting for an Iranian intervention both in Iraq & Syria, and I mean “boots on the ground,” to prop up the Iraqi so-called “army,” a weak and corrupt institution built by the US, and the Syrian army, weak and tired after so many years fighting takfiris. I believe the Russian intervention is changing the entire geopolitical landscape in the region, and Iran is part of that change. The Iranians have been playing conservatively so far, due to their nuclear negotiations, but that is over, now we are just waiting for the sanctions to end, and Iran will be set free. It is possible they might intervene in Syria/Iraq against Daesh, but I am not a soothsayer to assure you of anything.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Oct 5 2015 18:03 utc | 112

@Penelope@93
There ARE contradictions between Rohani & Khamenie. (sic)
If you read my post again, you will see that I qualified my statement with “…at least at Ahmadinajad level…” As for debating Ahmadinajad this late into the game, see my post to Harry @Lone Wolf@114.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Oct 5 2015 18:33 utc | 114

MMARR @116: If it was twice as much or even three times maybe you’d have a point, but 12 times as much? I don’t think Putin and the Russian leadership is into unrealistic thinking where they think their military is the equal of a coalition that spends 12 times what it does. I assume Russia knows it needs ‘permanent’, militarily and economically strong allies if and when a world war threatens. It surely has one in China but needs more. Basically, the Shanghai Cooperative Organization has to move toward becoming an ‘official’ military alliance. That’s a long way off and might not ever happen with India as a member.

Posted by: fairleft | Oct 5 2015 19:10 utc | 116

Posted by: fairleft | Oct 5, 2015 3:10:05 PM | 117
Is that analysis?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 5 2015 19:33 utc | 118

Fairleft @ 45,
You’re right that in the enthusiasm of the moment it is easy to over-estimate the significance of what’s occurring. As you say, ” Saudi paranoia aside, for example, Iran has made no effort to assert power in Yemen, or anywhere else in the ME other than in those three countries, all of which have substantial or majority Shia populations.”
But it is fun– for once to look forward to the news, with a grin on your face!
I know, I know: Your cautions @ 103 are well-placed, too. All the more reason why Russia needs to fix her economy by getting out from under the IMF/Fed system about which I’ll write another day.
Lone Wolf, thanks for pricking Durden’s conjectures; Zerohedge does get carried away sometimes.

Posted by: Penelope | Oct 5 2015 19:45 utc | 120

@97 Rabino Kuerbovich.. excellent overview with links. i especially agree with your 5 point conclusion.. thank you! if you missed it check here..

Posted by: james | Oct 5 2015 22:33 utc | 122

Basho @ 79,
I would love to answer what you have written; you sound very well-organized in your beliefs about the monetary system. What you have outlined is almost entirely consistent w what one would learn from the literature of the Fed and from the MSM concerning the IMF. It is reasonable that you should believe these things unless and until you have seen converse presentations.
I cannot present here today the converse view that would overturn much that you have presented. I’m doing other things for the next day or two. But I can tell you where to look for parts of it.
-To understand what the filthy financial game is in Ukraine– at least Rothschild’s part in it, see http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/14/win-or-lose-in-ukraine-some-rich-bastard-wins/ including its links.
-For a superficial understanding of just one of the four mechanisms by which Greece was progressively entrapped, see http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42330.htm
-To understand why your paragraph beginning “Governments with their own currency can create money in whatever fashion they wish, including simply spending it into existence.” is false for many countries– including Russia– See the financial chapters of http://lit.md/files/nstarikov/rouble_nationalization-the_way_to_russia%27s_freedom.pdf
It’s by Starikov, the Russian economist and is the most important of the 3 links.
I look forward to discussing monetary matters/econ systems further w you, but I first need to summarize certain things better, and I’m working on that.

Posted by: Penelope | Oct 5 2015 23:21 utc | 124

damn, that came out terrible…

Posted by: guest77 | Oct 5 2015 23:51 utc | 126

@nevermind
I guess it is message from Russia to Hamster Davutoglu: Forget about your no-fly zone in Syria, we are the one controlling Syria’s airspace.

Posted by: Virgile | Oct 6 2015 2:12 utc | 128

Penelope (#125),
Thanks.
– Let me start with your last, most important link first.
Starikov’s book was written in 2013. Prior to November 2014, Russia had chosen to link its currency to a mixture of the US dollar and Euro and this did somewhat restrict Russia’s freedom to manage its monetary affairs. Since then, however, the ruble has been allowed to float with only intermittent discretionary Russian central bank intervention. So, Russia is currently free to issue is much of its currency as it wishes . . . and, of course, live with the consequences of its decisions.
– The article by Michael Hudson had much to recommend it. As I said earlier, “Protecting creditors at (almost) all costs during and after the crisis was, in my view, a fatal error.” So, no argument that much of what has been done (to Greece for example) has been both unreasonable and counterproductive. Where I differ is in the his view that much of what has happened is the result of careful, conscious planning by the powers that be. In most cases, I think events are better accounted for by a toxic mix of political expediency, panic, and lack of understanding. FWIW, this recent article, while equally sympathetic to Greece’s travails, to my mind paints a more realistic picture. Still, we’ll never settle that argument!
– The last link (i.e. your first) was in my view of a lower quality. Of course there are rapacious interests, both political and commercial, trying to extract maximum advantage from crises. However, what seems to me a strained reaching for conspiratorial connections certainly wouldn’t have me coming back for more. For example, he makes much of the Rothschilds’ involvement with Mriya through “a fund that invests in Russia”. Turns out (per the report linked to) that the fund’s total investment in that company was US$2.233 million.
Anyway, Penelope, barring something terribly interesting (!), I’ll probably bow out now. My sole intention with the initial comment was to try to clarify some of the basic workings of money, credit etc. Thanks again for your exceptionally polite and reasonable responses.

Posted by: Basho | Oct 6 2015 4:20 utc | 130

Fairleft #132.
How does rambling speculation on what ‘fairleft’ doesn’t think Russia doesn’t think, and what ‘fairleft’ thinks Russia should think, garnished with a context-free but inflexible random number, translate to obvious?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 6 2015 7:22 utc | 132

More horrors from South Sudan
http://blogs.afp.com/makingof/?post/camps-du-viol-au-soudan-du-sud
Thank you UN for cautioning it!

Posted by: Mina | Oct 7 2015 16:41 utc | 134

Basho @ 131,
“Starikov’s book was written in 2013. Prior to November 2014, Russia had chosen to link its currency to a mixture of the US dollar and Euro and this did somewhat restrict Russia’s freedom to manage its monetary affairs. Since then, however, the ruble has been allowed to float with only intermittent discretionary Russian central bank intervention. So, Russia is currently free to issue is much of its currency as it wishes . . . and, of course, live with the consequences of its decisions.”
I know that this is counter-intuitive. I know it creates dissonance with your present beliefs, and I understand that that’s the reason that you are unable even to consider that it might be true.
Russia is not free to create her currency. Only the RCB can issue it & only in an amount equivalent to the dollar value of her export income. .
Starikov, 6th para: “:This is how the system works:
• Russia sells some commodity on the global market;
• $100 enters the country;
• The central bank buys these dollars at the currency exchange;
• These dollars enter the central bank’s reserves;
• RUB 3,000 enters the Russian economy.”
http://borisanisimov.blogspot.com/2010/10/nationalization-of-ruble.html
Article is dated. Quote below verifies that money-creation remains restricted.
Glazyev, economic adviser to Putin:
2-week old report . Appendix 4, 2nd para: “The policy of the Central Bank (CB) to limit the availability of financial resources and to tie the ruble emission to the growth of the foreign currency reserves has been one of the major roadblocks in the development of the Russian economy during the entire post-Soviet period. The consequences of this policy are: insufficient mechanisms of refinancing the economic activity, insufficient amount of “long-term” money and of internal sources of commercial credit, subordination of the economic growth to the external demands, which has been the main reason for its reliance on the export of natiural resources.
http://thesaker.is/sergey-glazyevs-report-about-urgent-measures-to-counter-threats-to-the-existence-of-russia/
The restriction on the creation of money is imposed by the IMF/Fed system on countries labelled “developing” by the IMF.

Posted by: Penelope | Oct 8 2015 9:54 utc | 136