This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Russia And China Finally Sign Historic $400 Billion "Holy Grail" Gas Deal
There was some trepidation yesterday when after the first day of Putin's visit to China the two countries did not announce the completion of the long-awaited "holy grail" gas dead, and fears that it may get scuttled over price negotiations. It wasn't: moments ago Russia's Gazprom and China's CNPC announced, that after a decade of negotiations, the two nations signed a 30 year gas contract amounting to around $400 billion. And with the west doing all it can to alienate Russia and to force it into China's embrace, this is merely the beginning of what will be a far closer commercial (and political) relationship between China and Russia.
So far there have been no public pricing details on the deal which accrording to Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller is a "commercial secret", and which is believed to involve Russia supplying 38 billion cubic metres of gas per year to China via a new eastern pipeline linking the countries.
According to Itar-Tass, the compromise between Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom and Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) on Russian gas price is estimated at $75 billion, citing the Deputy Head of the National Energy Security Fund Alexei Grivach. The differences on the price for 38 and 60 billion cubic meters supplies a year were $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, he added, so the subject of the negotiations is quite a significant one.
Gazprom expected a base price of $400 for 1,000 cubic meters, an expert of the Eurasian Development Research Center of the Chinese State Council said in April, whereas the CNPC’s proposal was $350-360 for 1,000 cubic meters.
RIA has more details:
According to Miller, only at 4 am local time it became clear “that all the principal issues have been solved.”
Russia and China have foreseen providing “preferential tax regimes,” Miller told journalists, without giving details.
Russia earlier suggested nullifying the extraction tax for gas fields delivering fuel to China, while Chinese officials expressed their readiness to cancel import taxes on gas from Russia, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said Tuesday.
Gazprom’s stocks rose 0.9 percent following reports that the long-awaited gas supply contract was signed. Russian stocks increased Tuesday amid positive aftermath of the first day of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Shanghai.
In March 2013, Gazprom and CNPC signed a memorandum of understanding on the planned gas supplies to China along the eastern route via the Power of Siberia pipeline. The signing of the contract has been delayed several times as the two sides failed to reach an agreement citing a pricing issue as the main stumbling block. President Putin’s current visit to China became the final stage of the negotiating process.
The Gazprom CEO said earlier the company could receive advance payment from China for the gas, which could start flowing as early as 2018. The planned project has an estimated capacity to pump up to 38 billion cubic meters annually, which could later increase to 60 billion cubic meters.
A memorandum of understanding was signed in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping on the second day of Putin’s two-day state visit to Shanghai. The price China will pay for Russian gas remains a "commercial secret" according to Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller. Gas will be delivered to China's via the eastern 'Power of Siberia' pipeline.
RT producers were informed of the landmark energy deal prior to its signing after a conversation with Miller.
Under the long-term deal, Gazprom will begin providing China's growing economy with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year for the next 30 years, beginning in 2018. The details of the deal were discussed for more than 10 years, with Moscow and Beijing negotiating over gas prices and the pipeline route, as well as possible Chinese stakes in Russian projects.
Just ahead of Putin's visit to Shanghai, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave reassurance that the agreed price would be fair.
“One side always wants to sell for a higher price, while the other wants to buy for a lower price,” Medvedev said. “I believe that in the long run, the price will be fair and totally comparable to the price of European supplies.”
A major breakthrough in negotiations came on Sunday as Gazprom chief Aleksey Miller sat down with his CNPC counterpart, Zhou Jiping, in Beijing to discuss final details, including price formulas.
Although Europe is still Russia's largest energy market – buying more than 160 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas in 2013 – Moscow will use every opportunity to diversify gas deliveries and boost its presence in Asian markets.
“I wouldn’t look for politics behind this, but I have no doubt that supplying energy to the Asia Pacific Region holds out a great promise in the future,” Medvedev said.
In October 2009, Gazprom and CNPC inked a framework agreement for the Altai project which envisions building a pipeline to supply natural gas from fields in Siberia via the western part of the Russia-China border.
In March 2013, Gazprom and CNPC signed a memorandum of understanding on Russian gas supplies to China along the so-called eastern 'Power of Siberia' route. When both pipelines are activated, Russia can supply Asia with 68 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
Last year, China consumed about 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas and is expected to consume 420 billion cubic meters per year by 2020.
Regardless of what the final price ended up being, and whether or not China got the upper hand in the negotiations, the final outcome is there and it is real: as a result of his disastrous foreign policy in the past two months, Barack Obama finally pushed Russia into China's hands, culminating with a deal that was ten years in the making and was never certain, until the Ukraine crisis.
And yes, this was all predictable from day one. Here is what we said precisely two months ago:
If it was the intent of the West to bring Russia and China together - one a natural resource (if "somewhat" corrupt) superpower and the other a fixed capital / labor output (if "somewhat" capital misallocating and credit bubbleicious) powerhouse - in the process marginalizing the dollar and encouraging Ruble and Renminbi bilateral trade, then things are surely "going according to plan."
For now there have been no major developments as a result of the shift in the geopolitical axis that has seen global US influence, away from the Group of 7 (most insolvent nations) of course, decline precipitously in the aftermath of the bungled Syrian intervention attempt and the bloodless Russian annexation of Crimea, but that will soon change. Because while the west is focused on day to day developments in Ukraine, and how to halt Russian expansion through appeasement (hardly a winning tactic as events in the 1930s demonstrated), Russia is once again thinking 3 steps ahead... and quite a few steps east.
While Europe is furiously scrambling to find alternative sources of energy should Gazprom pull the plug on natgas exports to Germany and Europe (the imminent surge in Ukraine gas prices by 40% is probably the best indication of what the outcome would be), Russia is preparing the announcement of the "Holy Grail" energy deal with none other than China, a move which would send geopolitical shockwaves around the world and bind the two nations in a commodity-backed axis. One which, as some especially on these pages, have suggested would lay the groundwork for a new joint, commodity-backed reserve currency that bypasses the dollar, something which Russia implied moments ago when its finance minister Siluanov said that Russia may refrain from foreign borrowing this year. Translated: bypass western purchases of Russian debt, funded by Chinese purchases of US Treasurys, and go straight to the source.
Here is what will likely happen next, as explained by Reuters:
Igor Sechin gathered media in Tokyo the next day to warn Western governments that more sanctions over Moscow's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine would be counter-productive.
The underlying message from the head of Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft, was clear: If Europe and the United States isolate Russia, Moscow will look East for new business, energy deals, military contracts and political alliances.
The Holy Grail for Moscow is a natural gas supply deal with China that is apparently now close after years of negotiations. If it can be signed when Putin visits China in May, he will be able to hold it up to show that global power has shifted eastwards and he does not need the West.
* * *
To summarize: while the biggest geopolitical tectonic shift since the cold war accelerates with the inevitable firming of the "Asian axis", the west monetizes its debt, revels in the paper wealth created from an all time high manipulated stock market while at the same time trying to explain why 6.5% unemployment is really indicative of a weak economy, blames the weather for every disappointing economic data point, and every single person is transfixed with finding a missing airplane.
To conclude with the traditional geopolitical balance of power summary: Putin wins (again), Obama loses (again), and the monument to the dollar's status as world's reserve currency gets yet another tarnishing blow.
- 65097 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -



$13B a year, gonna take more than that
.
The days of U.S. money printing with impunity are close to an end.
I wondered what is the real intention to peg gold at 1300?
On appearance is about controlling the price right, but if you look closely, it seems it is helping gold become a safe haven ... instead of playing futures people will be forced to buy physical, and that for sure will help bring the game closer to its end ... at least thats how i look at it.
I think the big players are already position, and now is all about closing the game.
everyone knows they cannot sell 500 tons everyday, you can do on paper but what happens when the fix is over ... all they need to close the London fix is 7 days of notice and change the system.
Already there are in place 5-6 exchanges in Asia, where one can sell and buy only the real stuff ... WHY?
well someone is planning in advance...
there wont be London fix so there will be only real exchanges ... the price? well whatever the market determines .... guess what will be when to supress it at 1300 they need to sell on daily basis worth half a year production ...
the Masters of Universe own the real stuff and they are greedy so, you can guess where the price will go ... this peg development only expedites the process TOGETHER with this China Russia development... if it was that easy the PEG would have been done long time ago ...
Screw gold, buy palladium. It's not as easy to manipulate. The largest mine is in Russia & that company has a 51% stake in the largest North American palladium mining company, Stillwater Mining. There are only a handful of Palladium mines in the world. Russia directly and indirectly controls greater than 50% of the market. All of this is why the Palladium charts look better than any of the other PM charts.
obviously i hit a nerve there ... dont recall you posting much before, although you seem pretty versed on the subject ... i'll see you at the other end of the tunnel and we can talk about palladium then ....
Gold is controlled by governments more so than anything else. I'm not saying it's not good to own some. It's just not my favorite PM because of this.
Sweet, start building that pipe ASAP.
quick question since you seem to know the stuff.
WHERE did all this gold thousands of tons .. GO???
That includes all the gold that all Western Central Banks have been selling since 1999 (Gordon Browns bottom at $250 sold half of gold of central Bank of Britain) has been GONE ?
Not to you and me thats for sure ... the average Joe has been selling on Cash for Gold in everycountry around the World.
Who Can buy all that gold all Central Banks have been selling ... everyone talk about selling none talks about who is BUYING it all ???
I have no idea & my speculation is just about as worthless as anyone else's. In addition, if I did know I suspect I would be at risk for a nail gun accident or throwing myself off an embankment.
some private hands in the west but clearly most of the demand is from china, india, the oil exporting countries, some from russia. neither russia nor china export any of the gold they mine, so it is not a stretch to imagine the wealthy there own some privately, in addition to central bank and,perhaps, other, hidden government reserves. many other central banks overflowing with dollars, like south korea, japan, taiwan, and other economies in this area, own very little gold as a percentage of assets. of course they could buy more if they so chose.
common dryam ... you dont have to be a genius to figure this out ...
Jeffmontagne ... most of the gold by Central Banks was sold earlier on. In 1999 there was a five year agreement between all central banks that they had to sell 1000 tons each year, the agreement was renewed in 2004. bank of Englad sold its half in 1999, Canada sold it all in early 2000.
China and India and the rest came late into the game ... majority has been sold earlier on ... do you really think anyone who is building the NEW SYSTEM would just give it away ...
HINT: there are some well protected tunnels in the montains of Switzerland, even against bombing....
Incidentally this is the same Switzerland with its 18 brave soldiers, that bravely stood up to Hitler, Stalin and whoever burned up the rest of Europe ....
such gentlemans these fellows must have been come to think of it ... respecting the neutrality of a small country while did not care killing millions of innocent elsewhere ... food for thought
The gnomes of Zurich and their hidey-holes!
So, the Sino-Russia axis, long predicted is now cemented.
Note, axis.
Allies: US/ZATO/Japan/Hebridies.
I gues the boys are about ready to start pulling triggers in shortish order. Another few months/years of ship and troop movements and the boyz with the toyz will want to pull triggers.
Too obvious though, something is building somewhere. I want to know.
Brazil? Exploding balls?
The WC will either go very well or very badly.
Nazi nations need enemies.
So, of course they would make every move possible to solidify the Russia/China link (by making dumb moves in Ukraine & in other places). They convince the economically clueless military brass that any nation trying to get outside the system of dollars-losing-value is somehow a 'financial terryist waging financial war on America'.
WW3 is the psychopaths final move for their global conquering new world order. They can use war as the excuse for a domestic crack down & might even get lots of 'useless eaters' to kill each other while waving their various flags.
Quite insane.
Gnomes of Zurich
You mean the same noble Swiss folks who melted down dental gold from Nazi concentration camp victims?
You may well find some very interesting perspectives on this by checking out the thoughts of Catherine Austin-Fitts, Dr Joseph P Farrell and Richard Dolan
bingo
I am waiting to hear Gerald Celente and Max Keiser go with THIS story...
'I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen. I said, "Touch nothing", but, you just bunch of cowboys...'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8kQA12lg_U
I can't WAIT to see what Soetoro (and McCain and Boehner and Graham and their bankers) decides to do now.
SANCTIONS on CHINA?
I can see Curly now. 'OH! It's an "OILIGARCHY"! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!'
Could be some serious cold there in the EU next winter. Beteer buy some of those "Hecho en China" thick coats.
...and just as we appear to be entering a global cooling period. How is it, HAARP notwithstanding, the weather is always on Russia's side? General Winter says it'll be nipply in Europe this year.
Global cooling...
\facepalm....
\inspades....
The Little Ice Age lasted from 1550-1750. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, for those who have a grasp of chronology. Before that was a warm period as well. Resulted in the population of northern lands swelling, hence the Slavic and Viking migrations of that era.
What is your point?
Here is the latest most compreshensive measurement of the NH for the past 2000 years
http://skepticalscience.com//pics/Ahmed_2013_paleo_fig4.jpg
More details here:
https://www.skepticalscience.com/pages2k-confirms-hockey-stick.html
Bogus reconstructions are not "measurements". Next time you want to facepalm, please load your hand with some of the guano you so frequently post.
http://climateaudit.org/
Well, I would say your friends at Climateaudit should have no problem publishing a paper about the shortcoming of the PAGES2K paper...
Assuming of course that they are not full of shit....
The last clown that tried to overturn the hockey stick using proxy data had to issue a correction....
Remember him?
if the Germans wise up, they turn those nuke power plants back on...
I wouldn't.
Can you point me in the right direction? All I can find is "UFO's for the 21st Century..."
Try subscribing to the Solari Report for a month. Several past interviews with Farrell (Babylon Banksters author website Giza Death Star) and Dolan are there with transcripts. Interesting listening for a few more piece of the puzzle.
perhaps there's a reason why they're called "precious" metals?
tinfoil science class for the day:
There is a group of elements found in the middle of the periodic table known as the "transition group elements":
1) One category of these is called the precious elements:
Silver, and the "light platinum group" ( palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium). These are called 3d transition group elements.
Gold, and the "heavy platinum group" ( platinum, iridium, and osmium). These are called 4d transition, group elements.
2) Another category of these are the non precious elements:
Copper, cobalt and nickel. These are called 2d transition group elements.
These elements are known as "transition group elements". They are in an uncertain state as regards their positive or negative electro-charge behavior, hence the name "transition". Their valence. electron orbitals are always half filled or half empty. (Electrons in the outer shells of an atom are referred to as valence electrons. Different orbital states for electrons can hold only certain numbers of electrons. ) Elements with fewer electrons in the outer shells tend to be electro-positive, and those with more electrons in the outer shells tend to be electro-negative.
These transition elements possess a unique property in that the electrons in the Partially filled outer orbitals can interchange under the right conditions with electrons in the partially filled inner orbitals (d). This is the underlying basis of catalytic reactions. (A catalytic reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs much more rapidly than normal without the catalyst itself participating in the reaction.)
http://customers.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/hudson.htm
Its obvious. Belgium
You seem pretty one sided ... the government is you and me, and people we elect to hold official office to serve us.
the government is not eternal and if I was you I would not count on them too much ... if they are gone, tomorrow or policy changes, what you going to do? ask them to be responsible and continue the same policies and financial games??? well good luck!
The gold the Centraal Bnks were selling did often not even exist.
Think about the following. During the 1950 and early 1960 when Germany aquired most of its gold. The process was like this. Germany forwarded hard Deutsch Marks to the Fed or whoever is in charge of the US gold. And then guess what happened. The Germans received a paper that they own now so many tons of gold, secure stored in US vaults. That was it. Thus by a simple paper, gold came on paper into existence but not in reality.
The situation was most probably not much different with the other gold holding Western Central banks. Then these gold "ghost" positions had to be brought down prior to the phenomenal rise in prise. This was done when the price of gold was down. Many Central Banks sold then gold but again on paper and the paper gold disappeared accordingly from their balance sheets. But the whole maneuver was only a simple balance sheet trick which had to end before the value of gold exploded.
But Germany, France, Italy and some other countries did not sell their paper gold or very little as the UK did. They insisted, that they had bought gold in good faith and that they want to have the physical one day, like Germany did as a forerunner. The Swiss sold a lot of physical gold I guess. But I#M further guessing this gold did not leave Switzerland it was sold to the BIS in Basel, the Central Bank of the Central Banks. So its still in Switzerland and who knows, maybe it was not sold at all in reality. Mybe the Swiss National Bank has an option to repurchase the gold for the same price from the BIS whenever they want.
In short the gold sales and purchases and announcements from the Central Banks are all just smoke and mirrors. The trick is to hide the amount of gold really in existence. Its enough that everybody believes the gold is there in the vaults. The truth about gold is the biggest secret.
Nobody knows how much gold does exist in the US controlled Western central banks. But one thing is sure. It is not more compared to what is shown in their balance sheets. But it could be much lesser. While, China Russia and other could come up with a surprise in a positive way.
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (1000 - 1100 A.D.)
Here we find goldsmith's offering to keep other people's gold and silver safe in their vaults, and in return people walking away with a receipt for what they have left there.
These paper receipts soon became popular for trade as they were less heavy to carry around than gold and silver coins.
After a while, the goldsmith's must have noticed that only a small percentage of their depositor's ever came in to demand their gold at any one time. So cleverly the goldsmith's made out some receipts for gold which didn't even exist, and then they loaned it out to earn interest.
A nod and a wink amongst themselves, they incorporated this practice into the banking system. They even gave it a name to make it seem more acceptable, christening the practice 'Fractional Reserve Banking' which translates to mean, lending out many times more money than you have assets on deposit.
Today banks are allowed to loan out at least ten times the amount they actually are holding, so while you wonder how they get rich charging you 11% interest, it's not 11% a year they make on that amount but actually 110%.
THE TALLY STICKS (1100 - 1854)
King Henry the First produced sticks of polished wood, with notches cut along one edge to signify the denominations. The stick was then split full length so each piece still had a record of the notches.
The King kept one half for proof against counterfeiting, and then spent the other half into the market place where it would continue to circulate as money.
Because only Tally Sticks were accepted by Henry for payment of taxes, there was a built in demand for them, which gave people confidence to accept these as money.
He could have used anything really, so long as the people agreed it had value, and his willingness to accept these sticks as legal tender made it easy for the people to agree. Money is only as valuable as peoples faith in it, and without that faith even today's money is just paper.
The tally stick system worked really well for 726 years. It was the most successful form of currency in recent history and the British Empire was actually built under the Tally Stick system, but how is it that most of us are not aware of its existence?
Perhaps the fact that in 1694 the Bank of England at its formation attacked the Tally Stick System gives us a clue as to why most of us have never heard of them. They realised it was money outside the power of the money changers, (the very thing King Henry had intended).
Excerpt from http://www.xat.org/xat/moneyhistory.html
excellent excursion in monetary history
yet one thing... in defense of fractional reserve banking: it's "natural"
every time I write an IOU and people accept it without asking for an audit of my books, without asking for collateral, etc. etc.... I might be engaging - depending from my finances - in fractional reserve banking
our problems with banks does not stem from fractional reserve banking per se. and also not by fiat currency per se
our problems with banks stem from TBTF and currency wars
so our problems are at the end... political, not monetary or financial. just my opinion
A debt based monetary system is doomed to fail because of the perverse incentives throughout the system to keep it moving forward as much as possible.. The traffics lights that are supposed to regulate the system fail because of greed by various entities. Once the system starts moving too fast there's no way to reel it in without undergoing severe pain thoughout the entire economy.
It's easy for just about any monetary system to look healthy when the economy is getting a huge unnatural boost by cheap oil. Cheap oil is now on the decline and reality will soon be setting in.
I agree... yet again, it's political, including the "keep it moving forward as much as possible". and Cheap Oil... let me put it this way: for us europeans (or for many others), Cheap Oil is something we read about on the NYT
The U.S. has clearly benefited the most from cheap oil, but most of the world has benefitted either directly or indirectly. Overlay a graph of man's use of fossil fuels & world population. The exponential curves are almost a perfect fit. With the decline of cheap oil countries are scrambling for resources. "Growth" is over with. There will not be a be a "recovery". There will only be countries that decline faster and some will decline slower, but everyone's standard of living will be going down.
I don't think everyone's standard of living will go down.
In the aggregate - yes.
Agree. I probably overstated it. I should have said most countries will see a decline in their standard of living,
well, the Cubans saw their their standard of living when their Soviet sugar daddy imploded and their access to oil plummeted.
then they (re)learned how to grow their own food.
now it's a debatable point as to whether their "standard of living" is better now than when daddy was still around. betya a silver quarter though that they are much healthier.
"...In short the gold sales and purchases and announcements from the Central Banks are all just smoke and mirrors. The trick is to hide the amount of gold really in existence. Its enough that everybody believes the gold is there in the vaults. The truth about gold is the biggest secret.
Nobody knows how much gold does exist in the US controlled Western central banks. But one thing is sure. It is not more compared to what is shown in their balance sheets. But it could be much lesser. While, China Russia and other could come up with a surprise in a positive way."
So most of us assume that China took delivery of the physical...Could it be all smoke and mirrors also, such that it perpectuated the game?
So China Russia and other could surprise in a negative (to sheeples) way?
Just sayiing...
can someone plesae freshen up Ghordus here on "moral hazard" and 'human nature" they seen to both be in his blind spot.
Thank goodness you all have no problem with nuclear power plants .How many do you all have on that landmass? Do not exclude any that have meaningless political boundaries, like not a part of EU, Russia or its former satellites.
Disagreed
If banks can engage in "fractional reserve lending" but I can't, under penalty of violence against my person or assets, then what is "natural" about "fractional reserve lending?"
If your laws include exceptions, you lose all claim to being just.
The tally sticks story explains why today the Federal Income Tax, collected in dollars, ensures the continued use of dollars domestically. At least, that's what I took away from it and the fact the Federal Reserve and Federal Income Tax were created at the same time.
Arius:
... the government is you and me, and people we elect to hold official office to serve us.
I must have missed the 'sarc' tag or something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4aKOhbbK9E
Wake the fuck UP, already!
thanks, but i still hold the belief on government and believe things will at some point get better.
21st century government does a pretty good job of protecting the interests of its constituencies. You should ask yourself if you're really a member of any of those constituencies.
I believe things will get better as well, and whole-heartedly believe that it will have nothing to do with .gov
But my idea of "better" is quite a bit different than BAU.
Some gold fans lose sight of the fact that there are other PMs, and that they too have their strategic and financial use.
Coin dealers hate it when people talk about Palladium or Platinum (even more precious than gold), because it's not part of their biz model. Don't kid yourself, there are plenty of self-serving coin dealers blogging on ZH.
Russia and RSA (Rep. of S. Africa) hold the bulk of the world's Platinum supply. Something that Club Fed (Fed, BOE, BOJ, ECB, BOI, Saudis) don't like you to know or talk about. Also, as others have noted here, Russia holds the bulk of Titanium ore. Good fucking luck making modern military planes or spacecraft w/o it!
If I were Russia, China and S.A., I'd create
1. Precious Metals & Minerals Cartel, that does not use USDs or the BIS. PMs + Strategic Metals + Strategic Minerals --> Precious Materials (PreMat) vs. Currency
2. Energy Cartel (electricity, coal, gas, oil) that does not use USD or the BIS. It comes down to Watts vs. Currency. Control or manipulate that, Club Fed bitchez!
Not to over-complicate, but I'd also have a strategic (multi-decade!) plan for arable land and water, to meet the needs of the domestic population.
Although it would mean the end of the USD as the GRC, life would go on in the US after the Big Reset. In fact, in time they'd be better off, when the US taxpayers no longer have to fund the Global Imperialism of the Fed and the MIC, and Real Capitalism would take over from the prevailing Crony Capitalism.
Time to invade Canada. I've been waiting for this day.
a remake of the War of 1812?
We shall show them the strength of our way of life, the Godless savages.
Me Thinks you want the White House burned again like we did in 1812.
Looks like Canadian veins run with piss and vinegar (or Molson and tar sand) and they are itching for freedom spread. You are pre-approved for a low-interest liberation.
FOR THE SARCASTICALLY-IMPAIRED: Notice how when you threaten to burn down the WH, I keep egging you on.
Sounds good to me. Just make sure O'bomb-a, FWOTUS, Jarrett and the rest are inside when it goes.
"Me Thinks you want the White House burned again like we did in 1812."
We should be so lucky. If you do burn it do so with current occupants inside.
we burned the white house once...care for another round?
**edit; Dundat...beat me to it
"Surrender pronto, or we'll bomb Toronto!"
please do.... aim for the air canada center during a Leafs practice please
Ah, the Maple Laughs: The team that manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Every year.
Maple Laugh fans gotta be the dumbest or most optimistic in the country.
Toronto sports fans are sheep continually being prepped for shearing.
Sounds like every sports team
We'll wait 'till after the bombing...
Interestingly it was a Russian that brought the end to the War of 1812.
As we all know that was a side skirmish in the overall Napoleonic wars. It was Tsar Alexander I driving Napoleon out of Russia and back to France as a key victory that allowed for the invasion Paris and brought other countries into the fray like Austria and Prussia against Napoleon. It was those 3 that invaded France in 1814 and forced Napoleon off the throne.
The defeat of Napoleon in Moscow then Paris basically at the time made Tsar Alexandar I the most powerful ruler in the axis against Napoleon and in turn the whole continent.
So now back the war of 1812 in the US
As we know John Quincy Adams was ambassador to Russia from 1807 - 1814.
It was Tsar Alexander I that brought both to the table using his influence after defeating Napoleon and convinced the British to sign the Treaty of Ghent ending the war of 1812.
Only issue is the British of course tried to double cross the US.
Before they signed the treaty in August 1814, the British sent a huge armada to New Orleans. Their strategy was to sail up the Mississippi River and link up with their troops in Canada, thus severing the United States from the Louisiana Territory.
The treaty was based on the status quo ante bellum....The U.S. delegation did not know that the British were about to conquer New Orleans and control the Mississippi River.
The term status quo ante bellum was secretly defined by the British as the state of thing before Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory.
Sound familiar government's having secret interpetations of things that they won't tell you about like the Patriot Act.
If it wasn't for Andrew Jackson they would have pulled it off and not only that they planned to sell the territory back to the Spanish aka Spanish Inquistion at the time.
If they were successful they would have controlled the mouth of the Mississippi and in turn the whole territory.
"The British plan of subjugation was complete. Soon after the battle it was learned that General Pakenham had a proclamation written, signed and ready to be promulgated the moment his army should enter the city. This proclamation denied the right of Napoleon to sell Louisiana, denounced the pretensions of the United States to its sovereignty, declared that Spain, the rightful possessor, was incapable of maintaining her territorial rights and, finally, asserted a provisional occupation by the British forces as a virtual protectorate in behalf of the Spanish crown. The night after the battle this proclamation was burned. It may have been used to illuminate the scene where the corpse of its author was being prepared for shipment to England in a cask of rum."
(Buell, History of Andrew Jackson, vol, II, pp. 80-81).
Enlightening Quote. Thanks for the knowledge.
Nice story. Buell is not necessarily a reputed historian, however.
http://jacksonianamerica.com/2011/01/06/beware-of-augustus-c-buell-hes-a...
With out a doubt some myth making surely happened just like with Lincoln and other more prominent Presidents but the basic premise here certainly is valid Buell or not. Since you brought it up show us that the Spanish part of that was debunked then.
The history certainly happened and that is no story.
If you play attack the source quote you got to at least come back with a clear example of the point being made as false then instead of ad homien attack the author and insinuate the whole thing is false because of it.
Only this time I am rooting for the Canucks.
Yeah, well Obama recently went to Asia too, remember?
Asian stocks drop on no trade deal in Obama visit
"Time to invade Canada. I've been waiting for this day."
So has Warren Buffett, who is funding this political fundraiser.
But on the good side, Cherry Coke for all!!!
I am long and big on SWC.
You might say that portion of my small portfolio is on viagra.
Uh, Norilsk Nickel dumped its entire stake in Stillwater several years ago. Part of the reason they did so is that SWC has really high cash costs due to complex geology. (The GM bankruptcy and loss of guarenteed contracts also probably played a role.)
Also, Russia is about 40% of primary Pd production, sizable, but not "greater than 50%." Furthermore, since there are only a few suppliers, and the product is actually consumed (unlike Au), it is very EASY to manipulate. You might want to look at what happened in 2001.
But carry on. No reason a few pesky facts should get in the way of a great investment thesis.
My issue with te Fix is that no one involved owned any gold. They were dumping client and sovereign gold to make money on sidebets. Then they would leave IOUs in their client accounts. It wasn't so much the idea of it. It was that was pure fraud in the mechanics of it that I object to. I'd say 90% of the gold they dump at the fix is not owned by them.
The days of U.S. money printing with impunity are close to an end.
Rest assurred that Omojo is unconcerned about this. He's happy just as long as he can control something, even if it turns out to be a piece of crap country like Zimbabwe or North Korea...which is where we seem to be headed.
As 'I Am Man I Am' pointed out at the head of the comments section, this 30 year '$400 billion' deal amounts to $13.3B per year. It's chicken feed in the grand scheme of things.
I'm a fully paid-up, pro-PM, USD-is-doomed tin-foil-hatster myself, but these hyperbolic articles do no one any favours.
That and they are denominating the trade in USD...
bingo... the petrodollar still reigns supreme, even in this scenario
wrap the thread up folks, Terminus just terminated it
I read that it's denominated in rubles and yuan.
Can you (or Terminus) link to the USD denomination source? Just curious.
38 billion cubic meters per year is 1330 billion cubic feet of gas per year, roughly.
If this deal is valued by the, I assume, Western media at $13.3 billion per year, then it implies a price of $1 per thousand cubic feet of gas, which sounds very, very low. Am I missing something here? It sure is a hell of a lot of gas.
Everybody's sweating this? This is nothing in the grand scheme of things. These two countries will be at each other's throat long before 30 years is up. The dollar is shitty because our government is shitty. But the dollar doesn't have to be backed by gold as long as it's backed by nuclear weapons. You have NO idea the length the PTB will go to in a crunch. "Sell our Treasuries? Then we'll chicken fry one of your cities". I'm hoping I'm gone by the time that happens.
There are foreign nukes hidden in every major US city right now.
There are US nukes hidden in every foreign city right now.
How do you know that? That's BS. Too easy for someone to stumble on them somehow and then what? That's BS.
Like Jimmy Hoffa's body you mean ?
38 billion cubic meters is 1330 billion cubic feet, or equivalent to just over 5% of what the USA (1st or 2nd biggest global producer, depending on the source) produces per year. That's how much gas Russia will be exporting to China every year. That's a fuckload.
I would say things just got interesting. I guess the U.S. is preparing bombs faster now. Let's see how Obama and the U.S. can infuriate even more countries and have them drop the dollar. Who is next for Obama - India? He hasn't pissed them off yet, so they must be next.
Except for strip searching an Indian diplomat and continuing a visa ban on the now Prime Minister of India, he hasn't pissed them off yet...
I believe she is under inditement and on the FBI's most wanted for groping list.
That was a classic case of State Department's Vindictive Activism.
If Mr. Modi committed a Crime, it's one thing. Seeing the WH "Welcome Mr. Modi" after 9 years of a Visa Ban and other forms of social isolation - while having spin control MSM Drones mention that "the Ban won't affect US India relations" reeks of naiveté.
Here's a local Article - RUS, CHN, and JPN are Mr. Modi's Priorities - AND his Party has the Single Bloc Majority to boot:
http://news.oneindia.in/international/russia-china-japan-on-narendra-mod...
Heads should roll at the State Dept. Something tells me they won't; and I'm certain some Neocon/NAC types are plotting his downfall for the sake of (since the Riots seemed to be source of State's problems w/Mr. Modi) "Religious Freedom".
Pipeline Extensions and Tanker Alley runs to India via RUS/CHN/IRN/QAT? I think so.
Umm, don't you know this is ZeroHedge?? It's enough.
You miss what this really means economically, energy is real, not paper, and there is a big "work" multiplier involved, you know like horsepower.
Things are shifting and the Banksters are playing both sides to our real detriment.
We must put aside our differences and focus on our common destiny.
That goes for the rest of the world as well.
People want to be free, everywhere.
That is our trump card if we can do the above.
(inter) http://www.nationallibertyalliance.org -
BTW, where has the Hedgeless Horseman been?
I see lots of down-votes, but the poster has a point. It may be the beginning of things to come, but 400b aint that much - yet. Stronger bilateral ties outside the $ hegemony is a logical development, even a necessity. But such a deal on its own is no game changer.
I am interested to hear more about those "price formulas"
gas price is 350 USD which is lower end. Putin is getting bent over by China afer NATO pushed him into their arms.
Retard ZH hasnt got a clue. You think NATO hadnt planned for this?? LOL
even if it was bearish for USD which it isnt any drop in USD will be see flows into GBP and EUR just like we have been seeing.
Next year AUD and US bring online massiv Gas supply.. furhter squeeze the blood out of the "energy bloc"
Gold is going to 800$ and Silver 12$ WTI 70$ never to rise again
Well if you forgot the /sarc tag then sorry, but I have junk you for that MSM/gov propaganda.
Its true. Massive new supplies come online next year. To compensate for the depletion of this year's wells!
Your statement only makes sense if the US/Western energy giants wanted low prices on thier product, which is counter-intuitive.
Do you work for Deutche Bank? Your logic sounds very Joe LaVorgna-like.
No. The USD and every currency that is pegged to it is going to lose 90% of its purchasing power in the near future. Here is the biggest glaring point about USD longs and deflation whackjobs; they have been wrong about every single economic prediction they have made in the last 5 years.
In addition to the 95% we've lost since 1913...
98% or more.
Inflation plus no wage growth equals death to American dream. Do you think in the age of flying cars we are going to acccept a lower standard of living? We'll burn this fucking place down first.
"Von Manstein." Wasn't he the guy who lost the battle of Kursk?
That would be Model...
Von Manstein was at Kursk, too...Field Marshall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Manstein#From_Kursk_to_the_Dnieper
Yes, I am well aware...
AG Center got positively stuffed, and that was Model's gig...
In the south, you could argue that it was a minor german tactical victory, however, on the whole it was a major strategic defeat as the initiative was never regained...
The main point is that laying the defeat at Kursk at Von Manstiens feet is really pushing it...
vM was arguably the best general at the operational level of either side, Patton's shift of axes for third army was the only thing comparable to vM's handling of the 2nd battle of Kharkov....
Good info...you are a real student.
BTW, Patton hated the term flack simply because it was British, and preferred the American term AA (anti-acraft)...no way that AA trips off the tongue like flack, though. Patton Papers 1939-1945
\hattip
But you are incorrrect on the origin of Flak
from Miriam Webster:
Origin of Flak
German, from Fliegerabwehrkanonen, from Flieger flyer +Abwehr defense + Kanonen cannons
First Known Use: 1938 And of course http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41 Very similar to PaK.....It was a term that Patton associated with the British because they used it in preference to AA. Nobody said that the British invented it.
You seem to have a severe case of "right-itis".
Wasn't suggesting that you implied the Brits did...
AA sounds too much like detox to me....
As for "rightitis", an unfortunate side effect of dealing with the AGW denialistas...
And yes, there are lots of great Patton anecdotes...
Have you heard the one about "the goddam little spider went up the water spout"?
Next year AUD and US bring online massiv Gas supply
at what price ?
how much will it cost to deliver to EU ?
oh, so that's were the ramp is came from...
Another nail to the US$ coffin.
The shitstorm is coming in to the USA in form of hyperinflation.
I would say, it indeed might be deliberate intent of the US to facilitate the Russia-China merger, an enforced one though. Regarding the gold price being pegged at extremely low levels so convenient for China (and other allied countries) it becomes apparent that either the US has tacitly started cooperating with China on inescapable power-shift, or China is blackmailing the US until its (or a new) currency, entirely or partially backed by gold, becomes strong enough and prepared to take over the world reserve status.
In both cases, it's the FED's balls what's being crushed in China's hands.
They will just continue to blame food prices on droughts, climate and disease and the people will continue to swallow it. Hell even half the so called 'informed' people here on ZH actually believe that these three things are what is causing the massive increase in price of consumables. There is only one thing causing the price increases in food and fuel - dollar devaluation.
I would venture to disagree. Almost all chatter here has been on dollar devaluation, but you are right in that most people outside may not see this.
I would venture to disagree with your disagreement. I have numerous down arrows and comments on my comments with people here claiming that drought, climate change and disease are indeed the biggest factors in the rapidly rising price of consumables.
no, we're just refuting your absolutism that the ONLY reason is devaluation...that's just plain silly. devaluation is a large cause (others may have said that it wasn't) but of course in a complex system such as agriculture and economics there are always multiple variables. there most certainly is an effect of last years drought causing a SCARCITY in hay and grain which addrd upward pressue on the cost of beef to the point that herds were sent to slaughter and now we have the lowest herd count in 50 years or so.
And to clarify that the head count is indeed at 50 year lows, the tonnage of beef is larger....
So your point is somewhat incorrect....
The cost of fuel is making our seafood so expensive that people living a mile from the coast can't afford to buy it.
It might have somehting to do with the fact that the amount of fuel required per lb of fish is also rocketing....
You can't buy what you can't catch (anymore)....
Certainly all the USD's out in the world that are now NOT being used for international trade (petrodollars) are going to have to flow back into the US.
I don't know quite how you would go about sterilising that.
But, good luck...
Failure equals inflation.
I don't think hyperinflation, as we know it, will be the answer; perhaps kind of higher inflation in an early stage of the transition. I rather think it'll be a general bail-in in form of a low dollar ratio compared to a new reserve currency value. I think the reserve currency swap will be the answer.
Personally I don't see how we can ever have hyperinflation here because wages are so stagnant and there is no mechanism for raising them in a global labor arbitrage world. We get high consumables costs and a slow strangle of the middle class and that's about it imo.
price inflation and hyperinflation have similarities, but are regarded as two completely different beasts. HY usually starts with foreigners
Let the games begin!
All eyes on OPEC.
But, but, but WSJ and Bloomberg said this was unpossible. They are never wrong!
Good thing we elected a radical marxist as President - They're always the BEST at looking out for our national interests, and their economic philosophies are always perfectly rational.
</sarc>
Electricity supplier won't buy Vermont renewable energy credits
http://www.reformer.com/news/ci_25803172/electricity-supplier-won-rsquo-...
MONTPELIER -- One of the nation's top renewable power suppliers said it will no longer trade Vermont's renewable energy credits, which are also counted toward the state's clean electricity goals.
NextEra Energy announced last week that it will no longer take double-counted power in a letter to New England renewable energy credit brokers. The $15 billion North American company purchases and sells renewable energy credits (RECs).
"It is a fundamental principle of all renewable energy market sales that the environmental characteristics associated with the electric energy generated cannot be counted or claimed twice," NextEra Energy officials wrote.
Renewable power producers can sell RECs to other companies to meet state renewable energy standards. Vermont utilities often sell credits for renewable power generated in the state to out-of-state power suppliers. Under Vermont's clean energy development incentive program, this renewable power also counts toward the state's clean energy target.
On Jan. 1, Connecticut banned the purchase of Vermont credits that are also used to meet the state's renewable energy target. As a result, NextEra, which provides electricity in Connecticut, will no longer trade Vermont RECs in Connecticut.
Critics of Vermont's program say the state is claiming renewable energy credits that are sold to other states.
"The Connecticut Legislature did this because they knew that Vermont was trying to create the perception of being green without paying the full price of being green," said Kevin Jones, deputy director of the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School.
He said Vermont is selling its renewable energy to other states while importing fossil fuel-generated electricity. By claiming those credits to meet Vermont's renewable energy targets, Jones said, companies could be liable to pay penalties for purchasing fraudulent credits.
That's good news cause it will help prevent industrializing rural areas with stupid fucking wind and solar scam projects that ruin farm and wilderness lands.
But.. I think solar is good on roof tops and/or private land when it is installed by companies or governments for powering that facility.
What we really need to build are thorium powered liquid salt reactors that produce no fissile materials for weapons.
+1 Headbanger, what is your impression of the Toshiba 4S ?
Thank you for asking.
Good things about the Toshiba 4S reactor
1) it;s a low pressure reactor vessel so it and related pipes can be lighter
2) No water moderator means no or very little tritium produced and leaking into ground water
3) Fewer pumps and cooling backup systems that won't fail like Fukishima
4) Perhaps a self regulating reactor as hotter liquid salt temps mean expansion of core materials and thus slower fission rates
5) Liquid core can be dumped into smaller holding tanks for emergency shutdown
6) Decay contaminant daughter products can be more easily removed from liquid core than solid fuel rods
Bad things about it
!) It's still a fast (neutron) reactor which means it produces Plutonium that can be used to build really big fire crackers than would ruin your day
2) There's really no need for fast reactors for power generation as Thorium liquid salt reactors have all the same advantages without the Plutonium
The main reason for using fast neutron reactors is so Plutonium can be used as a fuel as it does not fission about 30% of the time when hit with a slow (thermal) neutron but much much less (like 5% ??) when hit with a fast neutron but a lot more fast neutrons are needed as the "cross section" (chance of a neutron hitting) goes way way down with fast neurons versus thermal ones.
Headbanger, thank you for answering. so do we have to wait until India produces something worthwile? I have the impression they want to build big reactors, and I think the future is in small ones
I agree that smaller reactors make more sense technically but mean there's more of them to target by terrorists.
Then again, a large reactor is a more valuable target.
But we must get rid of our dangerous old high pressure boiling water reactors filling up with plutonium that are an even greater target for terrorists now.
The terrorists mostly own all the world's reactors now so... them being targeted is not likely.
HB, here is the current legal situation regarding the above...
Green-collar crime ~ carbon markets and financial crime risks
http://www.duhaimelaw.com/2014/05/11/carbon-markets-and-financial-crime-risks/
At last week’s climate finance meeting in Abu Dhabi, there was renewed interest in strengthening and standardizing carbon pricing policy to redirect global investments commensurate with the scale of the climate challenge. According to the World Bank, 60 countries and regions have adopted carbon pricing schemes. Those include China and the EU, and in limited fashion, Canada and the US at the non-federal level.
However, carbon pricing mechanisms have suffered serious set-backs in recent years, particularly the EU which has market stability problems arising from a surplus of allowances and historical massive carbon market fraud. According to conservative estimates, over €15 billion was lost in the EU from financial crimes associated with carbon emissions trades including VAT fraud, money laundering and theft.
If countries are going to reinvest as a matter of policy in the carbon emissions trade market with renewed vigor, the associated financial crime risks will have to be understood and mitigated. At present, they are neither.
--------------
You will want to read the rest.
So... IS that what Al Gore's crusade was/is really all about? Just another way to scam the sheeple with tales of global doom from climate change!?
Not that I'm a big fan of burning coal for power but these idiots taking financial advantage of the green movement will ruin it for all of us.
There have been and always will be vultures and sociopaths trying to profit off of a situtation...
You have just gotten to used to the current crew so that their guilt is not so obvious...
Perhaps now the US and the EU will reconsider sanctions against Russia.
There's nothing like shooting yourself in the foot.
not before taking the markets to new record highs
My guess is that they will continue to shoot themselves in the foot for quite some time. The delusion of grandeur is too strong.
That reminds me of the joke about the guy that would hit himself in the head with a hammer because it felt so good when he stopped.
The deals worth about 13billion a year. Price in inflation and Russia is losing money starting... 5 minutes ago....
I think we are past the point of no return, the West entered a phase of "permanent" decline while the East the phase of "permanent" ascent, and there is little (short of WW3 that anybody can or wants to do about that now).
I think so too. This gas deal, although it looks good, many here are saying it isn't that big of a deal. On its own maybe it isn't. What it is is the beginning of the eastern ascent as you say. This is the pivot of international power. This is only the beginning.
This could be The Holy Handgranade thrown at the dollar.
Haaaaleluuujaaaaahhh!
Next thing: the Knights of Ni buying shrubberies for dollars no more.
Yes, this is truly a new erea of Sino-Rus economic, political and military cooperation, destined to last for as long as either party feels that they are adequately sticking it to the other one. Or until a famine hits and 1 billion Chinese need food- then they are crossing the Russian frontier and its 'Game On!'