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Putin: It Is Time To Play Your Ace In The Hole
Submitted by Ron Holland via The Daily Bell,
You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done.
"The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers
The entire world is watching Putin play poker with the Western politicians lead by Obama and followed by Washington quislings in London, Brussels and Berlin. America's goal since the end of the Cold War has been to weaken by financial, economic and, if necessary, military means any real competition to its global financial and resource domination through the petrodollar and dollar world reserve currency status.
The current trade and economic sanctions against Russia and Iran follow this time-tested action that is never successful on its own, as we know from the 50-plus-year blockade of Cuba. But this strategy can lead to opposition nations retaliating by military means, often their only alternative to end blockades etc., which are an act of war and allow the US and other democracies to bring their ultimate superior military power to bare against the offending sovereign state. This worked for Lincoln against the Confederate States of America, by Woodrow Wilson against the Central Powers before World War One, against the Japanese Empire before World War Two, Iraq, Libya – the list is endless.
Recently the US has created the oil price collapse, working closely with its client state Saudi Arabia, in order to weaken the economic power of both Iran and Russia, the two main nations opposing US hegemony, foreign policy and petrodollar policy. Yes, this will play havoc with the US shale oil industry as well as London's North Sea oil industry but oil profits pale in comparison to the importance of maintaining Western power over Russia and China.
I hope Putin realizes the US is not playing games here, as this is a financial and strategic game to the death for Washington and it's Western allies that have foolishly followed the Goldman Sachs/central banking cartel's deadly sovereign debt recipe and for growth and prosperity. The time is up; the debts can never be repaid and sooner or later must be repudiated one way or the other.
China is waiting in the wings as the new world economic power and while it is too big to challenge, US strategy is to take out its top two allies, Iran and Russia, to buy time for Wall Street and Washington. The strategy might be a competitive economic course of action but the risk of military consequences and even a third world war loom on the horizon and no country has ever defeated Russia in a land attack. This is risky brinkmanship just to protect our banking and Wall Street elites and their profits at the expense of the American people, I might add, but the US has done this before.
Is This Just a Repeat of the Versailles Treaty, Russian-style?
This has all happened before. It's the same old game with different players. I fear we are watching a repeat of the Versailles Treaty, Russian-style. If you look closely at real history rather than the establishment-directed propaganda dished out to the public, you'll realize that the Western financial elites and central banking cartel seldom change tactics. Why should they? Their financial empires continue to grow during all major wars and financial crises and if they should guess wrong, then they get taxpayers to bail them out.
The Goldman Sachs, Rothschild and Soros types control the Western democracies as well as the financial markets and use paid or blackmailed cheerleaders and front men to advance their best interests to the populace as acceptable economic or political policies.
For example, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points statement given on January 8, 1918, claiming the war and US intervention was a moral cause to advance peace in Europe after World War One, was one of the leading reasons the Germans sued for peace. In hindsight, we know that American intervention was really instituted to prevent an Allied loss or negotiated settlement that could make it impossible for French and British banks to pay back their massive loans to the US banking establishment and thereby bankrupting our leading banks of the day.
Once the war was over the platitudes about freedom, self-determination and making the world safe for democracy dissolved into the Treaty of Versailles, probably one of the most vengeful and unfair peace treaties ever forced on a defeated foe. The entire Austrian-Hungarian empire was totally destroyed except for the small area of present Austria and Germany, which was stripped of much of its territory and subjected to a vengeful, unpayable war debt comparable to America's current national debt today. Sadly, the treaty created the public anger and economic chaos that eventually brought Hitler to power and set the stage for the Second World War.
So Where Does Russia Go from Here?
First, the US cable pundits are suggesting that Putin might retaliate by invading Ukraine. Why would Russia want Ukraine? Except for substantial agricultural resources that can be purchased on the open market, this is a bankrupt country with a long list of failed governments. The country has become a pawn in the battle between East and West, and its people have already suffered so much. Now Russia might move in the East to protect Russian-speaking areas and could be willing to suffer the additional economic consequences of creating a land bridge to Crimea but the military option appears quite limited and counter-productive at best.
No nation will win a shooting war between the US, UK and EU versus Russia and China. The consequences are too horrible to be contemplated but Russia has an ace in the hole that can win the financial and economic battle going on today.
First, Russia should join with China in a new gold, oil and natural resource backed monetary union as an alternative to the failed debt democracy model pushed by Wall Street, the central bank cartel and self-serving politicians in the West. It simply does not work in the long term to finance prosperity and improved standards of living through mountains of debt placed on future generations.
Washington has destroyed every tax haven and bit of personal and financial privacy in the world because of its desperate need for revenue. Every financial haven has caved, including Switzerland, because they cannot hope to prevail against the US, UK and EU. The US intends to make Russia a pariah state and cut it off from trade, funds transfer, banking and Western credit markets. It will not relent until Putin is overthrown and Russia is compliant with and a supporter of the New World Order. Next in line following Russia will be China. Thus, a monetary union could provide the needed support for Russia necessary to guarantee the independence and self-determination of China.
Second, Russia should act offensively rather than defensively on the financial front by creating corporate tax-free/low income tax zones and welcoming corporations, successful individuals and entrepreneurs to take up residence and create jobs and prosperity. The Hong Kong model does work to create industry, service industry and free-market prosperity and to win, Russia needs far more than a resource-based economy.
Russia needs more population and a larger middle class and should offer residency and citizenship opportunities to productive and successful workers, entrepreneurial businesses and corporations etc. with the right of reasonable financial and corporate privacy along with the low tax benefits.
Canada, the wonderful country I live and work in today, offers permanent residency benefits and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of foreigners wanting to work and immigrate to Canada together with low corporate tax benefits.
Russia can and should do the same, although the market will require bargain prices as Russia does not have the long history of rule of law, security and peace like Canada does. Russia should look at good climate areas like Crimea and other areas around the Black Sea and maybe Kaliningrad in the north directly in the middle of the EU.
Competititon, free markets, minimal regulation and low taxes are the 21st century solution to military aggression, over-indebted and resource-hungry empires. Putin said it best in his news conference last week.
"They won't leave [the bear] alone. They will always seek to chain it. And once it's chained, they'll rip out its teeth and claws. The nuclear deterrence, speaking in present-day terms. As soon as this happens, nobody will need [the bear] anymore. They'll stuff it. And start to put their hands on its Taiga [Siberian forest belt] after it. We've heard statements from Western officials that Russia's owning Siberia was not fair." – Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin, now is the time to play your ace in the hole. Russia can win the financial and economic war being waged against it but not by playing the same old game of poker where cheating prevails. Show the world that Russia is worthy of 21st century leadership in a peaceful and competitive manner by using the debt, currency and banking weaknesses of the West to defeat an opponent out to chain Russia as it has the rest of the world into surrender and serfdom.
If you are as concerned as I am about where the world is headed, consider securing a second home internationally in the right location as a means to protect you and your family. Think of it as lifestyle insurance.
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Ever get the feeling the USA is waking up to the fact it created far too many dollars and if everybody decided to SWITCH to yuans, dumping dollars the USA gonna have a pile of worthless value.
Indirectly Putin is right, "shackle the bear" ...
The full story though is "shackle the bear to kill the dragon".
RULE 1:- In economics. If every other nation in the world trades exclusively in western currencies China isolated can be manipulated economically to suit the western elites.
Now I have a question for China! A REALLY BIG QUESTION! Overtaking the USA on economic size how come you have not been given the global reserve currency? Just puzzled because if you do not have this then your nation can be economically controlled. So the whole of China are now the slaves of Wall Street. (Interesting thought).
That last point is going to be the issue going into 2015 as China gets bigger economically.
Putin is taking on TPTB. One dangerous game, for him and his country. He most certainly is no boyscout, but then again, no boyscout would have taken on Satan's power tribe.
OK, first, capitalism is an economic system, government is supposed to be a body of law above parts that keep fairness between all of its people, in physical form (huumans) or giuridical form (corporations) being above all.
Unfortunately competition tends to crate bigger and bigger players to reach efficiency and economies of scale, that tend to be too powerful to be subjugated to any rule of law. This is what happened in the West with economic entities so powerful to be literally above the law, or to buy their way into the law. The West with the fairy tale of Global competition and free markets, allowed these economic entities to grow beyond any reasonable control.
Wishing that to Russia is... like well passing a cancer to the other side, and let it bloom somewhere else to keep making damages.
Noooo, I hope it stops here. True Capitalism in the West is dead, we have an aberration that goes against any good human value or even decency (I am a capitalist, always will be and I do not see it here among us...). Only fools would believe in free market today. We had our ways, and we brought the world to its knees spreading misery and death. Let some fresh mind come up with new ideas, hoping they will succed to create a better place to live without passing them our heritage. Our heritage is doomed and will disappear with us.
No, I hope they will come up with something better than we (the West) did.
And for the records...
despite the advertised "all is good here", the US real economy is like a zombi... dead (even if its financial powerhouse is still shining and feeding on the miseries of soon to collapse US$ dominated indebted economies). The US financial powerhouse needs a war, no matter what Putin does, they will have a war, that is clear in Washington... and the bigger the war, the more fixing (or cleaning the house) they will be able to do, like a cleansing...
Madness at the power of "n"...
Capitalism? can mean different things...
creative capitalism is only that ever worked...because it take work
vs "loan capitalism" which is plunder
"And of all things on earth, the Marxist hates the Kulak the most"
from book of warning: Count Your Dead They Are Living Wyndam Lewis 1937
OK, first, capitalism is an economic system while government is supposed to be a body of law, above parts that keep fairness between all of its people, in physical form (humans) or giuridical form (corporations) being above all.
Unfortunately competition tends to create bigger and bigger players to reach efficiency and economies of scale, that tend to be too powerful to be subjugated to any rule of law. This is what happened in the West with economic entities so powerful to be literally above the law, or to buy their way into the law. The West with the fairy tale of Global competition and free markets, allowed these economic entities to grow beyond any reasonable control.
Wishing that to Russia is... like well passing a cancer to the other side, and let it bloom somewhere else to keep making damages.
Noooo, I hope it stops here. True Capitalism, in the West, is dead, now we have an aberration (plutocracies everywhere) that goes against any good human value or even decency (I am a capitalist, always will be and I do not see Capitalism here among us anymore...). Only fools would believe in Free Markets today. We had our ways, and we brought the world to its knees spreading misery and death. Let some fresh mind come up with new ideas, hoping they will succed to create a better place to live without passing them our heritage. Our heritage is doomed and will disappear with us.
No, I hope they will come up with something better than we (the West) did.
And for the records...
despite the advertised "all is good here", the US real economy is like a zombi... dead (even if its financial powerhouse is still shining and feeding on the miseries of soon to collapse US$ dominated indebted economies). The US financial powerhouse needs a war, no matter what Putin does, they will have a war, that is clear in Washington... and the bigger the war, the more fixing (or cleaning the house) they will be able to do, like a cleansing...
Madness at the power of "n"...
This must be hitting close to home I've never seen so many trolls. Hey CIA, can ya do better?
Let them read, maybe they will come to their senses? Maybe they might have a patriotic and human awakening... They might realize that "I am working with and for my people, not against them" and have one of those "revelation" moments? There must be some people thinking also in there, so let them read, and crytically think. There are no enemies except for the ones that we create...
I hate all the propagada Cops against People that is run in the media. Cops are a sample of the populations, there are good ones and bad ones. Cops are not an enemy, they are poor guys risking their lives everyday for a miserable compenation... Again... we have no enemies except for the ones that we create... or that are fed through us through TV for us to believe...
:-)
Let them read, maybe they will come to their senses? Maybe they might have a patriotic and human awakening... They might realize that "I am working with and for my people, not against them" and have one of those "revelation" moments? There must be some people thinking also in there, so let them read, and crytically think. There are no enemies except for the ones that we create...
I hate all the propagada Cops against People that is run in the media. Cops are a sample of the populations, there are good ones and bad ones. Cops are not an enemy, they are poor guys risking their lives everyday for a miserable compenation... Again... we have no enemies except for the ones that we create... or that are fed through us through TV for us to believe...
:-)
Yes, but. A bunch of ordinary guys to start out, join , say, the police, the tax department or the marines. They must have thought they relished confrontation.
Pretty soon their attitude is shaped by the institutional culture and their colleagues and they become a team - a close knit team with their comradship and an enemy. In this case the enemy is the civilian.
As an ancient and outwqardly respectable white guy, humble and polite, my encounters with the police have been humiliating and intimidating. so I can imagine what it would be like if my profile were other.
Ron Holland was always the most worthwhile writer at DB. When Wile's influence prevails, the Zio-friendly libertarianism is in evidence. Holland is more trenchant in his outlook. Krieger is good, too.
Poking a wounded animal in the eye probably isn't the smartest strategy to employ. It has hurt the western world, especially Europe, almost as much as Russia.
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/u-s-led-sanctions-against-putins-hand...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/china-to-the-rescue-russia-agrees-to-...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/negative-social-mood-causes-geopoliti...
Poking smaller animals is all we know how to deo.
What does not kill you, make you strong
except for Bears...
Bears will kill you
Bear is normal to Russia..
Just some Russian Kids wrestling a bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47VQeUO_BJ0
Cat vs Bear Russia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSCurUDCc38
Try poking a badger with a stick in his hoe in the graound....
I did one time and boy did he get pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let him keep his hole!!!!!!!
If you are as concerned as I am about where the world is headed, consider securing a second home internationally in the right location as a means to protect you and your family. Think of it as lifestyle insurance.
For most this is not an option. I'm as concerned as you but don't have the money to afford the capex and maintenance cost of two homes...
Ok.....the gold nonsense again!! What you guys don't get, is the fact that no nation (or group of nation) can go back to a gold backed currency model. If Russia or China start to back their money with gold, people will buy the currency and claim it in gold right the way. The gold will leave the country as fast as it can. Thats why Nixon stopped the dollar/gold convertibility. Gold was just rushing out of the country, so he had to do it. To protect the American gold. Now if Russia and China want to "peg" their currency to gold they can do it. But it will not change anything. Actually they can "peg" their currency to anything they want it does not change the current situation. When a currency is redeemable in gold.....thats different and they can't do it.
You are conflating backing and redeeming. One doesn't necessarily mean the other.
You could back a currency with oilstocks in possession but it would not mean you could redeem a certain amount of the currency for a barrel of oil.
Persons who wish to write for a living would do well to learn to spell properly.
OT/ But related :
Since we are on the subject of what lies ahead :
Here is the Oligarchy's version (By the Squid itself) of how 2015 will play out :
http://uk.businessinsider.com/jan-hatzius-top-questions-for-2015-2014-12
8 Answers on how the US economy will perform in 2015.
Well, ZH fast eagles, you have it right there to get your rifle sights on. Will any of these predictions ( or all of them) come true?
I'd love to hear you financial wizards tell me what you see in your fish bowl relative to these optimistic predictions.
I know that many feel that 2015 will be a year of make or break.
Chinese too smart for a gold backed system. Archaic and deflationary.
Archaic and deflationary.....
both is against the wall street, though good for China.
You don't bring arms to B A R E; you bring them to bear.
The idea that the USA UK EU is engineering events such as an oil price collapse is not credible analysis. Lower oil prices are always beneficial to western societies, and if they could be controlled, they would have long ago taken measures to keep them lower. The idea that this is being undertaken to "get" Russia is facile.
The truth is far more terrifying. Events are not being engineered by malevolent forces at the helm - they are simply uncontrolled. The people at the helm as incompetent dilettantes who try to keep up the appearance of control and leadership.
depends whose arms they are : if its Scarlett J I'd love them bare, and I'd play at bear looking for the honey!
It's really tough for me to take seriously someone who can't tell the difference between being "led" and "lead," and doesn't know that you bring something to "bear" on a target, not "bare."
And then, under the "Where Does Russia Go From Here" we have a First, then another First, then a Second.
Ron, maybe you're pounding these things out in a hurry and don't have time to read them over, and spell-checker isn't catching them, but you need an editor.
I was going to send this as a link to my 23-year-old son to show him a view of the Russian/US current cold war, but I can't--the first thing he'll do is ask why I'm bothering with a piece where the author doesn't understand "led" and "bear." And then he'll probably dismiss it.
Can't say I blame him.
And yet, I agree with your analysis. I'm just sayin'--you need to edit these things.
The Colder War Has Begun… and Russia Is Winning!
Eye-opening new book reveals that Vladimir Putin has launched an ingenious yet devastating plan to strip America of its superpower status. And he’s not using bombs or tanks to do it!
Instead, he’s grabbing control of the global energy trade—the largest source of demand for the dollar and the bedrock of American might and prosperity.
Should Putin win, he could nuke the US economy and cost the average American dearly.
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cm/the-colder-war-has-begun-and-russia-is-w...
Unfortuntely, the world isn't getting out of this fuckpile of a problem without another goddamn war. When all three players feel they have their backs to wall, or when one is brazen enough to assume utter superiority, it'll be on.
We are seeing the setup for WWIII here.
Then everything that was fought for during the 2nd World War will be finally lost.
This will be the next 'geopolitical/global reset'. I'm not so sure the US will come out of the next one as well as the last, I'm actually certain we won't.
The only way the tribe wins this game is if they infiltrate the Russian and Chinese states like they did in America. We'll see.
This war is already over. Putin already has control of the Ukraine, he is already doing the deals with the Eurasian Trade Zone that are needed as a counterweight to the West. He buys gold with the money he gets from oil. That is the checkmate. He has all the cards . So I don't see the purpose of this argument. Zero Hedge is not publishing the best informed information all the time , some articles like this are way off the mark.
Afghan / Ukraine:
http://rt.com/news/218067-us-afghanistan-ukraine-weapons/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc2KeSkl5H0
I wonder if the author has considered that Putin may like the history and culture of Russia.
Who knows, Putin may even think turning Russia into a multicultural cesspool with financial whorehouses on his finest properties like the US and Canada is not a good idea....
If the Putin regime really crushed the internal criminal culture, including and especially the horrifically corrupt gangster government officials and police, and permanently lowered the income tax rates, then I would relocate to Russia myself.
I explored Russia on my worldwide quest to find the best place to live & retire, even invested in learning the language, travelled throughout the country, which is immense beyond comprehension and still has some vast wild spaces, but the domestic routine built-in culture of rampant government corruption and serious gangster crime is a deal-breaker.
At least the crime and corruption in the US is not on the streets so much as it is in the Govt./ Industrial / Financial Complex and institutionalized by law so you get shaken down in increments rather than getting robbed all at once by a mugger.
Different payment plan...Same result.
Try living in Russia, as I actually did, vs just relying upon stories, then come back and share what you have learned.
In Russia, after the locals discover that you have $$$, they will ALL be inventing schemes to get it from you, including EVERY local bureaucrat by insisting that you pay bribes for him to perform his routine job duties, eg permits, and of course EVERY local cop.
USA is transforming into a police state coercive collective, BUT do not fantasize that there are an Edens on Earth, and Russia is MUCH WORSE than the USA.
That's a legitimate argument
and there's Dominoe's 'pasta in a bread bowl' in the USA.. Who knows what gets delivered in Moscow?
Until I see different Putin is on the losing end and I don't see that changing no matter who's hand he shakes.
tell us, how do blind people 'see different'?
Being clever don't mean jack shit.
I guess that's why your avatar is a bull taking a dump with the international "no" sign.
Cause "being clever don't mean jack shit"
I'm betting on Putin, he needs to retaliate against his and Russia's real enemies, the jews.
He would be doing everybody a favor.
The article is using the word 'quisling' incorrectly. A quisling is someone who collaborates with an occupying force.
I suggest to ponder what constitutes an "occupying force".
tl;dr
Does this really suggest Putin open free trade zones and show the US how to be a good capitalist?
Isn't that about as likely as Putin covering his head with rainbow tattoos and running off to join Pussy Riot?
I once lived in the land down under (where men chunder). On occasion the Oz cops would bust a triad member and deport him back to the PRC,kicking and screaming the whole way.The PRC cops would be standing on the runway at the Beijing airport with big smiles and a big "Welcome Home!" banner.
Ask yourself how many bankers are serving life sentences in the USA for all this mortgage mess.We are out of time and money,and most importantly faith and confidence in a fiat currency with no convertibilty.
The Icelanders twice rejected referendums to assume the debts of the privately owned banks which had defaulted.Also they put a few bankers in jail for short custodial sentences.Compare this issue with Ireland where the public was saddled with the huge banking debts which will never be paid off,and the migration (again!) of a large part of the educated workforce overseas.This mainly came about because of the low corporate tax rate in Ireland.The bubble was funded by the massive printing of the Euro,with major exposure to London and German banks which probably was unhedged.
The important point that no one seems to cover is the lack of incentives for people to save money.Very low interest rates discourage saving,and encourage high risk behaviour (gambling).
None of the Wall Street mess would have occurred without huge leveraged bets.This was enabled by the FED.
Russia needs more population and a larger middle class and should offer residency and citizenship opportunities to productive and successful workers, entrepreneurial businesses and corporations etc.
No!
The Russians have had 70 years of suffering from the people who would be pouring in under this label.
The Russian people were stripped clean by them under Yeltsin.
Russia has seen the danger. The psychopaths pushing the world to war. Rather than Russia letting them 'flood' in - the west should be making them 'flood' out and regain control of their nation states for their people.
They are picking us clean. Letting them loose to plunder Russia is exactly what they want. Why hand it to them on a plate. Rather defeats the article.
.
First of all, this is a really poor article. Conclusions are not comprehensive and lack of reality.
More important are the comments. The meme of Putin plays chess vs Obama playing checkers is just another layer of illusion that even ZHers are dragged in.
US has an agenda, officially published with Brzezi?ski's "The grand Chessboard". They follow this path and they are quite successful with it. Obama is not involved in this strategy, he is just POTUS, not a player in this game.
Putin is a player, but as much as alot of (US) ZH'ers wish he could turn the table in hope that US becomes again the country of the free and the brave, he won't and he can't. Putin has one ace to play and that's the nuclear option. But that's a card to end the game for all of us. Do you really think Russia is going to play that card?
this article is amatuer hour
The psychopathic and diminutive Putin (5'5" without lifts) fits the bill for a ZH hero... rides horses, shoots guns, has a gymnast girlfriend, etc. He's a Russian cowboy patriot dontcha know?
I'm starting to think that he's really just a role model for the angry and fearful small pee pee crowd of which ZH largely consists.
Here's the real Putin...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/world/even-loyalty-no-guarantee-agains...
You are spot on @johnberesfordtiptonjr. ZH seems to attract the lowest losers in life. Those who have failed at everything seem to congregrate here to wish for the destruction of everyone who bettered them. Isn't one of the authors an insider-trading crook who was caught and banned from the markets?
Your last question was a smear from back in the day. Had to discredit ZH for reporting the crooked deeds of Wall Street banksters. You get that question from a Google search? Trolls are out in force tonight.
You may be referring to Martin Armstrong who has posted articles on ZH. For example, this one is an attack on unions…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-21/martin-armstrong-warns-out-cont...
The U.S. has one of the lowest unionization rates in the western world, yet Armstrong sees this dying institution as somehow being “out of control”.
Here’s some info about him…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/business/18trader.html
Also, I think that Peter Schiff’s father (and his inspiration) is currently in jail for tax evasion.
ZH is full of crackpot authors with questionable backgrounds who are capitalizing on the Doom Boom. I read it for the entertainment value and the occasional interesting commentary (~10%). Also, it has been a fabulous contrary indicator for investment purposes... do the exact opposite of any investment "advice" or forecast that appears on ZH.
Agreed, the comments are much better than the article, especially as it seems to use a back-door method of propaganda to insert the Western oligarchic interests in the name of delivering jobs... the same BS used here in the States for decades as the war industry setup operations in each major political district... so that the 'jobs' angle could be used in the next election... same bs over and over in every civilization.... and what stops it? usually a bigger enemy state or Mother Nature... the same ole 'gods' return... some, if not most, had 'children' and eventually faded away... today we know them as comets, the basis of most Monotheistic religions... the infamous rocks, dragons and whatnot, set to return to help Big Momma clean things up... as usual.... cyclical history.... same as Russia is finding in its engagement with the West. A country or civilization based in unpayable debt is a dangerous animal that will easily turn rabid, if not worse... think of the concern Hitler had for Germany as its enemies encircled it and put on the final squeeze... it won't be pretty, no wonder Putin wants to leave the rabid beast to its own pestilencial suicide, but like any rabid creature in the wild, it will attack anything that moves... psychopathic states aren't any different... the result is inevitable, we all know it though most prefer the Wall Street game of 'extend and pretend'... we all know that sooner or later the piper will be paid... in blood as is it's vampirical way.
Ron Holland:
"Second, Russia should act offensively rather than defensively on the financial front by creating corporate tax-free/low income tax zones and welcoming corporations, successful individuals and entrepreneurs to take up residence and create jobs and prosperity. The Hong Kong model does work to create industry, service industry and free-market prosperity and to win, Russia needs far more than a resource-based economy."
My comments:
Domestic private equity companies that copy foreign companies and business models will probably work better for Russia. Some private equity companies in Western Europe and North America invest in companies that copy successful business models or copy other companies in other respects.
If Gazprom would be bankrolling something similar to Western private equity companies I guess that it would be easier to make these companies loyal to Kreml than if foreigners would own and operate private equity companies in Russia. If they need foreign managers and executives I guess that Russian companies can hire them. Russian companies can also reward their executives with bonuses and stock just like Western private equity companies. Retail investors from Western Europe and North America could invest indirectly in Russian stock through mutual funds and publically traded holding companies based in Hong Kong or mainland China. That would probably seem less risky than investing directly in Russia.
Incompetent, shallow-thinking article. This is fear-mongering where the guise is free markets and freedom but the intent is to raise the specter of dark conspiracies. Usually with kind of thing you see "Zionist cabal", "Bilderberg" or "Tri-Lateral Commission" mentioned. The problem is Putin, not us. He's emerged as a 19thC potentate operating under a failed world view of hegemony and mercantilism as he uses scapegoats to cloak his policy failures and justify his authoritarian cronyism.
Well, Rip Van Winkle, you finally woke up.
Too bad you weren't around when Bush the Unready withdrew the US from the ABM treaty in 2002.
The words of the ghost writer of one of the great American strategic thinkers.
And if Russia (Putin was president) wasn't upset about it then, how do you think they felt about it when the ex Soviet states were bribed and cajoled into NATO, with "visions of sugarplums (exports) dancing in their heads?"
Oh, that selfish, evil 19th century potentate had the fucking nerve to get upset as the NATO's wooden soldiers (Patriot missiles, cue Victor Herbert's March of the Wooden Soldiers from Babes in Toyland) danced closer and closer to Russia's border.
Until there were only two Eastern European countries that didn't have the American cucumber up their behinds: Belarus and Ukraine.
Ukraine had a long coast on the Black Sea. And the Russian naval port of Sevastopol, which it leased from Ukraine. Belarus was land locked like Poland and there weren't even any jokes about it.
So the neo-wicked witch of West appeared in Kiev, with cookies and $5 billion USD, shortly followed by John Brennan, the fucking Director of the fucking CIA. Conspiratorial deals were made.
Soon a quarter of million people out of a population of 45 million souls changed the elected government of Ukraine. And the entire West gobbled up this questionable turn of events like horse flies on road apples.
***But it was ALL PUTIN'S FAULT. Fucking 19th century potentate***
That's the propaganda we got from Washington, London, and the gay capitals of Europe.
And now we get it from you.
Time to shutdown ZeroHedge. It has totally lost it. Worshipping a petty thug like Putin is laughable.
You suck at your profession.
LOL, this is just another attempt at psywar, subliminal insertion of Versailles to attempt conjuring fear. Amateurish & desperate. . LOL, Putin has got thebankrupt WEstern states cornered... I think, the only thing being considered by Russia & China is they are creating the right condition for Germany ro break free. No hope for recovery for the bankrupt WEst.. but its true, Russia & China should be bolder in their planning... they should aim to collapse the bankrupt US economy then dismember it, Texas & California would love it
There is no protection for anyone in a nuclear conflict. Missiles wont just be fired from mainland...but from various other platforms including subs. So for example if Russia has 4 of its nuclear armed subs that have someting like 163 warheads...firing from different directions........ well there are no winners...except maybe Asia
Yes lets all worship the Banksters and Military industrial complex that runs Americans for the wealth and power Oligarchs alone. This is why the 0.01% are getting super super rich whilst 95% of the population are geting poorer and poorer.....any guess where the wealth of the 0.01% came from?
Well the many trillions the Oligarchs now have in their pockets is to be paid for by generations of Americans. Thanks for all the fish.
This is of course what previous Presidents of the USA warned the people of....they saw it coming.
Any guess which country has created the most wars since WW2, responsible for more the 30 million deaths since then...and all for their positioning as global hegemon. .. and now when their corruption of all things is begining to fracture their only answer....a hail mary pass across the planet, all in, lets some how create a global war where we wont get hurt...let Europe get destroyed instead, or china or Japan.....but of course they will fuck things up as they have all things...and US mainland will become a waste as Europe will and Russia....
And it is easy see the MSM Congress/Bankster shills and cocksuckers are getting angry. IF they have fill their mouth with Oligarch cum, then so shall all 'media'.
The shills of TPTB cannot stand anything that isn't conformed to MSM stories. AND you can tell the system is starting to creak a bit because these trolls and shills getting all the more active and desperate.....
and of course what they attempt to do is fill the end of ZH threads with anti ZH stuff...and propagation of MSM memes for the TPTB.
Too bad for them there is more than one time zone.
So the US at a cost of around $3bn (ask Nuland, she let the cat out of the bag on all this) fomented a change of government in the Ukraine to one that is favourable to the West. Including sundry killing of both sides by agents of the coup. ALL for the purpose of having military hardware as close as possible to the Russian border.
Have to ask people like Econophile that if Russia did the same in Mexico would he think it unreasonable for the US to try and prevent this, or is it only ok for the US to do this?
IT is stupidity in the etreme and the USA new very well that their plans in the Ukraine would undoubtedly bring a response from Russia...of course they will stop the establishment of banks of anti missile missiles and other hardware on their boreder.
AND Putin the despot oligarch....fuck me dead...Econophhile have even looked at the USA? Where is ALL the wealth concentrated, for whom has Congress and Whitehouse worked, why so many more millions out of jobs permanently, so many more millions on food stamps even as wall street and the very elite Banksters grow their wealth beyond limits.
So take the plank for your own eye. The USA and Russia are no longer different...two sides of the very same coin. And the USA so afraid that its hegemony is under risk has decided to prosecute teh plan it had establish decades before....reduce Russia, encirle China.
The problem is not Putin who is just reacting to the games the US playing in the Ukraine and financial system....but with a corrupt West.
Nice advice, but the author started losing me when he inserted Versailles Treaty. Russia is not yet conquered and has not stipulated to following such a draconian plan. That is the problem with the banksters in the west - Russia is not cooperating in their world domination plans and there is no likelihood it will soon comply.
Otherwise, the author's recommendations already seem to be started by the Russian government. The president's and prime minister's web sites are full of meetings and plans about non-dollar gas deals and low-tax zones. And the government's actions are having an impact not yet admitted by our Dear Leaders, but there is one to judge by the extra sanctions and continued fulminations against Russia. I agree with the author that this is a war to the death.