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Is Russia Planning A Gold-Based Currency?
Submitted by Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna via The Mises Institute,
The “perfect-storm” of geopolitical instability, diplomatic isolation, severe currency depreciation, and economic decline now confronting Russia has profoundly damaged Moscow's international standing, and possibly for the long-term. Yet, it is precisely such conditions that may push the country’s leadership into taking the radical step that will secure its world-player status once and for all: the adoption of a gold-exchange standard.
Though a far-fetched idea at first glance, many factors suggest that remonetization in gold may be a logical next step for Moscow.
First, for years Moscow has been expressing its unwillingness to remain at the monetary mercy of the US and its NATO allies and this view has been most vehemently expressed by President Putin’s long-time economic advisor, Sergei Glazyev. Russia is prepared to play strategic hardball with the West on the issue: the governor of Russia’s central bank took the unusual step last November of presenting to the international media details of the bank’s zealous gold-buying spree. The announcement, in sharp contrast to that institution’s more taciturn traditions, underscores Moscow’s outspoken dismay with dollar hegemony; its timing suggests coordination with the top rungs of government to present gold as a possible currency-war weapon.
Second, despite international pressure, Russia has been very wary of the sell-off policies that led the UK, France, Spain, and Italy to unload gold over the past decade during unsuccessful attempts to prop up their respective ailing economies — in particular, of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s sell-off of 400 metric tons of the country's reserves at stunningly low prices. Moscow’s surprise decision upon the onset of the ruble’s swift decline in early December 2014 to not tap into the country’s gold reserves, now the world's sixth largest, highlights the ambitiousness of Russia’s stance on the gold issue. By the end of December, Russia added another 20.73 tons, according to the IMF in late January, capping a nine-month buying spree.
Third, while the Russian economy is structurally weak, enough of the country's monetary fundamentals are sound, such that the timing of a move to gold, geopolitically and domestically, may be ideal. Russia is not a debtor nation. At this writing in January, Russia’s debt to GDP ratio is low and most of its external debt is private. Physical gold accounts for 10 percent of Russia’s foreign currency reserves. The budget deficit, as of a November 2014 projection, is likely to be around $10 billion, much less than 1 percent of GDP. The poverty rate fell from 35 percent in 2001 to 10 percent in 2010, while the middle class was projected in 2013 to reach 86 percent of the population by 2020.
Collapsing oil prices serve only to intensify the monetary attractiveness of gold. Given that oil exports, along with the rest of the energy sector, account for 45 percent of GDP, the depreciation of the ruble will continue; newly unstable fiscal conditions have devastated banks, and higher inflation looms, expected to reach 10 percent by the end of 2015. As Russia remains (for the foreseeable future) mainly a resource-based economy, only a move to gold, arguably, can make the currency stronger, even if it does limit Russia’s available currency.
In buying as much gold as it has, the country is, in part, ensuring that it will have enough money in circulation in the event of such fundamental transformation. In terms of re-establishing post-oil shock international prestige, a move to gold will allow the country to be seen as a more reliable and trustworthy trading partner.
The repercussions of Russia on a gold-exchange standard would be immense. Above all, it would mean the first major schism in the world's monetary order. China would quite likely follow suit. It could mean the threat of a severe inflation in the United States should rafts of unwanted dollars make their way back across the Atlantic — the Fed's ultimate nightmare. Above all, the country will avoid the extreme debt leverages which would not have happened had Western capitals remained on gold.
“A gold standard would be politically appealing, transforming the ruble to a formidable currency and reducing outflows significantly,” writes Dr. Enrico Colombatto, economics professor at the University of Turin, Italy.
He notes that the only major drawback would be that the imposed discipline of a gold standard would deprive authorities of discretionary political power. The other threat would be that of a new generation of Russian central bankers becoming too heavily influenced by the monetary mindset of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Fed.
As Alisdair MacLeod, a two-decade veteran of off-shore banking consulting based in the UK, recently wrote, Russia (and China) will “hold all the aces” by moving away from any possible currency wars of the future into the physical gold market. In his article, he adds that there is currently a low appetite for physical gold in Western capital markets and longer-term foreign holders of rubles would be unlikely to exchange them for gold, preferring to sell them for other fiat currencies.
Mr. Macleod cites John Butler, CIO at Atom Capital in London, who sees great potential in a gold-exchange standard for Russia. With the establishment of a sound gold-exchange rate, he argues, the Central Bank of Russia would no longer be confined to buying and selling gold to maintain the rate of exchange. The bank could freely manage the liquidity of the ruble and be able to issue coupon-bearing bonds to the Russian public, allowing it a yield linked to gold rates. As the ruble stabilizes, the rate of the cost of living would drop; savings would grow, spurred on by long term stability and lower taxes.
Foreign exchange also would be favorable, Mr. Butler maintains. Owing to the Ukraine crises and commodities crises, rubles have been dumped for dollar/euro currencies. Upon the announcement of a gold-exchange, demand for the ruble would increase. London and New York markets would in turn be countered by provisions restricting gold-to-ruble exchanges of imports and exports.
The geopolitics of gold also figure into Russia’s increasingly close relations with China, a country that also has made clear its preference for gold over the dollar. (Russia recently edged out China as the world's top buyer of the metal.) In the aftermath of the $400 billion, 30-year deal signed between Russian gas giant Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Company in November 2014, China turned its focus to the internationalization of its own gold market. On January 15, 2015, the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the largest physical gold exchange worldwide, and the World Gold Council, concluded a strategic cooperation deal to expand the Chinese gold market through the new Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
This is not the first time the gold standard has been seen as the ultimate cure for Russia’s economic problems. In September 1998, the noted economist Jude Wanninski predicted in a far-sighted essay for The Wall Street Journal that only a gold ruble would get the the country out of its then-debt crises. It was upon taking office about two years later, in May 2000, that President Putin embarked upon the country’s massive gold-buying campaign. At the time, it took twenty-eight barrels of crude just to buy an ounce of gold. The gold-backed ruble policy of those years was adopted to successfully pay down the country's external debt.
As a pro-gold stance is, essentially, anti-dollar, speculation about how the US would react raises the question of whether an all-out currency war would follow. The West would have to keep Russia regionally and militarily marginalized, not to mention kept within the confines of the Fed, the ECB, and the Bank of England (BOE).
Nor is that prospect too far-fetched. As Dutch author Willem Middelkoop has written in his 2014 book The Big Reset: War on Gold and the Financial Endgame,
A system reset is imminent. Even before 2020 the world's financial system will need to find a different anchor. ... In a desperate attempt to maintain this dollar system, the United States waged a secret war on gold since the 1960s. China and Russia have pierced through the American smokescreen around gold and the dollar and are no longer willing to continue lending to the United States. Both countries have been accumulating enormous amounts of gold, positioning themselves for the next phase of the global financial system.
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Yes. Who will stop them?
No. Why bother. Why not just keep the economic war afront of the enemy and simply demand payment for gas and oil in gold?
Russia is buying gold with its saved dollars. It's the same thing, except it can do it cheaper this way...
Hmmm. Russia lost about 75% of its Forex purchasing power in the last few months,
so no, with 17% interest rates, and all hell breaking loose to their South, this is not a time for bold currency moves.
Bold moves, no, but desparate moves might find it's way to the front before too long. They are in a slow choke hold with oil prices.
Good point. We should always lead with our strong suit.
AK-47 based currency?
you could do that but it wouldnt be as accurate as the ar15 currency. ;-)
edit
i really dont know if any major power would implement a gold back currency. most of TPTB got to where they are by stepping on the little guys. the temptation of the toner cartridge is just too great for these cats. i really hope i am wrong as this currency war will harm millions of hard working families.
Just redeem it in gold or a gold backed currency. Fiat be damned.
These ideas about a gold backed currency are flawed IMO. What happens when some country does this? If there are problems anywhere in the world (there are problems everywhere now), funds will go pouring into the country with the gold backed currency. This would be like the problem that Switzerland is fighting, except times 10 or 100. And if gold demand really went up, that currency would be a simple way to purchase gold. People would pile in until the the gold-backed currency just exploded.
yeah like what happens when you are the only gold backed currency in the basket, and the countries that dont import much devalues to boost exports?
edit
and the funny thing would be countries like zimbabwe(who are large gold producers) would be the new saudi arabia lmfao
I love the idea of a market basket of PMs as a currency base, but you should make changes from perceived strength, not from obvious weakness. Russia has a lot on its table now, and not much depth of field. The Oligarks have to be nervous, if not plotting.
a little OT, but "Let them eat chocolate" seems to be apt
"While many Ukrainians in the capital Kiev are facing food shortages from soaring prices, one product seems more than abundant in the shops – the Roshen brand of chocolates that made Poroshenko a billionaire in his former business life. "
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40977.htm
"Yes. Who will stop them?"
Greedy fucking jew scum and their Mossad Killing squad.
The blatant anti-semitism here is very illustrative of the low IQ redneck farmers on this site. The same kind of dumb idiots and traitors that can easily be lured into left/right wing extremism, "Russia/China are our saviours" and ponzi schemes.
It sure beats a Nuclear War, why not win the war without firing a SHOT.
What a novel idea.
Russia's debt is 10% of GDP
While the US's debt is 110% of GDP.
You can't make this SHIT up.
Who has the Blunt and Koolaid?
Gold Wins In A Global Currency War – Analysts
A very interesting exercise is to google "debt-GDP" ratio of countries around the world. The central bankers appear to get really agitated whenever a country with real assets gets under about 15% or so. (The Argentinian president's current problems would "disappear" if she were just a little smarter about this) I think Putin's too smart to risk nuclear raining down on Moscow-at least at the moment
That is precisely why now is the time to do it. The RBL has lost so much value that turning it into a gold exchangeable currency would return it to its former value.
These ideas about a gold backed currency are flawed IMO. What happens when some country does this? If there are problems anywhere in the world (there are problems everywhere now), funds will go pouring into the country with the gold backed currency. This would be like the problem that Switzerland is fighting, except times 10 or 100. And if gold demand really went up, that currency would be a simple way to purchase gold. People would pile in until the the gold-backed currency just exploded.
This is true if commercial banks are allowed to issue the national currency (ie, rubles) with partial gold backing; in other words, if the banks can issue a ruble that is supposed to be redeemable at some official rate (say, 10,000 rubles per ounce) but they have less than 1/10,000 of an ounce per ruble to back them with... which is what would happen with gold in a central banking system.
To have a working gold standard in a loan (as opposed to deposit) banking regime, banks have to issue their own currencies, backed by gold and other collateral, and allow the market to decide on their value. In other words, Russian banks' currencies would float relative to each other. Otherwise you could indeed arbitrage rubles for cheap gold and drain Russia's reserves, as the US' foreign creditors did before Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.
So honest money is a bad idea?
I am Pootin. I redeem your roobles for gold any time you want. Heh heh heh ... friend.
A gold-backed currency is just a new form of paper gold, worth as much as you trust the backer. It's little different than buying GLD, at which all the gold bugs scoff and snort. But you will buy Putin's paper gold without hesitation. OK, whatever.
i love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning
The big questions are:
1. Would the new gold-backed currency be redeemable?; and
2. Would the gold reserves be auditable?
If yes to 1, Russia wouldn't have its gold for very long.
If no to 1, but yes to two, I'm not sure that would be enough to secure the faith in Russia's new paper. . .
Make it redeemable with a premium on it - like when you buy gold with dollars.
Make a profit on redemption.
That could work with a stable valuation, but how would you make that work if/when the value of gold starts to fluctuate (ie appreciate rapidly when physical is scarce and folks are willing to pay the premium)? If the premium were too high - it would be the same as fractional backing (only 20% backed by gold, or whatever), which might not do much to stabilize the currency.
Good point.
Maybe you could calculate a stable price range for gold based on a manipulation-free market (hypothetical) and increase premiums the more it exceeded that range. Or have backup commodities, like oil, to replace gold if someone is seriously manipulating gold.
Obviously, not so friendly countries would want to pay Russia back for derailing their fiat gravy train.
3. No gold/ruble, no oil/gas.
The IMF's plans for the SDR (as well as Chatham House) give a resounding NO.
http://redefininggod.com/2015/01/globalist-agenda-watch-2015-update-12-d...
Which begs the question, why are Russia and China in the IMF at all? Why do their leaders give lip service to using globalist, multitinational entities for their supposed salvation?
Why did Goldman motherfucking Sachs coin the term "BRICs" all the way back in 2003?
http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/archive/archive-pdfs/brics-drea...
Are "alternative" media blogs like ZH leading us down the primrose path? Questions worth asking.
Yes to 1... but not at the current LME or COMEX rates .... at a rate set by the Russian govt, and adjusted every month. (or even daily) .. and always tied to exactly back their M1 ..
See Mike Malone http://hiddensecretsofmoney.com/videos/episode-3
at about 24:20 onwards.
Gold backed currencies are a question of confidence so those questions you ask are really lrrelevant in the general market........US will continue to keep the reserve currency until we see a confidence tipping point where alternatives are found. China and Russia are positioning themselves for the eventual shift in reserve currency but it could be 20 years or more before that actually took place.
"No. Why bother. Why not just keep the economic war afront of the enemy and simply demand payment for gas and oil in gold?"
Knukles--
I think you are wrong but for all of the right reasons. You cannot run a Total War Economy on a Gold Standard. Putin et.al. can see beyond the next election and to a future where Russia is running the crossroads of the Euro-Asian Economy. "Let the West fall on its own sword. We'll survive this and build on the debris that's left".
CW
Oh god, here go all the ZH conspiracy thinkers again! Just when the gold price is deflating again, what a coincidence...
I definitely agree with everyone here that the main problems of too much debt and fiat currency have not been solved, but I highly highly highly doubt that Russia will go at it alone.
More wishful/conspiracy thinking of people who have been catching the falling knife all the way down from $1900...
'All Hell breaking loose to their south' is solely a situation of Putin's discretion - to be dealt with in any manner he sees fit; be it long and protracted, or overwith in 48 hours, with the Eurozone wondering what just happened... All in good time.
... Russia lost about 75% of its Forex purchasing power in the last few months.
Really ? By the same measure, did Euro lose 15% of its "Forex purchasing power" too, over the last months ? What is that Forex purchasing power that you are talking about ? Power to purchase USD ? Maybe the Russians don't need those USD, hence the reason why they exchange them for gold. They have plenty of bilateral commercial agreements with other countries, for which they use other currencies.
The point is, what do you keep you SAVINGS into ? I know that the entire concept of "savings" sounds like extra-terrestrial talk for most Americans and West Europeans (including ALL their bankers & politicians), however other countries do have savings AND (oh, the horror) commercial surpluses...
Simply just a race to the bottom.
"Is Russia planning a gold-based currency?"
No, sorry to disappoint you. Off to the next conspiracy theory I guess...
all you says are already past, check oil prices, i announced raise 3 months ago... you cant hold so low prices anymore... ( usa ).
gold very stable in non usd money... ( eur )
greece ? pffffff.... negociations......
ukraine ? like september treaty... what will be respected...nothing... fucking decoy for eu to NOT ASSUME they do not follow USA anymore...?
wait for TTIP.... like a tong deep in pussy....
circus.
Why do you think oil prices are low? US production has increased by 600,000 bpd since last August. Seems like the producers are happy to sell at more oil these prices.
Damn,tongue deep in pussy sounds good to me....fuck Russia!!
Ding Ding Ding
That game has already been played and cost the US significant tonnage before it was shut down. Russians might be fools, but they aren't damn fools. ;-)
Dupe
See, ya fix this by selling gold...
Oh, wait.
I hope I don't wake up one Monday morning only to find the dollar has been devalued 40%, either purposely by the fed in these currency wars, or by the "Invisible Hand" of the market.
How much was a dollar worth in 2000?
$1.50
Already happening, just on the hush. That's why sanctions have been so "damaging".
lmao
In December 2014 , the so called damaged economy of Russia , bought 20 tons of gold , in November 600,000 OZ of gold which equal to 18,7 tons of GOLD . So those so called " experts " that talk about the " damage " to Russia by the sanctions and Isolation , should see a Shrink urgently ! All of their predictions and assessment are BS !
super obozocare and his crony cocksuckers mc Cain and boener
Central Bank of Russia: Russia's foreign debt decreased by 18 percent from 728.9 billion to 599.5 billion dollars in 2014. Say hallo to S&P idiots
Russia is ready for "voen" (war in Russian). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcsgIjoTC-E
Don't annoy the Russian bear! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcsgIjoTC-E
The western bankers will (and are) trying to stop anyone from not using their fiat currencies. Americans are waking up to the fact that our dollar is becoming absolutely worthless. The BRICS know that the dollar is already worthless. They have been buying tons and tons of gold. What are they planning? Impossible to really know, but it’s obvious they are preparing for the end of the fiat currencies.
It only makes sense for us private citizens to do the same. Most of us can’t afford tons (or even ounces) of gold. We must buy and trade with silver. If you are not already preparing for the end of the dollar, you should buy silver at these discounted prices. A good gift to get someone interested in silver are these candles: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScentSavers?ref=hdr_shop_menu People realize silver is valuable when they hold it in their hand and research the coins silver value. For example a silver dollar is 17 times more valuable than its face value. That ratio will only get worse with the more dollars that are created out of thin air!
A much more likely scenario, if you are going to consider a gold card, would be Russia demanding their royalty payments/taxes for both oil and natgas to be paid in gold. They could create a hoard of gold extremely quickly using this method. Then they could consider backing their currency with gold.
Several articles out there postulating that Russia is doing exactly this ^ except they are using the dollars they get from selling oil instead of setting a gold price. They are letting the US suppress the price of gold and taking delivery, essentially allowing the US to hang itself by it's own petard.
For those who do not like gold, consider this question. If you inherited 10 gold bars, worth approximately $5 million, what would you do?
Anyone who says they would immediately sell them all is probably in the minority. I think most people would keep at least 1 or 2 bars at the very least. After all, gold might be the best asset to own in the not too distant future.
While very few people would buy gold if they inherited $5 million, I think most people would keep some gold if they inherited a boatload. Once you have your hands on it, you recognize it's value.
this article is old news if any news ? maybe 5 years at a minimum 3 .
No. Bureaucrats never give up power willingly and creating a gold based currency will reduce the greatest power they hold.
The Americans will ignore it at first. But that will eventually be meaningless.
been ignoring so far, but the illusions are breaking down rather quickly and there are many outlier events afloat
Putin looking at things.
Shades of Dear Leader. For god's sake keep him away from the Swiss cheese;)
They could easily make a shitload of trillion dollar platinum coins...
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-01-04/one-trillion-dollar-plat...
No need ! The USD is backed by the "full faith and credit" in Obozo's selfies... as seen here.
was about bloody time!!!!
It's probably a tad late. Should've done so a few months ago, when they had more leverage.
Now...
- The Ceasfire/Peace deal with Urkaine and E. Ukraine has been signed
- The Saudis have front-run the Gold-for-Oil scenario, by dumping oil at low prices
It might still work, IF they get other BRIICS to go along: strength in numbers, AND they use their alternative to SWIFT.
All half measures will crash & burn.
Will this peace deal immediately fail like the last one?
The Saudis are buying more equities than gold.
That'll start a war for sure.
Nooz flash: Everyone but USA / Fed is already planning a gold based currency.
i dunno about "planning"... "forced with great reluctance to conceed the inevitability", maybe
I will believe it when I see it, period. By the way, it does not have to be gold, but credit creation must be backed up by REAL COLLATERAL motherfuckers!!!
Gold is the best collateral ! That's the whole point of it... By the way, this obvious reality was discovered about 5000 years ago...
Lots of other good collateral out there. Gold is the foundation.
Gold is a fucking rock...
(I wonder how many downvotes I can get)
We tend to not down vote people who obviously flunked high school physics / chem. We feel sorry for them instead. Gold is an element.
"Gold is an element."
Originating from supernova explosions and nowhere else.
The outer electrons travel so fast that gold would otherwise appear silver if it weren't for the time dilation effect causing it to appear golden.
This is why nothing else looks quite like it.
The new currency will be backed by retired beanie babies, pogs, pictures of hairy men in fairy costumes (for liquidity), potatoes, and potassium.
I have some of those retired beanies. I will gladly exchange them for gold.
.
Kinda like the composition of rocks?..
;)
Gold fucking rocks...
(Fixed it for ya....)
Metal, heavy metal and it rocks
It's a metal in the noble metal family. But that may be just semantics to your point.
The best collateral is a free country and I do not mean this fucked up husk of a country which used to be the USA. Freedom will always be more valuable than gold or any other collateral, with freedom comes wealth.
Freedom will always be more valuable than gold or any other collateral, with freedom comes wealth.
Thx so much for what you just said hh.
Americans for far too long use their money and what they think they know about the economy as the "measuring stick" for everything that they think constitutes wealth and freedom. They are different. The laws or lack thereof in our case make the difference. Suffice it to say without rules that govern those freedoms you're toast -which is where we are right now in our degenerating state!
The rule of law that is wrapped around those "freedoms" are what is priceless. And a currency backed by Au only makes doing business with someone that embodies the other two will only make you prosper even more!
For the purposes of this discussion outside of those that are either intellectually handicapped or are paid to visit this site in a lame attempt to sabotage the message with the argument...
The United States as we knew it is gone! It's up to Russia and China to lead the way with all three of those just mentioned!
I agree that the US is very far removed from what made her great, but does anyone honestly believe that either Russia or China will have a Constitutional Republic that guarantees individual liberty/property rights?
Nope, I don't.
Face it. We had the best deal going, despite a few flaws, and we let the cocksuckers steal it from us.
Might be getting about time to fix that problem.
Agree with the both of you that whatever Russia and China come up with will probably be different then what we had.
Too hard to speculate on what it will look like. But what difference does it make when the torch has been passed when you had it and gave it away completely to fraud and corruption?
But ask yourselves honestly if in the 226 years we've been managing it, did we EVER bring it to it's fullest potential and try our hardest not to diminish it's power in protecting the "inalienable rights" of everyone and by that I mean not just the citizens of this Country?
Neither do we anymore.
50 shades of gold.
it would be a good timing, amurrika would have to change its rotten spoiled behaviour, or attack everyne at teh same time, whats it gonna be?
Talk is cheap. Reading this is repetitive. Actions are all I care about. Just do it Vlad !!
<<Is it Ruschina?
<<or Chinrus?
Brinrucn
;-D
Think of it as New Manchuria and its Western Protectorate.
cant happen, the chasm between fiat debt and the stability of a gold backed currency is one that can only be acheived by a complete implosion and
cooperation of several parties which wont happend.... Dark age shit...
This would explain the increasing demonization of Russia by the US.
http://olduvai.ca
From the article:
"the only major drawback would be that the imposed discipline of a gold standard would deprive authorities of discretionary political power"
Since when (not in modern times!) has a state limited itself in terms of power?
This all sounds kind of pipe-dreamy.
Exactly, this is why it won't happen anytime soon-- no government voluntarily gives up power. Russia is buying gold simply to prepare for the post-collapse world.
Than why it's not implemented already? Where is the problem? :D
Why RUB has lost half it's value?
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-economy-interest-rates-ruble/2682163...
Why let people suffer 15% inflation?
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/inflation-cpi
Why let people suffer?
http://in.rbth.com/economics/2015/02/01/economic_crisis_hit_rural_russia...
It's over, Hasbara. The fact that they have to resort to such ridiculous measures as paid internet trolling proves that your masters are finished. Why don't you just step aside already and allow the people to know the truth? Don't you realized you're a lot less likely to feel a noose around your neck if people are given a chance and the knowledge to prepare for systematic economic dislocation?
Instead the government lies, prevaricates, and shills, ensuring that the disaster is as complete as possible.
Short hasbara colleges. The quality of their graduates has fallen off sharply in recent times.
Well, there's one of him calmly stating his opinion and six of you guys piling on and shouting insults and personal attacks, so the audience can surely decide for itself who is really a footslog in the troll army.
czar..how much is Putin paying you to troll this pos Russian haven?
Other examples are the Congress hearing on regulating information sites like this one, Infowars, Drudge, WND... The establishment Brain washing machine has realized that every time they try to convince people that something must be done (mandatory vaccines) all it does is fuel the Alternative media and their readers to expose the lies and start screaming bloody murder about how its bull shit. The alternative media than sights sources for their reasonable objections that the middle of the road people that can still think independently check out and than join the alternative media side and grow their numbers. No amount of trolling can stop that. The proof is in the recent ratings drop (over the last 5+ years) of all the "mainstream media" channels / websites.
All they have left is flat out shutting down the competition before its too late, that too will backfire because the alternative folks will scream bloody murder about it. The tipping point has been reached in the information war, even in their own polls 50% of the people don't trust the Gov't in some form. The blind follow the leader meme is toast. Bottom line is we are growing they are shrinking you never hear of a person on the alternative side going back after their eyes are open all they do is open the eyes of more people the growth rate is almost exponential. Hence the soiling of their pants and all the elites leaving to off shore bunkers. No one who is awake to GMO's goes back, no one that is awake to aspartame (Poison to replace Sugar) drinks it again, no one that experiences firing a rifle or other gun, joins the anti gun side. Once someone is awake their is absolutely no way to put them back to sleep again. You can buy them off but never put them back to bed.
Yeah you still have the free shit army but they will exist in a form in any society and aren't big enough to support the system. The middle class that has been under attack for the last 70 years hasn't broken down as they have hoped. Yeah they are poorer but the family unit has survived and parents are still teaching their children even against non stop public schooling brain washing.
Recipe for Latvian Potato Soup to follow...
Latvians do have a varied and healthy diet, just look at their excellent physical appearance, male or female!
Let's see a real picture of you so we can compare the two.
Recipe for Latvian taco:
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/99/9923c5dbc4bd4e7f76c34396f16b816b96de2ea8...
ha-ha. Latvia's top film star (!!!)
Hi Stoogie,
How's the ad hominem attack business going today? Or it it more of a hobby?
I remember Speer's description of Martin Bormann as the "man with the hedge clippers" who trimmed everybody down so they would not appear to be greater than himself.
Really, why is this guy so dangerous to your worldview? You follow him around like a poodle in heat and sniff his butt wherever he goes. If he posts, you will soon be there as well. Do you have some sort of early warning system that allows you to watch his every move and quickly respond? Is it some sort of obsession or something he said about your mom? What?
tarabel..as you may have already guessed; the fourth stooge has been diagnosed wih vacancy of the cranium, the poor thing hs the IQ of a mentally challenged clam
Ah, good display of fawning toadyism, Captain Butthole.
Funny duo dancing as it often happens with 'americans'...
You got nothing to say when it's six-on-one-- so long as you're one of the six.
Bunch of fuckin orcs who think they're actually the Knights of the Round Table.
.
Best. Makes my day.
Your urge for sanctimony impairs if you would not notice my response is to the guy with smacker as handle. Your eager pecksniffery is without ground and very zero.
Tough luck on another failure.
Still, here you are on your quest for the perfect Latvian putdown. I'm not sure which is really less flattering...
That you spend your day looking for Latvian taco recipes to share with the like-minded,
Or that you created it yourself and posted it in search of ooohs and ahhhs.
Doesn't matter which post the comment appends to, we both know what the intended target was.
So I'll see your pecksniffery and raise you one pettifoggery.
Plus of course you evade the real issue-- why is it so important for you to silence this man?
Are you going to retreat into some evasive posture that pretends this is not your goal?
Or are you just going to roll down the windows and hope that nobody guesses who's been farting on the road trip's sandwiches?
Take 5 lbs of sirloin steak.
Add the meat from 3 King Crab claws.
Stir in 3 quarts of fresh cream and a touch of Grand Marnier.
Add one potato, neatly sliced into very small pieces resembling Vladimir Putin's thingy.
Cook over low heat for an hour. (The soup, not Vladimir Putin's little thingy)
Serves 1 Latvian on a diet or one group of trolls in a basement on Lubianka Street for a week.
Oh, and don't forget to add a sprig of fresh parsley before serving and, for dessert, a couple quarts of Strawberries Romanoff.
All that's in that last article is some pampered princess from suburban Moscow whinging because she forced her husband to take out a mortgage in dollars to buy a huge house they couldn't really afford and now their monthly payments have doubled. (Why? To make believe to her relatives that she was rich?)
Oh, the fifth column can't afford the latest iTurd from California! The second Russian revolution is at hand!
Hysteria. Shortages of food? I wish my weekly grocery bill for the month was USD38. Even if there were, there's no lack of farmland in Russia. People who aren't too proud to grow their own food will be just fine.
Fuck the fifth column. They never lacked for reasons to talk shit about Putin. If it bothers them this much, they can go to Germany and stay there, and clean Mutti's catbox for a living. Their patriotic neighbours, who are well aware that they live far better today than in the days of debt-peonage under Yeltsin, will live, I'm quite sure.
good post
Moscow is some expensive and excessive cost with foolish spenders like in west
on Volga is better..we (she is lawyer) nor none of our friends have toys like newest iphone, etc but LG's L7 and proven moto V9X
we have 7 freezer and 2 cellar for garden, big house on lake no mortgage
no credit, ever but frugal low taxes americans would laugh at gross income, but jealouse we keep more net
Russians do not spend money they do not have normally do not waste like americans
correct about farmland, I have long experience agriculture and posted some here about farm Volga regions.
blog of American Missouri farm raised married a Russian lady lives near Moscow:
http://windowstorussia.com/
[thinks]:
Why is it that people use words which are the direct opposite of what they mean?
There was the old "German Democratic Republic" which was anything but democratic.
There was the Nazi quoted - after Hitler gained power - saying "We Now Have The Freedom To Abolish Freedom".
Now we have a Latvian troll "Freedom123", who is actually a fascist and who has zero commitment to freedom whatsoever.
Latvian Potato Soup recipe to follow.
oh yes, im from Latvia and its full of degenerates like the bastard above :)
Pure ad hominem attack, completely unsubstantiated, and incidentally tarring yourself as a degenerate, since you say that Latvia is "full" of them (as in completely populated). Nice going, slick.
ok mrs academica, have you been there? do you speak latvian? do you know mentality and way of life there? yes Latvia is full of people who do not have any bloody clue wtf is going on around them, Im not saying I know everything, or that I have close circle of friends in DC or Kremlin, at least I have some sort of level of critical thinking and, I do not swallow everything what mainstream media tries to put out as the "truth". So clearly oyu do not have a fucking clue what are you talking about.
Why is it so important to you guys that this man be silenced? He calmly states his opinion and supports his observations with third-party citations. Seems like a pretty rational way to carry on a conversation to me.
Clearly, no dissenting voice anywhere would be safe if you guys were in charge of things. He does not represent any danger to human progress and freedom. You do.
If yo do not agree with his viewpoint, then debate him. Offer your own contravailing facts rather than resorting to the tactics of the brown shirts where you shrilly shriek like a clique of teenage girls, shouting him down and hopefully hounding him off the board.
If you had your way, he would never be heard from again. And the same, no doubt, goes for me as well. Not to mention anyone else who does not share your worldview.
Yes, you are quite the freedom fighters yourselves. You fight it every way you can.
Yes, we need more trolls permanently spewing one-sided bullshit, as long as each of them calmly states his opinion and supports his observations with third-party citations !
I mean more propaganda is absolutey essential for discussion culture here on ZH
and what is the real inflation in USA? Been to a USA supermarket lately to check the prices? Been to ANY USA city to see real people suffering, thousands of them on the street?
How about you, dear friend?
"Suffering" in America is the equivalent of living large wherever you are from.
Without general circulation of specie coin and functioning Real Bill market any attempt will fail.
I hardly believe Russia is the place for such a place that will do it right.
However, whatever is done involving gold in a currency system might accelerate the demise of the dollar.
Nice point on the necessity of a Real Bill marketplace. Russia would have to largely disengage from the world economy to make it happen. Russians are big on autarky, so you can't rule out their possible attraction to the idea, however. One would have to analyze their trade flows to get a better idea how practical this is. Given that their exports are largely oil and gas, those are very fungible commodities in high demand so trading partners might conceivably go out of their way to set up trade appropriate trade mechanisms. It's Russian imports that would be the challenge.
If everything is based on oil and gas it will be just a PetroRuble. There is no gold involvment needed for that.
And almost, they have already built that.It could be a great stable foundation for a later gold based currency though.
On the real bill side. Is Russia more autarchic than England was at its introduction? Surely more nationalistic which can be always be a reason to sweep it aside.
BTW, can half of the world use real bills while the other half fights them? I think you would probably need a very strong market ethics which is rather absent in Russia.
Adopting a gold standard sounds warm and fuzzy but, in particular, in a communist country you ensure that the entire country, except the elitists, are destitute.
Oh to be in the Bourgeoisie, now that the USSA's finally here.
Heh. If Russia adopts a gold standard, then by extension, are we all now kulaks?
for americans? nyet, not all....just the working ones with something left the commissars have not taken yet..
Volkodav - Your Russian. What does it mean when by 2008 we in America had 38 Czars?
I believe the biggest seat of power is the BIS and the pivot East with a gold standard is a feature, not a bug. China as the new reserve currency will be a gold standard, if history is any guide.
I hope the Russian people find freedom after so many years of manipulation by banking. We here are rapidly losing ours in America.
Obama appointed.
Yes, that is precisely what I was implying. The Free Shit Army does not frequent this site, and they certainly don't wake up before 10 am.
>>> ensure that the entire country, except the elitists, are destitute <<<
In other words, in no way different from what has been going on since forever.
The USA was not always the USSA
Fiat started in 1973, and it has been a downhill debt ride since then - for the 99%.
Any other questions?
It wasn't the inception of a fiat currency that has provided the 'downhill' ride but the adoption of socialist/communist values that has killed countries and economies. Borrowing fiat currency, gold, silver, or any other collateral without ever repaying it will always kill a country. No consequences for your actions always produces tyrants... and slaves.
Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.
I agree with you in part headhunt,
but I don't think the last 40 years can be described politically, it can only be described as elite theft!
And as you say, it produces tyrants and slaves - this is what upward and outward wealth sucking does to economies.
God bless.
"Adopting a gold standard sounds warm and fuzzy but, in particular, in a communist country like the USSA, you ensure that the entire country, except the elitists, are destitute."
haha
Russian Federation is not communist.
that idea moved with its masters to west
Volko - + QE1
It was a Western system designed on Jewish Millennialist lines by a journalist living in London off a textile manufacturer in Manchester and imposed on Russia by a German agent in 1917
Volo says "No..Rddddaashaa no communist, but we te fucking proloteriat, hah, we no can sy anything against our leader, or we go missing..fuck...now that is a free cuntry...no communist
fuck you
It seems to me that what you and the Latvian troll "freedom123" (and one or two others who support him) choose to ignore by adopting a vitriolic hatred of Putin & Russia, is that the West is rapidly moving towards totalitarian fascism. Call it communism or Marxism if you prefer, it doesn't really matter because there's not a lot of difference between them. Whether one looks at the US under Obola (and also the Reps to an extent) or the UK (ditto the Conservatives & Labour) and Brussels, one sees the same things happening, only differing occasionally by the specifics, timescale and the scale. But the road they're all going down is there for all to see. Foreign policy is being set by neo-cons, many with dual passports.
Few people on ZH have missed that the wars and civil wars in the Middle East (Iraq, Afghan, Libya, Syria etc), Ukraine have all been instigated by Western elites: Washington, Westminster and Brussels etc. The aim is to create political, civil chaos/regime change and seizure/control of the natural resources/economies to extend the Anglo-American hegemonic empire around the world.
Russia and China are two countries who will not allow this to happen to themselves and are standing up to the West because thy believe in a multi-polar world, not a uni-polar one.
Therein lies the big problem for Washington and its warmongering allies: they realise that Western power can only be enforced by starting and winning WWIII. So they are now preparing for that. Their first target is Russia, hence the well documented plan to install NATO in Georgia, now Ukraine (where they've installed the fascist puppet Poroshenko) with a bunch of other -stans in between. They want to surround Russia to pick it off and stir up regime change so they can parachute in a Western puppet, like they've done in Ukraine. When they've consumed Russia, they will go for China. The recent troubles in Hong Kong were stirred up by the West to destablise China. China spotted this and is also preparing itself for confrontation.
It is Putin's resistance to Western warmongering that has earned him admiration by a lot of people in the West because we do not agree with the fascist empire direction our own governments are adopting domestically and geo-politically. It is not in the best interests of our own citizenry. Admiration of Putin is not because he is seen as some sort of angel.
Russia only need to team up with Iran and one other major economy to send fiat currencies into a tail spin...
Starting with EEU nations and then who? Greece of course is a good one. Turkey, maybe Egypt more likely, even Canada; Syria, Cuba, Venezuala, Angola are givens, but once the dominoes start falling it will be rapid. After all, Russia and China can lend gold on account, if nations do not have sufficient, they don't even need to ship the gold. Italy, Spain, Portugal will all be candidates.
For countries that trade in mostly oil and grain, there could be an Oil and Grain Rouble, to give them the most stable currency arrangement and hedge options.
India and China must be itching to introduce the gold exchange standard.
I reckon the gold exchange percentage and the likely fiat exchange rates have already been established, and the reason this has not happened is because they don't want to destroy us totally in the process. It will be a timed event to minimise or maximise global financial carnage - a strategic decision.
Yes, the gold standard must be multi-national
Russia-China-India could work
Alone, none of these countries is to be trusted, but watching each other to make sure no one breaks the rules it would work
And make this gold back currency electronic and watch it take off worldwide
The banksters' days would be numbered
The US could throw the biggest spanner in the works on this idea.
Just remove the "peg" of the US dollar to gold (approx. $40 @oz).
That will BS the world into thinking the US is going back to a gold standard (it won't) and it would take at least 20 years for the Russians and China to put something together to compete.
Plus who the fuck is going to trust the Russians or China on currency that isn't a reserve currency?
Don't expect the US to be smart enough.