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Moody's "Junks" Russia, Expects Deep Recession In 2015
Having put Russia on review in mid-January, Moody's has decided (somewhat unsurprisingly) to downgrade Russia's sovereign debt rating to Ba1 (from Baa3) with continuing negative outlook. The reasons:
- *MOODY'S SAYS RUSSIA EXPECTED TO HAVE DEEP RECESSION IN '15, CONTINUED CONTRACTION IN '16
- *MOODY'S SEE RUSSIA DEBT METRICS LIKELY DETERIORATING COMING YRS
We assume the low external debt, considerable reserves, lack of exposure to US Treasuries, and major gold backing were not considered useful? Moody's concludes the full statement (below) by noting that they are unlikely to raise Russian sovereign debt rating in the near-term.
* * *
Kind of ironic then that Russia is the best performing stock market in the world this year!!
* * *
Full Moody's Statement:
Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded the government of Russia's sovereign debt rating to Ba1/Not Prime (NP) from Baa3/Prime-3 (P-3). The rating outlook is negative. This rating action concludes the review for downgrade that commenced on January 16, 2015.
Moody's downgrade of Russia's government bond rating to Ba1 is driven by the following factors:
(1) The continuing crisis in Ukraine and the recent oil price and exchange rate shocks will further undermine Russia's economic strength and medium-term growth prospects, despite the fiscal and monetary policy responses;
(2) The government's financial strength will diminish materially as a result of fiscal pressures and the continued erosion of Russia's foreign exchange (FX) reserves in light of ongoing capital outflows and restricted access to international capital markets;
(3) The risk is rising, although still very low, that the international response to the military conflict in Ukraine triggers a decision by the Russian authorities that directly or indirectly undermines timely payments on external debt service.
The assignment of the negative outlook reflects the potential for more severe political or economic shocks to emerge, related either to the military conflict in Ukraine or a renewed decline in oil prices, which would further impair Russia's public and external finances.
In a related decision, Moody's has lowered Russia's country ceilings for foreign currency debt to Ba1/NP from Baa3/P-3; its country ceilings for local currency debt and deposits to Baa3 from Baa2; and its country ceiling for foreign currency bank deposits to Ba2/NP from Ba1/NP. A country ceiling generally indicates the highest rating level that any issuer domiciled in that country can attain for instruments of that type and currency denomination.
RATINGS RATIONALE
RATIONALE FOR THE DOWNGRADE TO Ba1
FIRST DRIVER -- IMPAIRED PROSPECTS FOR RUSSIA'S ECONOMY
The first driver for the downgrade of Russia's government bond rating to Ba1 relates to the effects of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, as well as the fall in oil prices and of the ruble exchange rate on the country's economic strength and financial stability.
In Moody's view, the existing and potential future international sanctions, the erosion of the country's foreign exchange buffers and persistently lower oil prices plus high and rising inflation will take a negative toll on incomes as well as business and consumer confidence. As a result, Russia is expected to experience a deep recession in 2015 and a continued contraction in 2016. The decline in confidence is likely to constrain domestic demand and exacerbate the Russian economy's already chronic underinvestment.
It is unlikely that the impact of recent events will be transitory. The crisis in Ukraine continues. While the fall in the oil price and the exchange rate have reversed somewhat since the start of the year, the impact on inflation, confidence and growth is likely to be sustained.
The authorities' policy response is gradually coalescing. However, policymakers confront a multi-faceted dilemma characterized by a falling exchange rate, sizeable capital outflows, declining economic activity and rising inflation. In Moody's view policymakers are unlikely to be able to resolve these policy tensions in order to reverse the economic decline.
The monetary authorities face the conflicting objectives of keeping interest rates high enough to restrain the exchange rate and bring down inflation and keeping rates low enough to reinvigorate economic growth and bank solvency. While the interest rate cut in January coincided with a rise in oil prices that cushioned the otherwise negative initial reaction of the exchange rate, a too-rapid reduction in interest rates risks further currency depreciation and higher inflation, which would further compress domestic purchasing power and extend and/or deepen the economic downturn.
Meanwhile, the authorities' revamped fiscal strategy will attempt to consolidate the budget to achieve balanced budgets at the lower oil prices and devalued exchange rates that now prevail. Details of this strategy will be made public in coming months. However, Moody's believes that financial conditions in Russia are inherently vulnerable to renewed volatility, which would in turn trigger fresh capital flight and further downward pressure on the exchange rate and the balance of payments.
As a consequence, Moody's believes that the government will face substantial difficulty in dealing with the wide range of economic, fiscal and monetary challenges that the country is facing.
SECOND DRIVER -- FURTHER EROSION OF FISCAL STRENGTH AND FX RESERVES
The second driver for the downgrade of Russia's government bond rating to Ba1 is the expected further erosion of Russia's fiscal strength and foreign exchange buffers. As the rating agency noted in January when initiating its review for downgrade, the government's ability to sustain its fiscal and financial strength was the main factor supporting Russia's investment grade rating. Following the review, Moody's expects further deterioration in the government's financial strength despite the authorities' fiscal policy responses.
Taking at face value the government's plans to proceed with its planned fiscal consolidation for 2015, Moody's expects a consolidated government deficit of approximately RUB1.6 trillion (2% of GDP) as well as a widening of the non-oil deficit. The deficit would likely be financed by drawing on the Reserve Fund, which is specifically designed for circumstances when oil prices fall below budgeted levels. Moody's also expects that widespread demands for fiscal easing are likely to emerge if, as the rating agency projects, the recession persists into 2016. In a scenario in which the government would turn to borrowing in the domestic market to finance at least a share of these deficits, higher spending could result in an increase of the debt-to-GDP ratio to 20% or more.
In the rating agency's view, therefore, the government's debt metrics are likely to deteriorate over the coming years, albeit from low levels. Low debt and robust external buffers have been the key factors sustaining the rating in investment grade until now, given the country's relatively lower economic and institutional strength and higher exposure to event risk than Baa-rated sovereigns.
Moreover, under the stress exerted by a shrinking economy, wider budget deficits and continued capital flight -- in part reflecting the impact of the Ukraine crisis on investor and depositor confidence -- and restricted access to international capital markets, Moody's expects that the central bank's and government's FX assets will likely decrease significantly again this year, cutting the sovereign's reserves by more than half compared to their year-end 2014 level of approximately USD330 billion.
In a more adverse but not unimaginable scenario, which assumes smaller current account surpluses and substantially larger capital outflows than in Moody's baseline forecast, FX reserves including both government savings funds would be further depleted. While the government might choose to mobilise some form of capital controls to impede the outflow of capital and reserves, such tools are not without consequences. Capital controls, which might include a rationing of retail deposit withdrawals and/or prohibition upon repatriation of foreign investment capital, would weaken the investment climate further and undermine confidence in the banking system.
THIRD DRIVER -- UNPREDICTABLE POLITICAL DYNAMICS
The third driver for the downgrade of Russia's government bond rating to Ba1 relates to the very low but rising risk that the international response to the conflict in Ukraine triggers a decision by the Russian authorities that directly or indirectly undermines timely payments on external debt service.
Moody's acknowledges the current and prospective efforts by the country's policymakers to contain the economic and financial consequences of the many challenges they face: the Ukraine crisis as well as the collapse in global oil prices and the ruble exchange rate. However, the sovereign faces predicaments that few would have predicted six months to a year ago, and the government's reaction to a possible escalation of these challenges is difficult to foresee. In Moody's view, the risk of policy decisions being taken that pose a threat to the repayment of Russian debt obligations remains very low, but that risk is rising.
RATIONALE FOR THE NEGATIVE OUTLOOK
The negative outlook on the Ba1 rating reflects Moody's view that the balance of economic, financial and political risks in Russia is slanted to the downside, with scenarios incorporating either an escalation of the Ukraine crisis and/or damage caused by recent shocks being greater than in Moody's baseline scenario. Essentially, the probabilities associated with the downside scenarios are higher than those associated with an upside scenario in which the recession is shorter and shallower than Moody's baseline.
For example, it seems more likely that Russia will face additional sanctions than that current sanctions are lifted in the coming months. The associated economic risks are also biased to the downside. Similarly, the likelihood of a further shock to confidence, with associated capital outflows and damage to investment and consumption intentions, seems greater than that of a return of confidence and a cessation of capital outflows or a material resumption of inflows.
WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING UP/DOWN
Moody's is unlikely to upgrade Russia's sovereign debt rating in the near term given the negative outlook. However, Moody's would consider stabilizing the outlook on the Russian government rating if the macro-economic and financial market conditions were to stabilize, if the risks of financial market volatility were to subside, and/or if there was a serious prospect of the Ukraine crisis being resolved in such a way that the risk of ongoing or escalating military hostilities and further sanctions were to dissipate.
Moody's would consider downgrading Russia's government bond rating if the macroeconomic and financial market conditions were to deteriorate substantially below the rating agency's base case, or were the government to water down or abandon its fiscal and structural reform plans. The rating agency might also downgrade if the military conflict were to escalate and result in the introduction of additional sanctions that further undermine the country's economic strength. Finally, actions that create greater uncertainty around the government's capacity or willingness to continue to service its debt would also likely result in a downgrade.
GDP per capita (PPP basis, US$): 24,298 (2013 Actual) (also known as Per Capita Income)
Real GDP growth (% change): 1.3% (2013 Actual) (also known as GDP Growth)
Inflation Rate (CPI, % change Dec/Dec): 6.5% (2013 Actual)
Gen. Gov. Financial Balance/GDP: -1.3% (2013 Actual) (also known as Fiscal Balance)
Current Account Balance/GDP: 1.6% (2013 Actual) (also known as External Balance)
External debt/GDP: 35.1% (2013 Actual)
Level of economic development: Moderate level of economic resilience
Default history: At least one default event (on bonds and/or loans) has been recorded since 1983.
On 17 February 2015, a rating committee was called to discuss the rating of the Russia, Government of. The main points raised during the discussion were: The issuer's economic fundamentals, including its economic strength, have materially decreased. The issuer's fiscal or financial strength, including its debt profile, has materially decreased. The issuer has become increasingly susceptible to event risks.
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Time to buy Rubles.
"unlikely to raise Russian sovereign debt rating in the near-term."
Most are unlikely to give a shit what Moody's or S&P thinks in the near-term.
or long-term.
http://www.cbr.ru/eng/statistics/print.aspx?file=credit_statistics/liqui...
reserves dropping like a stone lol. comrade can you spare a dime?
Do you even know how to read what you are linking to? Please show us just what in that report shows reserves "dropping like a stone"? Near as I can see there might have been reduction of maybe 5-10 billion out of reserves of 376 billion, and we aren't even considering that they are deliberately dumping U.S. treasuries. that is dropping like a stone? Russia has reserves of $376 billion and debt of $237 billion (11% of GDP); the U.S. has reserves of $130 billion and debt of $18 TRILLION (105% of GDP) Can they spare a dime? Probably. Can the U.S.? No, we can only print some.
Oh, you mean the STRONG Russian economy that has a GDP on a per capita basis, of $14,591, per Russian, that lingers below that of Barbados and Argentina...got it LOL!!!
you get your propoganda from RT, now that is highly amuzing! No wonder!
Assuming your number is correct, what is the average cost of living per Russian?
What do the numbers look like for Americans in comparison (mind you, the US.gov is still running a deficit so you should count that as part of the cost of living).
I believe it is 25 to 1 in russia
Consumer Prices in United States are 35.81% higher than in Russia Consumer Prices Including Rent in United States are 42.30% higher than in Russia Rent Prices in United States are 59.69% higher than in Russia Restaurant Prices in United States are 4.38% higher than in Russia Groceries Prices in United States are 81.53% higher than in Russia Local Purchasing Power in United States is 220.40% higher than in RussiaWhat are you trying to prove by comparing usa qnd russia stat pisshead ?
because the replacement asked me, fuckwad! read much?
I noticed those figures too Garden Weasel. As well as plumeting reserves, according to Moody's their "debt-to-GDP ratio may rise to 20% or more". Scarey stuff! Makes you wonder if the US state Department dictated this report for Moody's. Their credibility is bad enough without becoming a mouthpiece for the US Gov.
Will some one please strap Mr. Putin in the chair so he doesn't fall after he passes out from the uncontrollable laughter.
You mean like that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laxr5ZgPV68
Weren't they one of those rating agencies that gave AAA to junk MBS securities?
lol
Why, yes; yes they were.
+100000
https://www.moodys.com/research/MOODYS-UPGRADES-ALL-ENRON-CORP-LONG-TERM...
Sounds like a good deal, where can I buy some of those bonds?
http://highchartpatterns.net/moodys-puts-us-credit-rating-on-review-but-...
buncha whores
But these Moody's AAA+++w/sugar on top rated MBS are A-OK, right?
down grade war!
liquity war!
crash!
Today I read on some Russian site that the Duma is considering passing legislation to give government control over Russian Central Bank. Sorry dont have the link but I'm sure it will get much more coverage if and when this law develops.
Soooo who owns/controls Russian central bank now ? Usual suspects ?
Yes, as a matter of fact.
@ tired1,
Here you go. I posted it above without the link:
http://rt.com/business/234027-russia-ratifies-brics-bank/
lol is everyone here insane or ignorant? Russia is now FUBAR. Putin is gone in 12 months its easy to see. i hope i can bet on it soon.
I for one welcome a new world order. Its countries like russia that make it possible/neccessary.
It is people like you who are going to get a lot of people killed. How can you live with yourself?
I've got some from my last trip to Russia. What's your phone #?
put your money where your mouth is. i'm a seller
All of the CB/MIC mouth and policy pieces on TV and the Interwebz look and sound more and more like The Onion every day now.
Gee, that's not political or anything.
"ah naw they didn't..."
Fuck Moody's.
The End.
the end (of putin)
The end of the silly cat is way closer...
Be careful what you wish for: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/world/europe/foes-of-america-in-russia-crave-rupture-in-ties.html?_r=0
“Confrontation with the West is welcomed by all too many here, to cleanse the elite, to organize the nation.”
Putin is quite a "Moderate" in comparison to others, who have stated very clearly they are prepared for, and actively argue for the resumption of, "The Cold War".
Moody's is like that bully kid that feels big after slapping someone in the face with their little ball bag....
but HAHA jokes on them....getting hit with someone's ball bag doesn't hurt.
Moodys ,Fitch, Standard & Poors, Egan Jones, can all go pound sand. They're nothing but marketing extensions of/for the banks to sell their toxic crap that got us in this situation in the first place.
I was under the impression that E-J were aligned with the buy side as opposed to the other named. Was I wrong?
you were not wrong (but they might be getting extorted now, don't know if they have caved yet)
Who cares! They cut access to western markets anyway, so it's almost impossible to buy a russian bond. This downgrade won't affect Russia at all. Putin couldn't care less about it.
People ACTUALLY still listen to those confused fucks?! Might as well buy a house while you're at it...
Well, there has Never been a better time to buy a house.
Trolls do listen to spread their slander .
I bet those dudes at Moody's are a real hit with the ladies.
"You can't snort a line of coke off a woman's ass & not wonder about her hopes & dreams, it's not gentlemanly"
No doubt your hopes and dreams are going to trump hers.
Don't schmack it, or it might jiggle the line down the crack.
Putin either cries uncle to the NWO or we see two suns in the sunset in the-not-so very distant future.
Butt I thought Putin "holds all the cards." Yep, he will be shoveling money into Greece anytime they want it. heh
Flow vs. stock!
this obviously had a lot to do with Moody's analysis...
"The Russian State Duma has ratified the $100 billion BRICS bank that’ll serve as a pool of money for infrastructure projects in Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, and challenge the dominance of the Western-led World Bank and the IMF.
The New Development Bank is expected to start fully functioning by the end of 2015, according to the Russian Finance Ministry.
Russia has agreed to provide $2 billion dollars from the federal budget for the bank over the next seven years.
It will have three-tiers of corporate governance, with a Board of Governors, Board of Directors and a President.
The bank’s board of directors will hold its first meeting in Ufa in Russia in April. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov is likely to become the bank’s first Chairman of the Board of Governors, according to Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak talking on the Russia 24 TV channel."
http://rt.com/business/234027-russia-ratifies-brics-bank/
fucking asshole tools....
Bingo Kaiser.
"The New Development Bank is expected to start fully functioning by the end of 2015, according to the Russian Finance Ministry."
Make that "the summer of 2015" now.
Pounding nails in the coffin way much faster now.
There's more!
No SWIFT!
hehe.
Alright.
Pounding nails in the coffin way much SWIFT(ER) now.
Its a 100 billion dollar bank that is being funded with 2 billion over seven years.
Its a pool of money for infrastructure projects in Russia.
So its not going to challange the IMF anytime soon because its not issueing a currency that can be converted into any other currency easly. If they want to build an IMF like bank they need to have it in a money they dont control or in a money everyone needs.
Seems more political then functional. A stepping stone maybe nothing more.
The prism the banks veiw the world is threw US dollars anything that is not a US dollar must be convertable into US dollars or it has no price and to them, no value.
"If they want to build an IMF like bank they need to have it in a money they dont control or in a money everyone needs."
yeah, ok...ever heard of the "Golden Rule..."?
myopic.
apart from brics bank they can approach to AIIB china led ( an alternate to japan led ADB ). and WB
Another chip out of the Empire's wall of dollars. The chips have been coming fast and furious (pardon the phrase) in the last few years.
Oh, you mean the STRONG Russian economy that has a GDP on a per capita basis, of $14,591, per Russian, that lingers below that of Barbados and Argentina...got it LOL!!!
you get your propoganda from RT, now that is highly amuzing! No wonder!
and/or if there was a serious prospect of the Ukraine crisis being resolved in such a way that the risk of ongoing or escalating military hostilities and further sanctions were to dissipate.
--------
This message approved State department.
Tyler me boy, stop the crude NAZI images of Dear Leader. If you want to be taken serioUSly don't be so obvioUS.
Funny, I thought Durden was a Russian name.
Russian bomb and explosive device export projections?
I guess Moody's has no conception of the barbaric relic bomb.
just another vacuous west threat. so what? the west doesn't seem to appreciate that russia/vlad can bring the world as we know it to an end in moments.
He IS stupid enough I'll admit.
Another will-lemming for Putin, my goodness, there are a lot of you on this board.
The Chinese ratings agencies, that have a much better track record than the US ones, give Russia an A rating and the US A-.
Russia does not have the unsustainable debt the US has.
Moody's gotta do what Moody's gotta do to stay in business. Look at what happened to S&P when they didn't take Timmy's phone call.
Moody's needs to contemplate it's own navel as a "credit agency" that adheres to ethical business standards that is more a tool to the Central Bank(s)/MIC and mind it's own business before it gets itself and it's client(s) ALL killed!
Oh, you mean the STRONG Russian economy that has a GDP on a per capita basis, of $14,591, per Russian, that lingers below that of Barbados and Argentina...got it LOL!!!
You're repeating yourself Unix. Time for a new talking point.
I am repeating myself, but they are not talking points, they are the truth. Putin aint no good guy ok, nor is Obama, I am an equal opprtunity hater, if you like!
moody's, lulz
So What? It's kinda like an ex-GF or ex-Wife givin' a man her opinion about........anything.
Buffetted by downgrade? Was it really Warrented?
Maybe Russia should impose some hefty fines like another recent downgrade sufferer did when downgraded by one of these 'agencies'.
http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/02/russian-debt-to-gdp/ Credit Swisse says something else .. as the West marches to war in Ukraine ... Russia climbed out of the MESS left by Yeltsin and the West asset hats in the early 90s .. .. they survived 98 .. I suspect they will survive the most recent assault by the West on their interests... what the West and Saudis did was an act of war .. caring not it took down Russia's advantage in oil and OURS as well... the oil situation has NOTHING to do with fundamentals.. but people are too damn dumb to understand this is how world wars start .... anyway .. United States Government Debt to GDP 1940-2015
The United States recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 101.53 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2014.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/government-debt-to-gdp
Russia recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 13.41 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2013. Government Debt To GDP in Russia averaged 26.60 Percent from 1999 until 2013, reaching an all time high of 99 Percent in 1999 and a record low of 7.90 Percent in 2008. Government Debt To GDP in Russia is
13.41 ,,,2014
You Putin lovers are delusional, to a grand scale! Amazing stuff to read these comments really. Russia will crash, just like UK, EU and America...
It's all interconnected now, the global debt ponzi is going to burn everybody one day.
Iceland just posted some publicly available statistics, and you come back with "Putin lover."
Comon man, you're acting more like a Putin-Hater than any "Putin lovers" I've seen here. It really does make you appear to be a NSA-Prop-Poster. just sayin...
ok, maybe I am too hard about that, but really,
fuck the NSA and all the alphabet soup agencies
I've written a lot on hear, just go back thru them to see where I stand, it aint with DC
Next time go straight for Kiev.
I wonder what satute Moody's has in NATO's military structure....A Brigade? An Army Corps ? Is it conducted by a Brigadier-General or by a (financial) Field Marshall ?
Found this statement fascinating and it truly sums up how delusional the West has become:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11425393/Russian-tensions...
Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw, deputy commander of Nato forces in Europe, said there was a danger Vladimir Putin could try to use his armies to invade and seize Nato territory, after calculating the alliance would be too afraid of escalating violence to respond.
Seriously, WTF? Nato territory? When did Nato become a country?
Reading a bit more... Nato has agreed to set up a rapid reaction force of around 5,000 troops ready to move at 48 hours notice, in case of Russian agression in Eastern Europe. Supplies, equipment and ammunition will be stockpiled in bases in the region. Alliance leaders hope the force will deter any incursion.
Cant help but wonder if Nato has preordered 5,000 body bags...
http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?coun...
Same web page, check these numbers against France, Germany, and the UK combined.
> Supplies, equipment and ammunition will be stockpiled in bases in the region.
The location of which are well known to Russia, along with transport choke-points (civilian infrastructure, so realtively "soft" targets).
Considering that even minor traffic accidents can have far reaching effects on traffic flow (or rather lack of) any stockpile dependent on road links will be vulnerable. Same goes for rail infrastructure - remarkably easy to disrupt for hours on end, so that leaves air.
If the "West" is going to have to commit a large chunk of its tactical airpower to transport protection, well, that'll be fun for the front-line soldiers . . . .
NATO is not a country, you are correct, but it is made of of countries, it would do you well to get an education about that. Putin is a dangerous man, just like Obama, Xi and all the rest of the crony leaders of countries. Their secret cabals are working overtime to enslave us all, wake up! It's not just the west.
Funny you post this. I was just this morning thinking about the US relationship with the former Europe, how we don't have relationships with countries anymore. Instead the U.S. has been replaced by NATO. Of course NATO is MIC wearing a State mask.
"Katyusha" with English subtitles! <a href="http://youtu.be/WNIlyUmSlDs">
Deep Shah.
Remember the photo of Putin looking behind with a sly grin at the Savior, while Xi was simultaneously walking away with a shit-eatin' grin on his face, from that global powers meeting a few months back...? Those two have something in store, and it ain't a steaming hot apple pie from gramma's oven.
Gawd when this thing blows up (for the West) it is going to come hard & fast - and outta F'ing nowhere for most.
"...Followed by millions of Dumbfounded Dip-Shits."
please, it is going to BLOW up for the east, west, north and south...no country will be immune!
I hereby give Moodys a rating of ZZZ-ZERO. Moodys is a stooge for the USSA, Obama and the other predators-that-be engaged in financial warfare against Russia.
How disingenuous can anyone get? I mean seriously! A nation with infinitesimal debt compared to the USSA gets trashed because "their debt might rise", while the USSA who actually HAS enormous debt gets triple green lights. Uh, huh. That's oh so objective. NOT.
Oh, and by the way, Russia has absolute boatloads of natural resources, which the USSA has largely depleted within its borders. Not that you want to consider anything REAL, do you Moodys?
Moodys: you have ZERO cred.
bwwaahahahhahahaha honestann, or is that honnestannistan...you are wildly wrong about America's resources. 80% of all gold is still in the ground, new oil is being found all the time...and we have one of the largest, if not the largest oil fields in Alaska...
So tell me again where you get your propoganda? RT, LOL, thought so...you make me laugh.
Russia is in deep shit financially, but you're just a lemming for Vlad the Lad.
However, there is a caveat to all of this, the world debt ponzi, and nobody escapes it, nobody...it is going to be a black hole for every country, even your precious Putin.
BTW, you do know that oil is not created by dead dinosaurs right, lol, it is being formed all the time by algae.
So please do try to keep up!
So true.
The US has harvested most of its low-hanging fruit.
What does China say?
everything is about faith. how much faith can you create in your society to control them. very few people are awake to be rational, they have no choice. they are caught in a pattern of behavior. everybody is sleep walking. i find myself sleep walking all the time. only clearing your head of any thought can you realize that everything you believe is just thought, then you have woken up. good morning sunshine, now you can witness reality.
It was a time for emergency prayer. Rabbis at Yeshiva University were horrified at the idea that a non-rabbi was set to take over the presidency of a school that had been led by ordained clergy for more than a century. Joining many students at the college, they gathered on a brisk December day in 2002 to engage in a chant-and-response of Psalms, hoping to stave off disaster for their beloved school’s future.
What they couldn’t have known when that prayer session took place more than a decade ago was that the real danger in Yeshiva’s new leadership was not to the school’s spiritual welfare but to its very existence. Over the years to come, the new leadership at Yeshiva would ramp up risk in the school’s investment portfolio, vastly increase spending, and do little to insure against a rainy day.
When rainy days did arrive, with the global financial meltdown of 2008, Yeshiva was heavily exposed. Today, its finances are overwhelmed by a sea of red ink. According to a recent announcement by credit rating agency Moody’s, the school will run out of cash next year.
While Yeshiva has been making headlines for a sex-abuse scandal that had the school facing a $380 million lawsuit, a dramatic reversal of fortune undermining the organization from within has gone largely unnoticed. And when Yeshiva’s financial state has garnered attention from news outlets, the explanation has often been losses it sustained from its investments with convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff, estimated at $105 million.
But a two-year investigation by TakePart in association with The Jewish Channel reveals that the Madoff losses represent only a small fraction of far greater losses that were due to Yeshiva’s new investment and spending strategies. (Disclosure: The author of this article attended Yeshiva University from 1998 to 2002, earning mediocre grades and a reputation for student activism, and was not invited to return for his senior year.) The school lost more than $500 million on its high-risk investment portfolio—after selling off nearly $500 million of ultrasafe U.S. Treasury bonds when the new regime took over a decade ago, plowing the proceeds mostly into hedge funds and corporate stocks. Assuming the strategy of increasing risk in its investment portfolio would pay off with higher returns, the new president and the board that hired him took on a bevy of new expenses, spending down their cash reserves and resting much of Yeshiva’s fate on their hedge fund gambles. Now that those investments have proved to be losses, Yeshiva faces more than $550 million of debt, and it appears to have been tapping into the principal of its investment portfolio to cover annual deficits. On their own, any one of these changes—the half-billion-dollar hit to its portfolio, the diminution of liquidity, and the mass of debt—would be a significant, though bearable, difficulty for a university; together, their effect has been devastating.
Golly gee whilikers the Soviets, err Russians, err rebels didn't abide by the Minsk agreement. What a shock. So now they go after Maripole to help uncle Vlad get his land bridge to his stolen Crimea. Meet the new Russian Empire same as the old Russian Empire.
Yes indeed, he is working hard to illegally annex east Ukraine...gotsta have that land bridge to the illegally annexed Crimea...charge of the light brigade and all.
Cannons to the left of me, cannons to the right...
Yet many ZH posters seem to love the guy, for what I do not know.
Clever populists have always had an appeal to the ignorant and/or weak minded.
Yes indeed, he is working hard to illegally wrestle east Ukraine from illegal Kiev government of a country illegally constructed by Lenin from bits and pieces of other countries. The horror....
That's one mean face there Putie...
The Empire is desperate and running out of options.
For NATO US and Moody's the humiliation at Debaltsevo is priceless. :)
So now ZH uses the stock market as a proxy for financial health? All you putin lovers, why not refute the Moody's facts above before just dismissing the idea as propganda. Why is only your view on Russia the truth?
Russia is a pile steaming garbage in my view, full of corruption (look at the $52B spent on the winter olympics etc) and the ordinary citizen is eating potatoes and drinking vodka, while Putin and his KGB mafia eat like Kings. And just because Russia is garbage, doesnt mean other places in the West aren't.....the two aren't mutally exclusive!
I have to agree with you lazy, I can't figure it out, unless most of the posters live in Moscow? Or are communistas at heart!
Wouldn't it be great to see their IP addresses? I have a funny sucispion they would zero into a specific room in the Kremlin.
Ask your buds at the NSA.
So propganda is only exclusive to the NSA? but I thought the Russians are the masters of all things of the internet?
I will still upvote you because the NSA are scum.
Exactly my sentiments about government in general.
It's all about getting a little fair advantage through death, destruction, and theft.
Doesn't matter if it's the home team or a rival team.
It is easy to see it if you know what to do.
Maybe - but I don't have time to fish through VPN's....
Most of the users here do not use VPN.
Well then they are idiots... i.e. thinking that Russia is greatest place on earth.
They are not saying that. They just do not share the same ideology that the warmongers from Washington D.C.
gotta give you +1 on that one! although we dont have all the truthiness about Ukraine yet, but overall you are mostly right. I would say right now the muslims are the bigger threat....
Agreed, but no most of the users on ZH are not saying that - they believe that Russia is the model soceity....Russia is a warmonger as well, but on a smaller scale because they can't afford to exert more force...if they could they would.
Washington D.C. is the scumiest place in the Western World + 1 for that....
At least Russia is acting like a grown-up now, US has become very irrational and dangerous for the whole world. Sadly when the time comes the innocents will pay a heavy price for not doing nothing to stop those lunatics in Washington D.C.
Just not subhuman neocon true-believers like you and your ilk.
Anus, you sound butthurt, LOL!!!! You neoliberals are batshit crazy! Loones!
Lots of cubicles in Lubyanka! Russian Imperium Rev. 3
Well, not everybody is paid by NSA to spew the trash you are spewing. By the way, excellent choice for avatar.
you sound jealous.
is that a fact?
So were you a waiter or a busboy at the Kremlin?
Are you really going to debate if Putin and his buddies are not living the good life? So the suppoesdly richest man in the world - eats like a peasant? Seriously how low is ZH going....The russian googles are thick!
lazysunday
According to Forbes there are over 400 American billionaires living a MOAR good life than Putin.
You were the one who said that Putin was SUPPOSEDLY (weasel word) the richest man on the planet
Where did you get that from? H.R.Blockski?
Puutie blows the dog whistle.
Puutie's Paid Puppies arrive at ZH.
Puutie has assigned about 50 of his nut nuzzelers to ZH to propagandize the rewards of his totalitarian rule.
I thought somebody drove a wooden stake in your heart last week.
I guess one of your zombie playmates pulled it out.
Exactly. Right now among Zero Hedgers there's a contest to see who the next Westerner gets the honor of being flipped to the mat by the diminutive Putin.
Never mind that Putin isn't free market (see, e.g., his ceiling on vodka prices), nor free anything (see, e.g., his state-controlled media arm, Russia Today). All the Russian TV stations toe the Putin line.
Zero Hedgers are unthinking dopes - but they're entertaining dopes!
This is the spanking to be expected if one chooses to dump treasuries and buy physical gold. I doubt it will cause any change in course as far as Russia is concerned. London and NY hate it when anyone refuses to play by their rules.
Can someone please, P-L-E-A-S-E Western Union Vlad dollars tonight?
He's waiting outside the Western Union station in the cold right now.
Can we count on you for support, Bob? Vlad asked that you not send him rubles like the last time.
Don't asophocles me, dude. Instead of paying me back the money I lent you, you changed your name.
And "I wasn't sober," while true, is getting to be a tired excuse.
The Zero Hedge crowd is apoplectic that Moody's pans miserable, money-bleeding Russia. C'mon, let's see some veins bursting!
Hilarious!
Vlad's offering reduced price citizenship if you consent to be judo-flipped. C'mon...it doesn't look that painful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5z5UAtCxgE
Your child-like trolling is pathetic.
Last year 80,392 people emigrated from the United States to Russia(!)
During the same year, 7 people emigrated from Russia to the United States.
Whoops, my bad, it was the other way around.
Trolling hard? Russia had a surplus of people immigrating there again.
Puutie will be proud when the Ruble/JPY = 1 to 1.
the way i see how the things unfold, us-eu 2-ka are shit scared that russia would delay for a while the payments as a reply to all those sanctions imposed on them so they use this kind of retarded reverse psychology, but if i was putin i would say: guys, you were right we cannot pay you today, perhaps another day, so go and fuck yourselves
It looks that the Disinformation Fed Brigade is taking an assault on ZH sending their afterbirth minions to expresss their ideology, which is great: it means that ZH is a threat to us-eu propaganda.
not to worry, as they are like a plague of locusts, they'll have to leave, being assigned to denying us involvement in venezuela regime turn or attending kiev's propaganda on russian invasion or other vomiting verbosity crap
Nulland with Psaki couldn't write it better.
Moody-guys are better, then CIA psyop dep.
the a*sholes that don't work at S&P, work at Moody's.
these guys are irrelevant to the way the world runs except in the ussa.
rave on idiots. lol
Here's the Archive of public articles by Jim Willie on goldenjackass.com.There are various mentions of Russia in some of them.Get a different perspective from Moody's nonsense.After all these guys would AAA+ rate anything in the past and today that brings down the financial system.
http://www.goldenjackass.com/main5.html
When are they going to "junk" U.S. Banks when all the bad debt from this comes through?Who are they kidding?
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/02/21/fracking-bust-deepens-sets-records/