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From Bubble-Blower To Energy Expert, Alan Greenspan Warns "Oil Hasn't Bottomed Yet"
Having recently explained why the stock market is extremely overvalued (in his own words by Fed-driven multiple expansion alone), Alan Greenspan - seemingly brimming over with the need to remedy his years of lies/mistruths with some uncomfortable truthiness - is now taking on the US Dollar ("it is not from a strong US economy but a weak rest of the world") and oil prices (America has a massive surplus of oil and there may soon be nowhere to store all of it, "we'll be lucky if we can get $40 for it.")
Greenspan told Betty Liu that oil hasn't hit bottom yet:
"We are at the point now where, at the current rate of fill, we’re going to run out of room [at our domestic facility in Cushing, Oklahoma] by next month. And then the question is -- where does the crude go? Because everyone's forecast as to what was going to happen when prices collapsed was a sharp curtailment in shale oil production. That has not happened. The weekly figures, which are produced by the Energy Information Agency through March the 6, show a continued rise in domestic crude production and it has got no place to go, because we can’t legally export the way we would for most products. We can do a little exporting and Canada, but essentially, we’re bottling up a huge amount of crude oil in the United States."
On the stronger U.S. dollar, Greenspan said:
"A stronger dollar tends to suppress general domestic price level. But the problem here is that we are not quite certain where the problem on the exchange rate comes from, whether it is a strong U.S. economy, which is a questionable issue, or a weak rest of the world, which is a little more credible."
Bloomberg TV interview with Alan Greenspan...
Partial Transcript:
BETTY LIU: Chairman Greenspan, thank you so much for joining me this morning. We're hoping you can solve some of this mystery as to why we are adding jobs, and it looks great, but we are not spending? What is going on here?
ALAN GREENSPAN: Well, it's unfortunately very simple but not a good story. It's turning out that we're using more and more people at the margin to produce less and less. Productivity, which is output for man hours as we conventionally measure it, is running at a very low rate of increase. And that's the critical variable in the economy over both the short-term and the long-term.
So what we are confronted with right now is a very serious problem caused by the fact that capital investment is falling far short of the requirements necessary to keep the capital stock growing, and therefore productivity. It is not working.
LIU: So how do we reverse that? What exactly is behind that, Chairman?
GREENSPAN: Well, I've on many occasions indicated that the best way to standard this is to track it backwards. There's a very tight relationship between the stock of nonresidential, private stock and output per hour. They move together parallel all the time for very good reasons. But that capital stock requires capital investment. And capital investment, in turn, is being crowded out by a very substantial increase in government expenditures. Basically, entitlements -- because both parties, both the Republicans and the Democrats, don't want to talk about it largely because it is considered the third rail of American politics. You touch it and you lose.
LIU: Well, so that makes perfect sense. So it might come down to cutting some costs, right, to cost controls, Chairman. Top of your list, I know you've mentioned entitlement spending. You know, you've got Medicare, Social Security. The No. 1 thing that you think that we need to cut our costs on is what?
GREENSPAN: Well, the basic issue is the entitlements and the reason it's a problem is that people put money in their own funds and their employers' funds plus interest and that is what they perceive they et back , and therefore they are entitled to it because it is their money.
The only problem is that's not what we are doing. We're not creating enough funding for the Social Security trust funds, and the same thing goes for Medicare Part A. And we're not funding this. So long as we are not funding this, we are dollar for dollar crowding out capital investment.
LIU: Dr. Greenspan, some look at these numbers though, I mean noot just jobs, but the lack of productivity, as you just pointed out. Also, the spending decline that we are seeing. But also the strength of the dollar, as perhaps delaying the Fed policy on raising interest rates. I know that you don't speculate, you don't want to interfere on Janet Yellen's job, but all those factors combined -- do they foreshadow a longer wait on moving on monetary policy?
GREENSPAN: Well, you're merely repeating what is probably going on in the internal discussions of the Federal Open Market Committee. And I won't comment on that.
LIU: OK. Understood. The higher dollar, though, Dr. Greenspan, is that going to have - or do you belive it's going to keep the lid on inflation?
GREENSPAN: What do you mean? As productivity or what' going to keep a lid?
LIU: The higher U.S. dollar. OK, so we just talked about how the higher U.S. dollar should be reducing import cost for many companies. It's not so far. But if it does, is that going to help alleviate some of the inflationary pressures and, possibly, the need - again, not forecast raising interest rates or not -- but the need to tighten?
GREENSPAN: Yes, there's no question. A stronger dollar tends to suppress general domestic price level. But the problem here is that we are not quite certain where the problem on the exchange rate comes from, whether it is a strong U.S. economy, which is a questionable issue, or a weak rest of the world, which is a little more credible.
Remember, we're -- the exchange rates in the global economy are a zero sum game. As the dollar goes up, someone else goes down. What we are seeing is a significant weakening obviously in the euro. We are seeing it in the ruble; we're seeing it in the yuan. So it's a very, very complex problem of international trade and international capital flows. And it's not altogether clear that the U.S. can readily make major changes in the dollars exchange rate, because it's such a critical currency that the types of actions that we would have to take are probably are outside the realm of where we would think it's good policy.
LIU: All right, well, Dr. Greenspan, we're going to approach another topic that has effect on inflation. That is oil prices. Dr. Greenspan, stay with me for a moment. We've got to just take a commercial break.
...
LIU: You're watching IN THE LOOP live on Bloomberg Television and streaming on mobile and bloomberg.com. Good morning, I’m Betty Liu.
America has a massive surplus of oil and there may soon be nowhere to store all of it. That’s according to the International Energy Agency. And inventories are at a record 485 million barrels, skyrocketing in the last few months as demand has fallen. At the same time, the volume of oil at America's largest storage facility in Cushing, Oklahoma, has a most tripled since October. What does this mean? Possibly lower prices yet still.
Still with me is former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. And Chairman, I know that oil is something that you have been watching very closely. You say it’s extremely important for us to be watching what happens to oil. You believe we still haven’t hit rock bottom here, right?
GREENSPAN: That’s correct, Betty. If you look at the data, as you just pointed out, our major domestic facility is in Cushing, Oklahoma, which is delivery point for West Texas Intermediate crude contracts. We are at the point now where, at the current rate of fill, we’re going to run out of room in Cushing by next month.
And then the question is -- where does the crude go? Because everyone's forecast as to what was going to happen when prices collapsed was a sharp curtailment in shale oil production. That has not happened. The weekly figures, which are produced by the Energy Inter-Nation (sic) Agency through March the 6, show a continued rise in domestic crude production and it has got no place to go, because we can’t legally export the way we would for most products. We can do a little exporting and Canada, but essentially, we’re bottling up a huge amount of crude oil in the United States.
So that the West Texas Intermediate price is running $10 a barrel on the Brent crude, which is the global price. And that basically means that we are creating great abnormalities in the system. And unless and until we find a way to get out of this dilemma, prices will continue to ease because there’s no place for that oil to go except for into the markets. And spot crudes are especially vulnerable because of so-called contango is a very high level, and that implies that there’s a very, very significant set of pressures on the spot price.
LIU: But, Dr. Greenspan, what about this theory though? When it seems inevitable that we’re going to see this huge oversupply and oil prices come down even more, isn’t that eventually going to hit U.S. production? It might be a very sharp crash in the number of rigs that get closed down but eventually the market will adjust?
GREENSPAN: Well, remember, the rigs that have been closing down have not been affecting the capacity to produce crude yet. And the reason is that most of them -- the ones which are not multiple well related, you’re getting the inefficient ranks shutting down but the capacity to basically build an oil expansion remains there. And frankly, I had expected it to turn down or ease a number of weeks ago and these numbers keep rising.
Now, it is perfectly credible that, because the cost of crude, especially I should say for shale crude which is more expensive than standard old-fashioned crude, those numbers are high -- $55 or $65 a barrel. There is some, Eagle Ford shale, which going under $50 a barrel. But there's not much room under there before cash flow turns negative. At that point, they shut down and it could be quite abrupt, as you point out.
LIU: Right, that’s right. It could be very abrupt. Then, Chairman Greenspan, if nothing is done here short of, let's say, a lift of our export ban on crude, what could we expect from OPEC?
GREENSPAN: Well, I think that OPEC is no longer the price leader. I wrote a long editorial -- op-ed piece last week or so in which I pointed out that essentially what is happening is that, because of the advent of shale, which is a very much more flexible type of facility to expand and contract crude, that the marginal global price-making mechanism has moved to the United States away from OPEC. And I think that that’s going to continue unless and until prices fall below the cost of crude production from shale, which is very significantly above where, for example, the Saudi crudes. There’s some Saudi crudes which can be lifted at less than $1a barrel in the Ghawar fields, the huge Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia. We're lucky if we can get $40
LIU: That’s incredible. That is a great point; it’s incredible and it sort of brings to light just how complicated the situation is.
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FUCK you ALAN. You sold your country out.
Indeed. But I have to admit, the old fellow has been making a lot of sense lately, and let us be honest. A former head of the Federal Reserve turning hos back on his on fellow banksters is the global banksters worst nightmare. There isn't much they can say against him.
he's not turning his back.........
cant we just store the shit underground????
Oh, Magoo, you've done it again!
Still trying to use moral suasion Alan?...Don't hurt yourself,go take a nap.
shows you how vulnerable Fed decisions are. former fed leaders change course on a dime......proving that its all theory at the fed. the fed blows with the wind. (like a fart)
He's trying to seek forgiveness for sins of the past but he's already recieved his 30 pieces of silver......
Ask Sir Alan Greenspan, OBE what it means when the USD index is rising 1% per day.
NO DOUBT HE IS A POSTER HERE. HE IS SO CHATTY NOW. WHO IS HE?
COUld only stand to listen to about the first two minutes. Greenspan starts talking technical analysis, feeding the belief that the economy is something that smart(er) people can and should manage.
Fuck you. You're not that smart. No one is. Neither are the chart boys. This is all a giant hangover from the technical belief in "everything as a managed system". Greenspan only provides fodder for looters to use as justification for why they should be in charge, do all of the manipulation, and get all the rewards.
Did I mention "Fuck You"?
P.S. Betty, you are an intelligent and naturally pretty young woman, but they eyeglasses on the end of your nose thing and your overtly intentionally serious demeanor just makes you look patently ridiculous. Take off the stupid purple glasses, smile, relax, and ask tough questions.
"cant we just store the shit underground????"
I think California has some water aquifers there not using anymore.....
According to reports, at least three of the largest aquifers in California have been contaminated with fracking wastewater, and are totally unfit to drink. Perhaps THAT is part of the reason that NEW reports suggest that California has only about a year of water left.
SURE. Store the shit in those aquifers. it really won't make any difference anyway.
'...and up from the ground came a bubbling crude...'
"The Beverly Hillbillies", starring Alan 'Shalom' Greinschpaun (stage name) as 'Jed Clampett', and Benjamin Shalom Bernanke (real name) as his friendly banker, 'Mr. Drysdale'... turn the tap water on, and collect crude oil and fracking chemicals in one-gallon milk jugs (they still allow plastic milk jugs in Kaliforiah, don't they?), and everyone's 'vested'! Careful when you flush the toilet, though (and DON'T throw a lighted cigarette in).
IMO, another question should be, why are we not allowed to export the oil? If we are subject to global price discovery, then the oil industry should be able to compete global without a export ban.......
It amazes me these fucking talking heads don't ask fuckers like Greenspan that important piece of a question....
i'm dumber than shit, but i do like that idea. we were storing it there for a long time......
that REALLY is clever.
Or maybe we can pay one company to extract it and another company to pump it back in.
No, he's not. He's warning people.
http://redefininggod.com/nwo-schedule-of-implementation/
"You sold your country out."
Correct. He sold his country out. But he's certainly not trying to buy (truth) his way back into its good graces: this is what he's been told to say. Once a whore, always a whore.
you may be right
i read his words closely. IMO, they are spot on. The question is why he chose to speak the truth?
it might be TPTB realize that the charade of prosperity is ending and AG is telling the elites to man the lifeboats (ie: sell Apple NOW ... buy back later at half price)
This wasn't meant for sheeple consumption
~""We are at the point now where, at the current rate of fill, we’re going to run out of room [at our domestic facility in Cushing, Oklahoma] by next month. And then the question is -- where does the crude go?""~
Why, we'll sell it to Californians! Those poor saps are still paying over $3.35 a gallon for regular unleaded, (thanks to Governor Moonbeam, the California Legislature and the eco-Marxists)! I shit you not, we here in LaLa-Land are still getting screwed despite the rest of the country getting, once again, affordable oil.
As far as Greenspan goes, (and what did you expect from the poor bastard married to the very scary-looking and shrill Andrea Mitchell), so what is so clairvoyant about being able to look at the Baltic Dry Index and figure out that the world economy has completely stagnated and that since oil is used to drive the world economy, if no one is producing shit that the demand for oil is going to evaporate? Ruck me funny, kiddies, with intellect like that someone aught to give me a Pulitzer. a column at the Grey Lady. and let ME spout off like an Keynesian village idiot. Oh wait, that job's taken. Never mind. /rant
Happy Pi day, y'all!
moonbeam MUST be in the royal family. He owns california.
TG;
According to recent research from Platts, there are 5 tankers in route now to L.A. To deliver fuels from international refineries. The local US based refineries due to annual spring matenance shut ins, the one damaged Exxon refinery, they can't produce enough refined fuels to supply demand. Lack of refinery output along with California's new carbon tax at .76 cents per gallon is the issue for price, not WTI crude price, according to Platts report I viewed.
I would venture to say, California is also getting a great buy on the fuels in those vessels from international refineries.......
be careful about the definition of "your country" when you are talking about a dual citizen.
Well, the 'my country' expression ALSO includes the Occupied and PARTIALLY Ocupied Territories (like D.C., NYC, most of Florida, Chicago, Sacramento, HOLLYWOOD, Michigan [but they don't like Michigan anymore because between the Somalians and the 'welfare recipients of color', they don't feel comfortable there], Palestine, Brussels, France [ALL of it], the City Of London,...).
You're SUCH a Meshuginah, 'Fun Facts'!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUCNAnp2QAI
it's the same as you stole 1$ -you go to jail, you stole 1bn$ - you get bonuses,
you kill 1 person you go to jail, you killed 100000+ in Iraq - you get bonuses,
you destroyed usa economy - and its ok, you get bonuses
You can't just say sorry, it's not working this way.
Agreed he probably knows he is getting close to deaths door so doesn't care about putting forward the false naritive anymore. My guess is so that he can be remembered for being accurate / creditable in his last days and to get right with God or whatever he believes in before he goes into the next real of existence. Either way the man knows things we could only hope to get a sliver of. Unlike "the Bernak" he was a decent economist before entering the Fed at least from my perspective.
I agree, he has had many good observations and thought provoking articles lately. He also wrote good stuff before he was FED chairman. The only problem was the years when he was ACTUALLY SITTING IN FRONT OF THE CONTROLS. At least it solves the puzzle on why he did what he did. You go along to get along.
Ehis Judas move on the banksters will be met with: Don't worry he will be dead soon
Put a dab of polonium in his metamucil enema
SHUT THE ***ARSEWHOLE*** UP ! and his KUNT WIFE TOO!
<b>critical thinking</b>
My extra cash !!!!! .... what extra cash????
http://www.peacearchnews.com/business/294749811.html
Gas prices soar above $1.30 despite lagging crude oil
The average Metro Vancouver price for regular gas of $1.31 as of Monday afternoon is back to approximatey the same level it was in early October. Back then, crude oil was above $85 a barrel compared to about $50 now after a slight rebound from its January lows.
MJ Ervin officials expect a further gradual rise in retail gas prices in the months ahead.
Vancouver Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com
===
“The Fed is very aware that the bottom 80% of Americans own less than 5% of US equity markets.”
NOW, tell me about that herd that will go over the cliff. Who is manipulating the market for what percentage of the population?
The market was/is rigged for the people, by the people who are in it.
Those with the biggest say about the rules are those that are affected the most.
“Rest assured, That, the Fed has seen the light. And they don’t actually hate working class America, they just don’t give a flying f#ck about them.”
“That recovery will never come, simply because all 90% of Americans do is pay for the other 10% to get richer.”
NOW, tell me again, who is getting a “free lunch”? Is it those getting poorer? OR Is it those getting richer?
<b>critical thinking</b>
Greenspan needs to shut the fuck up. He did not know what he was doing when he was Chair of the Fed and he does not know what he is doing now.
Why is anyone giving him air time?
He knew what he was doing the same as he knows what he is doing now!
If he was really saying the "truth," you can bet your ass he wouldn't get one second of air time on MSM.
That is fucking hilarious!
you mean this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUY2fOeQMrQ&feature=youtu.be
apple engineer disussing products
although the spanish to english translation, frankly, is not correct ! But dont let that stop you from watching.
FUCK!
If only Greenspan was ONE INCH TALLER! He wouldn't let all those terrible foreign people toss him around like the midget at a toss party! NO! He'd show 'em...
(WATCH OUT! He's whipping out his iPhone 6!)
the strength of the dollar, as perhaps delaying the Fed policy on raising interest rates.
Strong dollar - strong economy - why not raise rate? why are they so dumb with this bs they tell people?
"Alan Greenspan - seemingly brimming over with the need to remedy his years of lies/mistruths with some uncomfortable truthiness"
years ago watching C-SPAN Washington Journal ... Richard Armitage was on ... jokingly said ~ "when you leave government service your IQ goes up 20 points"
He too was speaking with much "truthiness" since he was no longer an official
Greenspan, the useful Jew.
Greenspan, your fun-real home/crematorium is calling, they want your decayed corpse back
all to cajol us to embrace the tyranny to come next.
Come on America let's piss some oil away! Have we forgot how to consume like big dogs?
"U.S. economy, which is a questionable issue, or a weak rest of the world, which is a little more credible."
Alan, please do everyone a favor for once ...Go away and decompose!
Rat bastard!
Why does ayone pay one bit of attention to this reptile
It wasn't the Great Recession. It should be called the Greenspan Recession
Obozo will fix that.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/03/13/us-government-bails-out-oil-industry-ru...
I' m originally from Montana. Chatted with my mom this week. Lots of new building and businesses sprouting up in those tiny communities in the Bakken. Layoffs are going to make all that go bust before they could even take advantage of the boom
I live out here in MT now. Layoffs are already happening. It's gonna jump ugly for some of those town on the East side.
Can't someone take Greenspan to the vets and get him put down.
The undead require a wooden stake into his black heart
"A stronger dollar tends to suppress general domestic price level. But the problem here is that we are not quite certain where the problem on the exchange rate comes from, whether it is a strong U.S. economy, which is a questionable issue, or a weak rest of the world, which is a little more credible."
The problem in exchange rates, Alan and Uncle Janet, comes from the FED and their media megaphone barking about raising interest rates while the rest of the world is lowering and carrying the QE baton....thus sparking a mindless global algo driven trend following frenzy.
Sounds like Dr. Greenspan is taking a page from Robert MacNamara's book. As inescapable mortality looms, even a conscience unused to self-examination begins to look ahead and worries about its "place in history." This is not true remorse for prior behavior, no matter how murderous or criminal. It is a massive ego projecting itself favorably into the future. Too little, too late, Alan.
as the NeoCons Cheney, Wolfie, etc ALL RE-WRITING THE HISTORY BOOKS!
Ahhhh, Greenscam's "I'm trying to distance myself from the Banking Cabal" tour continues in earnest.
Expect him to continue to adopt ZH analysis and try to convince people he's a good guy all the way up to his dirt nap.
This is Alan's 3rd incarnation. Alan Greenspan 3.0 as David Stockman is likely to say at some point.
When things get really, really, really Bad.. you have to tell the truth.... or they laugh ( or Shoot ) at you...
Maybe he's trying to get his name off of the list.
Have no fear, some war or trouble in the middle east will conveniently erupt just in time to crank up the price of oil. Wall st has its "plunge protection team" and oil has it's CIA and US military.
since when does the descripition good policy have anything to do with it? the real problem is where they think the dollar should be and how can we get it there. good policy be damned. as usual Greenspan is his old disingenuous self..
Since when is he the Queen of information and what's going to wreck our economy. Go away.
Zero Hedge needs a book imprint subsidiary
Bubble Blower - How Allan Greenspan Destroyed the US Economy
"GREENSPAN: Well, the basic issue is the entitlements and the reason it's a problem is that people put money in their own funds and their employers' funds plus interest and that is what they perceive they et back , and therefore they are entitled to it because it is their money. The only problem is that's not what we are doing. We're not creating enough funding for the Social Security trust funds, and the same thing goes for Medicare Part A. And we're not funding this. So long as we are not funding this, we are dollar for dollar crowding out capital investment."
Yes, the money is going instead to bankers, Alan. And what isn't, is being devalued as part of official Fed policy that explicitly seeks inflation. But of course you know that, Alan. Why don't you just say "people need to stop thinking that 'their money' is their money. It is our money."
Greenspam is spinning like a top. He attacks entitlements as a cause for the loss in productivity, which is partially correct. Instead of attacking S.S. why don't you attack the FSA .gov. handouts, and the millions of Illegals that are leaching off the system? Why don't you attack the massive stock buybacks that are killing CAPex in order to please shareholders.(a result of ZIRP FED policies) Why don't you attack the pork barrel spending in Washington?
Greenspam suggests that having the abilty to export more North American crude would help support prices. LMFAO! Who are we going to export it to? The reason oil prices are so depressed is because the world is in a recession! (lack of demand)
The day the BlowhornCNBS announces Greenspams passing, will be a day non to soon.
R.I.P you shape shifting lizard...
Turd polishing his legacy before the formaldehyde drip quits working
He knows that when he croaks the story will be how his policies led to the worst economic collapse since '29
Greenspan blames the Government for its irresponsible fiscal behavior but says the Fed's monetary policies ares spot on...
http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/greenspan-blames-u-s-government-for-e...
Exile him to Somalia
WITH Mrs Greenspan lol
Ba Ha Ha Ha!! Greenspan is reading ZH.
Expect to see new member names like "Atlas Shrugged", "Boned Ayn" any second now...
With any luck, oil will fall to $30, Americans will reap the savings and Vlad will need to Zeroes each night to hover 'round and keep him from hurting himself.
the plan is for the US to supply Europe with LNG exports, poor Vlad and his pipeline to nowhere. meanwhile US energy policy might be to replace domestic demand for NG with crude products, heating oil, distillates. while exporting LNG at a more profitable margins. VP says $3 NG = $18 crude, the profit difference could be interpreted as the cost to convert it to LNG. either way you cut there is a huge profit involved, and plenty of geopolitical advantage.
NG is not competitively priced across the globe, the Japanese pay 5X as much for instance. so there is plenty of incentive to convert and ship LNG, and the new technology is more efficient that shipping crude which then has to be distilled. i keep scratching my head about US energy policy, Obama and the electric car fraud, why dont they convert more autos to NG. now i think i see their plan. the fruits of the maladjusted Fed policy have created a surplus of NG, through fracking. official US energy policy has done nothing to promote NG at the retail level (public trans is another story). the US global energy policy will be to replace crude demand with LNG, and the US would be the main exporter, death to OPEC. Japans economy gets a real boost, exporting LNG would rescue Europe from Russias stranglehold, and China could use all the coal they want. with the surplus of crude in the US americans should have plenty of cheap energy for the foreseeable future, although where it gets refined is a problem, mexico perhaps. a new superhighway connects central mexico with the middle of the US. they didnt build that road to smuggle workers. its coming into focus, and Al probably knows it too.
So far, I've seen one UPS truck with 'Propane Vehicle' printed on it's side.
how the irrelevant try to remain relevant
Could the Russian economy bring down President Putin? Bill Browder, Author of Red Notice and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, says crumbling economic conditions could be the catalyst that ends Russian President Putin's regime.
In spite of Russia's political isolation and the uproar over the death of Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, domestic support for Russian President Vladimir Putin remains strong. But one of the Kremlin's most vocal critics believes Putin's ultimate downfall could come at the hands of the unfolding economic crisis.
"I don't think the Nemtsov murder is going to touch the vast proportion of Russians but it's going to touch people like me profoundly and other people hoping for a liberal democracy," Kremlin critic Bill Browder told CNBC Monday.
"But what will, and what always does in these situations, is an economic crisis. Why was there an Arab Spring (in 2011) – it wasn't because of a wave of democracy, it was because food prices went up and prices of fuel went up for people (living) below the subsistence level and they couldn't stand it anymore."
"There's going to be some catalyst related to the economics that will end Putin's regime. He doesn't know and we don't know what that catalyst is going to be and when it's going to happen."
Browder, the chief executive and founder of Hermitage Capital Markets, has been a vocal critic of the Russian government and its leader Vladimir Putin for a number of years.
Browder was kicked out of Russia for accusing Russian tax officials of embezzlement, in 2007. Since then, he has repeatedly accused Russia of corruption and has been involved in a high-profile battle with the Russian state over the death of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was investigating fraud among Russian officials.
More than half of Russians would vote for President Vladimir Putin if a snap presidential election were held, a survey published last Thursday showed. Out of 1,600 adults polled by the independent Levada Center last month, 55 percent said they would cast their ballot in favor of Putin if a snap presidential election was called. The overall approval rating for Putin was 86 percent in February, however, just slightly lower than October's high of 88 percent.
Now based in London, Browder told CNBC Europe's "Squawk Box" that Putin's recent approval ratings of 88 percent -- despite a year of economic deterioration caused by the falling oil price and western sanctions on Russia for its part in the Ukraine conflict – were unbelievable.
"The polls can't possibly be accurate," he said.
"I don't think he has an 88 percent approval rating but he does have a high approval rating because they've been creating this nationalist frenzy on television."
Russia is in economic trouble. The economy is expected to enter recession this year as sanctions and the low oil price, on which Russia depends as a major oil exporter, start to bite.
The weakened ruble has dramatically impacted the rate of inflation, which accelerated in February to hit 16.7 percent from a year earlier. As a result, Russians are expected to spend more than half their incomes on food this year, according to research published last week by Russian bank VTB Capital.
Keen to be seen sharing the public's economic pain, it was announced on Friday that President Putin had cut his own salary, as well as that of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and other high-ranking officials, by ten percent.
The salary cuts could be extended into 2016, Putin's press-secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told RIA-Novosti news agency. "This is a temporary ruling, caused by the current economic situation. If the conditions do not change significantly, this period will be extended. If there will be a change for the better then there will be no more reason for the extension," he said.
According to government documents released in 2014 cited by CNN, Putin's annual salary was nearly 3.7 million rubles last year -- worth about $61,000 today due to inflation.
Putin's approval rating is 88% because the Proud Russian people know that Putin is risking his life to protect Russia from the Necolonial rape by America
No more will that country be diminished by Jewish oligarchs or Having their resources plundered by the likes of faggots like Nobel Prize "winner" Barack W. Obunghole
Hey freedumb 123: not everyone subscribes to American Exceptionalism trying to demonize "Putler" for standing up tto the desperate corrupt and bloated American hegemon
Europe is too weak, corrupt and decrepit to resist. Putin is risking all for Russia's fair shake of a Global Economy
Evgeny Federov, member of Duma(Russian Congress).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT085isnyB0
You got Putin's suicide watch tonight, iofera?
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150314/1019501171.html
Who wound up Greenspan?
Hasn't he been blabbering a lot moar lately?
Interesting how he quotes gov't (EIA ) figures for production...
But doesn't quote the same gov't figures for CONSUMPTION...
Now ain't that in'neresting???
"problems" and "dilemmas" but no "conundrums"
Greenspan hasn't bottomed yet
It isn't about productivity. The jobs only exist on a spreadsheet.
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/stats/statisticsvw.asp
Not for long, Magoo, not for long.
Bakken up from Dec 2013 to Jan 2014 but down from Dec 2014 to Jan 2015. Only 57 additional wells. 125 barrels per day per well vs. 130 in December. Unless USA can import a lot more, this neverending surplus will...end.
Fuck man you're dealing in actual figures. Doncha know you're mean to post Tyler's favorite video from bloomberg about how rig counts don't matter!
I heard as low as $20 a barrel.
Of course you need to hit "entitlements"; you know the thing that people worked hard and long for while Congress & Wall Street spent all of it on "pet projects" and now the innocent are the ones who are to blame as determined by the thieves. If you haven't felt ObamaCare yet; that is an example of taking away a basic entitlement and the result is the enriching of the already rich.
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How about we have a full session of Congress and some patriotic (AKA:Terror_ist) GI Joe accidentally sends a few Tomahawks or better yet a Russian Sunburn. Of course I am just kidding; being a murderer of the murderous makes one the same as the latter.
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God take pity on U.S.. - that is the only real hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI11KrY-QtQ
Hey Al,
Nobody gives a shit what you have to say....
Al hasn't had a good shit in 20 years I wager
All hail the new Lindsey (Greenspeek) Williams.
Amazing he and Reagan decided to loot SS in real time rather than letting it accumulate and he is still here now that the math is going south on that decisision from '86.. Anyone ever ask him about that?? Wherez da lockbox??
The US is still importing a shit load of oil.... and he says the country needs to export oil?
Time to just die Alan. Nah... just have a stroke and rot away for another 10 years slobbering over yourself and making baby talk.
As for the glut of oil, the guvmint would be storing that to keep the war machine going after the economy collapses - and they turn it on the populace.
Crowd control
Greenspan took the Red Pill? WTF?