Guest Post: Why Bernanke Has Failed, And Will Continue To Fail
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith from OfTwoMinds blog,
Why Bernanke has Failed, and Will Continue to Fail (January 9, 2012)
Ben Bernanke's zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) and command-economy efforts to maintain mispricing of risk, debt and assets are destroying capital and capitalism. No wonder his policies have failed so miserably.
To understand why Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's efforts to restart economic "growth" have failed so completely and miserably, we need to compare the present with the end of the Great Depression. There is a wealth of irony in the Chairman's supposed expertise on the Great Depression, as his policies have backfired on "fixing" the Great Recession.
Rather than "fix" the economic malaise by re-inflating the credit-boom bubble, he has only increased the systemic vulnerability to a much greater crash.
This is akin to an "expert" on World War I recommending a bigger, stronger more costly Maginot Line as the "solution" to military vulnerability.
In the Great Depression, excessive speculation built on systemic fraud and embezzlement led to the implosion of a vast credit bubble.
The "solution" touted then and now by saviors of the Status Quo was to "save" the financial sector and debtors by substituting Federal spending (with the money being borrowed via the full faith and credit of the U.S.A.) for collapsing private borrowing and spending.
This "solution" failed because it refused to address the real problem, which was over-indebtedness in service of mal-investment. People lost faith in the system for good reason--it was fraudulent and opaque, and thus mispriced risk. If you can't price risk or assets, then it's insane to either borrow or invest.
The "solution" to the Great Depression was massive Federal debt and spending on World War II--but the "solution" had a key characteristic that is almost universally ignored.
Depression-era calls to bulldoze homes to be rebuilt and destroy grain so it could be regrown were rightly dismissed as mal-investment on a vast scale. But war is more or less an equivalent "consumer" via destruction. Hundreds of ships were built and then sunk, thousands of aircraft were built and then shot down or lost, and monumental mountains of provisions and supplies were manufactured and then either consumed or lost to enemy submarines, bad weather, rot and a host of other causes.
At the end of the war, most of the leftover goods manufactured--ships, tanks, aircraft, munitions, etc.--were mothballed or scrapped.
Despite this staggering waste, the war spending launched a long boom. How did it work this magic? One, it constructed new plant; unlike the Keynesian calls to bulldoze houses so they could be rebuilt, the war investment created factories that could then be converted to produce consumer goods.
More importantly, the war spending created a vast pool of private capital--what we call savings. As resources were diverted to the war effort, rationing limited both the manufacture and availability of consumer goods. Meanwhile, tens of millions of people were put to work, either in the Armed Forces or in the war manufacturing sector, and most had few opportunities to spend money. Industrialists also piled up war profits.
Though extend-and-pretend policies did not write off the overhang of debt that had depressed the economy and destroyed the market's ability to properly price risk and assets, this gargantuan pool of private capital simply overwhelmed the remaining debt overhang.
Third, trust in the system was restored: the Federal government had effectively "won the war" by printing money and drawing upon the nation's vast surplus of energy and labor, and the manufacturing and financial sectors had been brought to heel by the extraordinary demands of the war and by legislation that had responded to financial fraud and over-reach.
Recall that the root of "capitalism" is capital. Capitalism requires two fundamentals--capital to invest and open markets for goods and services that openly price risk, assets, hedges and goods.
Note that debt is not listed. Debt is not essential to capitalism. Indeed, if we explore the roots of modern capitalism in the 14th and 15th centuries, we find that commercial credit and hedges were the key ingredients, not debt. Lacking sufficient coinage to handle the rising volume of trade, merchants settled accounts at the great trading fairs in Europe.
Long, risky trade voyages were hedged with the equivalent of options and limited stock companies that distributed risk for a price. Leverage was limited by the transparency and appetite for risk.
Compare that with Bernanke's policies, all of which severely punish savers (i.e. the accumulation of capital) and reward leverage and debt. By lowering interest rates to zero, Bernanke has imposed the opposite of the World War II experience of forced savings--he has made cash into trash and pushed everyone into risk assets.
By making credit dirt-cheap and backstopping financial-sector losses (i.e. institutionalizing moral hazard), Bernanke has destroyed the market's ability to discipline mal-investment and openly price risk and assets.
World War II launched a boom precisely because private capital accumulation/savings were enforced; when the war ended, there was a vast pool of capital available for investment and consumption.
Bernanke's policy is to punish capital accumulation and reward leveraged debt expansion. Rather than enforce the market's discipline and transparent pricing of risk, debt and assets, Bernanke has explicitly set out to re-inflate a destructive, massively unproductive credit bubble.
This is why Bernanke has failed so completely, and why he will continue to fail. He is not engaged in capitalism, he is engaged in the destruction of capital, investment discipline and the open pricing of risk, debt and assets. When the next "credit event" sweeps round the Fed's Maginot Line of encouraging mal-investment and masking fraud and rolls up the entire financial sector's defenses against mispriced risk and credit, Bernanke will be inside the over-run HQ, wondering how his "brilliant" policies could have failed so spectacularly.
If this recession strikes you as different from previous downturns, you might be interested in my new book An Unconventional Guide to Investing in Troubled Times (print edition) or Kindle ebook format. You can read the ebook on any computer, smart phone, iPad, etc. Click here for links to Kindle apps and Chapter One. The solution in one word: Localism.
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Bernake's goal is to bail out his bankster friends and sponsors of the political establishment, at the expense of everybody else. Forget about the rhetoric, this is what this has always been about. What makes you think that he is failing?
indeed. hes been quite successful at keeping the zombie banks in business.
As someone who has actually read a few Keynesian textbooks, they actually believe this aggregate demand bubble-reinflation stuff. I think that others (e.g. powerful players on Wall Street) realize this is guff and that it ultimately damages the real economy but go along with the autistic mathematicians like Bernanke who are hypnotized by numbers and demand curves becase they want the quick $$$.
the bernank hasn't failed...the financial system hasn't collapsed.
a growth system will collapse at such time as growth is no longer feasible. Bernank has forestalled that.
Please wake me up when a Malthusian makes a correct prediction, trav. As far as I know they have been wrong about everything, ever.
the financial system hasn't collapsed.
Zero return for savers, risk of loss of all your capital, government intervention minute-by-minute in the financial markets.
Capital allocation by tyrants can hardly be called a free market financial system.
Bernak=Rain man.....
"need to go to Kmart....."
Absolutely. He is succeeding far beyond his wildest dreams. CHS has clearly labeled himself a believer in fairy tales, the hallmark of childish logic.
Are these people never going to get it?
Frankly, Mr. Hugh-Smith ( by way of Mr. Durden ), taking into account this audience, you are preaching to the converted.
Mostly, perhaps. It's still scary to see how many will compartmentalize this knowledge rather than extrapolating it across the whole of the environment. I run into this constantly when I talk with people who can recognize blatant fraud where they have inside knowledge, yet in the next sentence expect that another equally fraudulent entity will "uphold the rule of law" and fix it.
Anymore, I just roll my eyes as I take another drink.
There is and will always be a very real cost associated with creating capital. History has shown that, depending on the technology of the time, you can ignore this for varying amounts of time. The system works so long as people and institutions are held accountable through bankruptcy and prison. But once the moral hazard is unleashed and fraud rules, eventually the bill comes due and bad debt and irresponsible behavior chokes ALL productive investment.
The disruption of critical supply lines always leads to real wars and revolution. Same as it ever was, hedge accordingly.
We are entering the advanced stages of currency wars and begining some genuine trade wars. Real wars coming. If you can't put your hands on your "investments" you don't "own" them and they will be of little use to you in the future.
Property and Plunder (from The Law by Frédéric Bastiat 1850)
Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources. This process is the origin of property.
But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder.
Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain — and since labor is pain in itself — it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.
When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor.
It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work. All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder.
But, generally, the law is made by one man or one class of men. And since law cannot operate without the sanction and support of a dominating force, this force must be entrusted to those who make the laws.
This fact, combined with the fatal tendency that exists in the heart of man to satisfy his wants with the least possible effort, explains the almost universal perversion of the law. Thus it is easy to understand how law, instead of checking injustice, becomes the invincible weapon of injustice. It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.
Absolutely brilliant and concise. Otherwise known as the universal depravity of man.
It is the 1%/99% rule.
1% have all the money/99% don't.
1% care/99% are on their I-phone chatting to anyone who will possibably listen to their Walmart shopping experience.
Soilent Green is the electronis crap made in China for the masses, financed by the FED greenbacks.
???
What can it even mean to start a sentence with the word "anymore", with no antecedent negative statement preceding it? I've heard or read people doing this several times lately, and remain completely baffled by it.
like.."it's 5 o'clock somehwere....." ??
education? WE DONT NEED NO STINKING EDUCATION!
(rock on akak)
It makes perfect sense if you don't try to parse it like a grammar nazi.
Yes. Those who prefer idiotic ideas expressed in impeccable grammar should surf over to the NYT site.
At least he didn't say "Anymore, I just rollING my eyes....."
I guess asking people to make comprehensible statements is now considered being "a grammar Nazi", huh?
I have no fucking clue what that person was trying to say by adding "Anymore" to the start of that sentence.
The word "anymore" ONLY has meaning when it follows a negative statement. Since it did not follow ANY statement, it was just gibberish.
Anyway, nuff said...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_anymore
Still, it is succinctly stated. I passed the blurb along to my acquaintances as a statement why there was no reason to expect improvement in the economy until we get political and systemic change.
Just A Sampler Plate of The Predictions of The Bernanke, Circa 2005 through 2007- YouTube
The Bernank said "housing prices have never fallen, and I don't expect them to..."
The Bernank. The Man. The Professor. The Economic Historian. The Fractional Reserve Charlatan. The Prophet. The Legend.
More like a "Poo Poo Platter" than a "Sampler plate." Not to quibble or anything.
Bernanke and the global bankers have been a total success, all planned and carried out and no one stopped them.
Charles buys into the Big Lie, that the FED set out to save US when what he was doing all along was the greatest transfer of wealth in history.
Success.
Charles again misses it.
The whores of Babylon are on their knees, begging, pleading for more QE from Ben 'Easy Over' Bernankincide:
5 Tech Stocks to Watch if QE3 Happens
Exactly.....it's all relative!
Beyond me that he is held as someone who is smart AND an economist....Fucking obscene. I will bet a big corn turd if you go to the average college and in Econ 101 you ask those people what to do in this sitch.....YOU MAKE YOUR BED, YOU LIE IN IT. (lie is the key word)
Add to it a bit, just a bit of history- or- look around....baby boomers. OF ALL THE TIMES IN HISTORY WHERE YOU NEED INTEREST RATES TO STAY NORMAL THIS IS IT...when thousands a day are hiting 65 and need interest for their savings...WE GET INFLATION AND ZIRP.
WTF???
He is obviously trying hard to derail the nation, the economy and the world.....HE IS NOT THAT DUMB....NO WAY....HE IS NOT THAT DUMB AND IT MAKES ME BELEIVE HE IS DOING IT FOR A REASON....I cant help but feel he is like Hitler economically....IT MAKES NO SENSE...HIS ACTIONS MAKE NO SENSE...
IT'S AS FOUL AS THE SHIT I JUST DROPPED OFF.....
THAT is the scariest part of it....HE IS DOING THIS SHIT ON PURPOSE....
It makes sense if you see him as the main protector of a status quo which knows no National boundaries and will do anything to maintain their status and power over others.
Agreed. I recall watching Geithner being questioned about TARP before Congress. After a short time I recoginzed that when Timmy talks about the end of the world, collapse, etc. what he means is the end of people in his slice of the economy if they are made to accept the losses occasioned by their risky invenstments. It was clear that he he believes that banks and financial companies are the real economy, and they must be shielded from harm by any means necessary, including the seizure of capital belonging to the middle class, earned one hour at a time. He did not articulate what they would get in return for having their earnings liquidated. And no mention what happens to the rule of law when the powerful are assisted in plundering the nation.
here is the concept that everyone often forget: the fed doesn't work for people, nothing really works for or is for people, people work for banking profits.
The problem is that as someone mentioned in lack of regulation and accountability but having it now is as likely as snow in hell.
He will continue to fail till he has a tight rope around his neck.
We hear how Bernanke is so stupid and has failed, etc, etc. But this is SO wrong. He is a complete SUCCESS. He is a Rothschild himself, and what do the Rothschild Zionists want to achieve? They want to achieve one world government, with all of us losers as debt slaves. THEREFORE, Bernanke has achieved his aims admirably and will continue to do so, because these are the goals for the last 100 years and more. Why don't intelligent people realise that? It is so obvious.
Why don't intelligent people realise that?
Either they are not intelligent, or are too busy posting pictures and stories of themselves globe trotting...please, just buy my kindle garbage.
Oddjob -- how about a family portrait ?
http://weakonomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/young-bernanke.jpg
sweet blazer.
Unfortunately, belief systems are instilled during childhood. To walk away from failed beliefs, is to embrace a suddenly incoherent existence. Most are far too invested in their beliefs to do this as they would otherwise suffer the typical "mid-life crisis" (a.k.a. confrontation with their cognitive dissonance).
So instead, they externalize, criticizing how others fail to uphold the facade, rather than noting the facade itself.
It's the very same thing I just slammed GW for on his "begging for SOPA relief" post. These are the people that empower the destroyers, wittingly or not.
more than that... a massive amount of money has been poured into the project for a very long time... to buy control of information, control of the propaganda channels, the medical system, the political system... whatever it took to create a fantasy world for the sheeple to populate while the pieces were slowly installed in place. the mask is coming off now, time to do or die for both sides.
Yes, yes. That good ole Matrix.
Who owns the Federal Reserve?
Funny, how something as important to a gov. as a central banking system has to rely on a 30 yr. old staff report to determine who owns it.
Yet, I'm not laughing.
@baby_BLYTHE
Kick ass link with tha chart .. do you have more info like that
Thanks
Cheers~!
You might find this interesting. G Edward Griffin's (Author of The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve System) take on JFK's executive order 11110 "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the treasury." Many believe this act by JFK was designed to put an End to the FED by removing its Monopoly over money/credit creation and it was because JFK did this that the banksters had him killed. Griffin differs on the consensus of this hypothesis and explains his conclusions on Kennedy's reasoning behind the executive order.
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedomcontent.cfm?fuseaction=jfkmyth
Griffin is exactly correct in his assertions regarding JFK and silver certificates/US Notes. That absurd theory that JFK was somehow "taking on the Fed" is just such a gross misreading and misinterpretation of cut-and-dried monetary history and status-quo policies of the 1960s that I was dumbfounded with derision and laughter when I first encountered it (on the internet). It truly dismays me that so many otherwise well-meaning people have bought into such a complete fabrication and, yes, conspiracy theory of the worst possible kind. JFK in NO WAY did anything to challenge the Fed or the fiat currency franchise --- he was just as much a statist as the typical politician, then and now.
baby_BLYTHE
Thanks ... yes i have read all of those
I love that flow chart ..
I have been trying to find more that show the flow chart of the crown crop and its play down to teh banks and media.
peercrackers, here's the orginal document:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46627723/Federal-Reserve-Directors-A-Study-of-Corporate-and-Banking-Influence-Staff-Report-Committee-on-Banking-Currency-and-Housing-House-of-Representative
"Secrets of the Federal Reserve" Q & A___eustace mullins
http://www.barefootsworld.net/fs_m_q_a.html
this is as far as any known, 'human being', has gotten to uncovering the clandestine functional apparatus operations of a neo-communist 'european politburo-presidium',... short of absolute totalitarianism - and i'm being gentle with my adjectives
old stuff, but so real?
Yep, time for you guys to grow up, leave your third world status behind.
Get yourself a proper real federal central bank owned by the American people.
I've posted that link here numerous times. It's an old chart, but I kind of doubt any of the families have sold their shares.
Bernanke is a Rothschild?? Thats a new one. How do you know?
the squid that weaves an impenetrable net with eight hands - never stopping to look back - but, forever swimming the rut on a long pair of cartilaginous web feet,... always fearful of being consumed by the schooled bait fish?
Ref: Kofi Annan - Secretary General of the United Nations [1997-2006 / 10 yrs]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofi_Annan
*Surprise___ Married to a Rothschild and co-winner of the 2001 [Rothschild?] Nobel Peace Prize!!!
Very good point. If you find yourself thinking that your enemy is stupid -- he's already won half the battle.
People have heard of the scientific method, but they think it has nothing to do with daily thought. They all still try to make the data fit their models, and when the data doesn't fit they say "That guy Bernanke is stupid!".
And that is the definition of insanity.
I got news for you--Rothschild don't own shit-- the guy with the gun owns it-- you don't believe me? Walk down some alley in downtown Detroit. The guy with the gun stuck in your mouth owns it-- argue with him -- he'll show ya quick. You see its like the house of cards thats five miles high-- The bottoms out of it but the top is still waiting for the message-- the "Rothschilds" ,as you like to call 'em' and their ilk and the people like you who think they bought a "stair way to heaven" will pretty much wake up soon--cause it's the price of turnips thats going to set the standard, IMHO
Yet another Bernak Econ 101 article. I sure hope someone in Congress reads it so they can stop this man from...ahhh, screw it, nevermind.
The Congress is owned by the same people who tell Bernanke what to do. How could it be otherwise? In a fiat currency world, the people who are empowered to create money will shortly control everything. Fiat 'money' and democracy are mutually exclusive.
Democracy is nothing but mob-rule and is wholly compatible with the fraud of fiat. The term you're looking for is "a free society."
No, democracy is "people power". The people cannot have power in a world of fiat money -- or rather, they will have only as much power as the money-creators permit them.
My point is that power no longer resides in people's ability to vote for different representatives. The money-people own all the representatives, and only permit political disagreements between the 'two parties' where it does not threaten their interests.
I agree, though, that democracy is not the same thing as freedom. I'm working on that.
1st off let the country print its own money .
why pay some zionest tax for doing it
I think it was probably the absolute economic destruction of all our competitors in WW2 that launched the US boom. We were able to grow our way out of the debt because we were really the only completely functional capitalist economy.
Excepting that to be capitalist, you can't have a central bank.
?? Capitalists LOVE central banks.
Mostly because they own them.
pods
(Imagine Steve Martin yelling at John Candy...)
"THOSE AREN'T CAPITALISTS!!!"
That US boom was fed by the German technology we took after the war. The patents, scientists, technology.....http://waronyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=2292.0;wap2
Feeding a Black Hole consumes a lot of matter
They threw trillions in worthless US tinder on the fire and failed. The more the egghead Keynesian squirms the tighter the noose gets-LOL!!!
"The Los Angeles County median home price is down 6 percent year over year. This in itself fails to highlight the deeper changes occurring in the most populated county in California....Let us look at the top 20 falling zip codes for 2011 in Los Angeles County."
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/top-20-zip-codes-list-los-angeles-cou...
Bernanke is a puppet of TPTB and is not an independently minded central planner. He is given orders and carries them out under the veil of 'monetary policy' (printing money and handing it to his friends) while the remainder of the 99.9999% of the population must work their asses off to collect the few pieces of fiat that trickle down to main street. Bernanke #winning. Everything is working just as planned. His masters must be very pleased.
Everything is working just as planned. His masters must be very pleased.
Yes! Speaking as a puppet master of TPTB I can highly recommend Dr Bernanke. He is a diligent and loyal servant. He's a model of discretion. And when you get a few dinks in him at a soiree he can even be good for a few laughs. We're considering rewarding him with a mountain-top chalet inside of our armed compound when this is all over and we rule the slaves
hey, baby_B!
what if there is a general crisis of faith that TPTB are in charge? might be fun...
100%
"...(i.e. institutionalizing moral hazard)..."
Exactly.
This on the back of overvalued housing markets (A.K.A. equity ATM's), fomented by Greenspan, CONgress, banks, and uneducated/reckless consumers.
The real collapse began in 2004 as Greenspan ramped up rates so that all the people who had been sold an equity ATM by their banker making fees and commissions on loose regulation were squeezed tight.
As the ARM's went up, ability to pay collapsed.
The MBS and CDS high leverage gambling game was the second to last step in the chain (plan?), and was designed to maximize income and bonuses for Wall Street before the game ended.
The last step in the "privatize gains/socialize losses" playbook was for the banks to be bailed out.
The Bernanke ZIRP is now requisite because a rise in rates will collapse housing even further.
Banks = happy because they get all the cash they want from the FED back door at 0.5% while lending it out at 5%-29% to cash strapped victims of their skullduggery, AND their crap loans shovelled over to Fannie/Freddie.
And you, like an idiot agree. JeeessssUS!
eh?
Ben is getting ready to hand the reigns over to Corzine.
Bernanke is a thief. Plain and simple.
He only cares about his Ivy League bankster friends.
His mother does have a nice ass, however.
At least Marie Antoinette served the peasants cake.
Try getting a single piece of candy from the Bernank.
He won't be happy till he screws all the children out of their lollipops and hands the sweeties to J.P. Morgan.
The old trope that the depression was "cured by the war" is false for 2 reasons. US was growing GDP by double digits starting in 1934 and that set up the capacity to win the war (not because of it). If prosperity was only a war "bubble" it would have fizzled within a few years. And we know that prosperity was maintained for a couple-four decades.
The war trope just sets the US economy on a cynical course which implies that economic security is only possible if we build arms just to blow them up and rebuild them (while expending the natural resources needed to build them, of course)
That wasn't prosperity. It was private debt and entitlements.
Yeah 'Right'. US had the biggest industrial might, technological might, and sophisitcated labor force. Public Debt plummeted from the end of ww2 through the 1970s, only to pick up big time in the 1980s
Fine.
K.
A COUPLE decades.
Nit Picker.
the US was literally the only industrialzed nation that wasn't burnt to the ground after WW2. so it was, in a sense, "cured by the war" - but not in the Keynesian sense. debt creation and stimulus had nothing to do with it. we were simply the only place where things could be built at the time. that's no longer true.
US was in prosperity before the war also. And during the entire period of isolationism of the 19th century. You have been successfully programmed.
World War 2 has been won by the People of Soviet Union with over 30 million lifes sacrifised. You should never forget about this. Rest of allies played minor role in that victory.
If you are truly against ignorance, you should include common US ignorance on this topic as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_War_II_Casualties.svg
Maybe if they were reminded ad naseum like other peoples have done, more would care less. Beating your grandparents dead horse is strangely fashionable within certain circles.
World War II ("The Great Patriotic War", lol) may have been "won" by the sociopathic leaders of the USSR, but it was certainly lost by each and every one of those 30 million who were poured into the battle in human waves, poorly equipped, frequently freezing and starving, and with NKVD agents often pointing guns at their backs to press them forward into hopeless battle and slaughter.
I am not minimizing the sacrifice of those 30 million, but condemning the brutal and callous disregard for human life by monsters like Stalin and other Soviet leaders. People have often stated that, if they could go back in history and kill one person, it would be Hitler, but Stalin would unhesitatingly be at the top of my list.
All of this is very true. That's why i never mention soviet leaders, who were obvious criminals, as contributers to that victory.
It looks to me, like Stalin was actually playing Zerg from Starcraft game.
But the point i was trying to make is that only because of those sacrifises you guys, have lost almost nothing. And claiming that victory for yourself is truly ignorant.
You could only imagine how histroy would have turned out of all the might of German military machine was directed towards England and US, while maitanting peace treaty with USSR.
To be fair, I have rarely if ever run across anyone who would dismiss or ignore the contributions of (the people of) the Soviet Union in beating back the Nazi death machine. It's just too bad that the Soviets ending up building and using an even greater death machine in the process. And let us not forget that the USSR --- well, Stalin, anyway --- was initially, and for two years, an ALLY of Nazi Germany, particularly in the shameful dismemberment and occupation of Poland.
Perhaps if Josef Pilsudski had been able to convince the other nationalities between Poland and the USSR (Lithuanians, Latvians, Belarussians, Ukrainians) to form an Eastern European Federation in the aftermath of World War I, as he had hoped and dreamed, they might have collectively just been strong enough to deter Hitler from his evil designs on Eastern Europe from the beginning, and either prevented the war from starting in the first place, or been able to defeat Hitler or halt his advance long enough for the western allies to deal him the final blow in tandem with themselves. Too bad the nationalistic provincialism on the part of the Ukrainians and Lithuanians, and overeager and premature revanchist military campaigns on the part of the Poles, doomed such efforts from the start.
Dzien dobry!
Maybe the USSR should have thrown in with the Allies against Japan. We had two fronts.
yes full on respect to every russian who paid the price of freedom for all of us... and i still believe in the coldest weather they would fuck any army hand to hand warfare...
Belarusian Bull
Rest of allies played minor role in that victory.
I gots ta call bullshit on ya. That drunken ass Stalin could have saved at least 10 million Russian lives. But he didn't give a shit.
And without American planes flown thru Canada and Siberia, and American trucks transported thru Iran you Russkies would be talking Deutsche right now.
All the best. Kayman