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Win-Win And The Cold War

Tyler Durden's picture




 

From Peter Tchir of TF Market Advisors

Win-Win And The Cold War

With all the anticipation of Grand Plans this week, I decided I should get in the mood and write something positive.  So I tried hard to think of something truly positive and linked to the Grand Plan and then it hit me.  The Cold War.  Both sides won.  I think “win-win” might be more of a lie than synergy, but here is a case where both sides won.

Russia is now more like we wanted them to be, and the West is far more like Russia wanted it to be.

The President is an important person in Russia.  The most important person in America has the title Chairman.

America has a huge prison population and the Gulag system has been dismantled.

America crushes everyone at the Summer Olympics and Russia makes reasons why the American system gives an unfair advantage to its athletes.

Russia was willing to throw around its military might even though it had struggled with a war in Afghanistan.  Now the US is embroiled in Afghanistan and seems very happy to use military intervention.

Russia was known for saying how great it was in spite of evidence to the contrary.  The US remains the “richest” country in the world in spite of a record number of people on food stamps.

Russian politics was based on a few elites doing what they “knew” was best for the people, not what the people wanted.  The people are opposed to bailouts in virtually every country, but “democracy” is railroading it through to save the people from themselves.

I guess if I was being negative, I could have said that both sides lost, but hey, with a new Grand Plan about to be announced to ensure that highly paid investors who made horrible decisions, don’t have to pay for those bad decisions, I should remain positive.

 

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Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:24 | 1780723 Dburn
Dburn's picture

Very Well Done. Laughing like crazy.

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:27 | 1780729 Motley Fool
Motley Fool's picture

Winning. :D

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:41 | 1780759 falak pema
falak pema's picture

winning "ugly", until you look like the portrait of Dorian Gray...That guy, Oscar Wilde, was a genius; he saw it all...human nature and Man's 'i'm the prettiest, winningest, fairest, most magnanimus of them all' hubris

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:29 | 1780734 slaughterer
slaughterer's picture

Very good, but who is the US equivalent of Stalin?  

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:40 | 1780757 kridkrid
kridkrid's picture

Wait for it...

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 08:15 | 1780803 BorisTheBlade
BorisTheBlade's picture

He comes after Lennon, .. sorry Lenin.

However, what Americans should be really looking forward is Brzezin,... sorry Brezhnev .

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 08:24 | 1780837 Red Herring
Red Herring's picture

Stalin, and Lenin before him, were necessary to transfer the Russian society from tsarism to "tyranny of proletariat" is a short period of time.  This was accomplished is a short period of time, immediately following the Civil War of 1918-1921, where the new haves, the bolsheviks, started to control the wider population.  America got its head start on "tyranny of capitalism" after its Civil War, but it did not progress as fast.  Another Civil War of 9/11 was, in my opinion, a similar turning point in American history where and class of haves started to control the class of have nots. 

Stalin emerged as a leader early on in Russian revolution, but it took him about 14 years to assert himself as a tyrant. 2001 + 14 = 2015. If the parallels are truly there, you don't have to wait too much longer.

Sad, really, USA was the greatest country in the world.

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:32 | 1780742 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

And Russia has Dosteyevsky and America has The Great Gatsby and The Last Tycoon (unfinished.) Is there anything going on that we don't already know? Or are we just too lazy to figure out there really is something new under the sun? As was said of Athens "the Spartans killed her because they were jealous."

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:44 | 1780761 falak pema
falak pema's picture

how can you be jealous of someone who has a clitoris when you have a very male Spartan dikk??!!

Athens was Minerva's present to Greece. Like the olive tree.

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:34 | 1780747 qussl3
qussl3's picture

Sounds awfully like the Great oriental hope too no?

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:43 | 1780760 eurusdog
eurusdog's picture

Great post!!!

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 07:53 | 1780779 Esso
Esso's picture

I guess one man's win-win is another man's lose-lose.

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 08:30 | 1780851 Red Herring
Red Herring's picture

more like a win-win for a few is a lose-lose for many

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 08:01 | 1780794 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

I have a Grand Plan to take a break on the potty

perhaps we should scrap all Grand Plans?

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 09:23 | 1780828 Red Herring
Red Herring's picture

the parallels between Soviet Union of 80's and America of 00's are striking, including "free" press, self-aggrandising, military excursions to far away lands, support of select leaders and demonising of others, belief of the wider population into power of government vs. power of self, and emergence of a small vocal group of government critics.  The major difference is the 2nd Amendment

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 08:43 | 1780878 spanish inquisition
spanish inquisition's picture

And the only constant is the 1% behind the scenes controlling the money as we ride out our 100 year inflation bull market. We need a new parable or something to explain it to kids. 

I propose http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069372/plotsummary The Thing with Two Heads with Rosey Grier representing the 99% and Ray Milland the 1%. Rosey is a man on death row for a crime he did not commit and Milland is a dying old rich dude looking for a new way to extend his life. Hehe, sounds like there is much to learn from this movie.

 

 

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 09:38 | 1781017 optimator
optimator's picture

The Russians behind the curtain had their dachas outside Moscow, ours has the equal in gated communities on Long Island.

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 09:15 | 1780960 jbowman
jbowman's picture

and now we have Czars

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 10:28 | 1781197 b_thunder
b_thunder's picture

Brilliant observation.  The sad fact i want to emphasize that at least in the early days of the USA/USSR "competition" one of these two countries was, although not perfect, but at least a solid and functioning democracy.   As of today, both are totalitarian countries run by and for the benefit of oligarchs, lobbyists, and military-industrial complex

Mon, 10/17/2011 - 10:50 | 1781302 i love cholas
i love cholas's picture

Excellent post

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