Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Oopsie






 


(Forbes) Why I'm not getting so much of the spam screeds in comments telling me of the strength of the ruble.

The Dog That Hasn't Been Barking - MOAR RUSSIAN WINNING!: 

"Russia’s ruble slipped past 100 per U.S. dollar on Monday morning, a nearly 17-month low that has sparked internal discord over monetary policy as economic pressures from its ongoing war in Ukraine mount and international sanctions erode Moscow’s income streams."

Crayon drawing for the slow learners:









Dear hardcore retards:

Currencies go up and down. I haven't cock-a-doodle-dooed about this before now, even as the ruble slipped back to reality (starting last winter), for the same reason you shouldn't have been doing it when the ruble temporarily went up last year (for about seven months).

The dollar is shit, because we've inflated it beyond reality. That's bound to come in for a landing one day, sooner or later. And yet it's still better off than the ruble (currently by 10% overall), compared to five minutes before Pootie-poot got all grabby about other people's countries. Suck on that. There's also more USD being held as the world's reserve currency than there was several months ago. So news of the dollar's utter demise is a wee bit early, even if it's fundamentally less sound than Emperor Poopypants' memory.

The ruble is shit, because all Russia has to back it with isn't gold (they're not handing that over for rubles, jackholes, never were, and never will), it's commodities. Which revenue stream has been halved since Putard's asinine invasion, and which they're only selling (at fire sale prices) to India and China, both of whom are ecstatically happy to profit from Russia's stupidity, and get cheap energy while they can.

Whether there are long-term consequences and punishment from the rest of the world towards India and China when the dust settles remains to be seen, but neither has anything long-term to look forward to.

But FFS, stop pointing to the ruble as some bastion of stability. It's the Mexican peso in Cyrillic writing, with the inherent worth of Zimbabwean dollars. Even more so as long as they're an international pariah. Their economy is currently a fraction of what it was 20 months ago, and it isn't going to get better until they end this war, withdraw from Ukrainian territory in haste and for good, and probably pay hefty reparations on top of that. That's what they've bought themselves. Get over it, snowflakes.

Kremlin PANIC: FORTUNE: in-panic-mode-after-ruble-plunges-below-a-penny-russia-rescues-vladimir-putin-from-humiliating-currency-collapse-with-emergency-hike

8 comments:

Felix Dzerzhinsky said...

Actually, to be exact, the Mexican peso is currently worth six times what the Russian ruble is.

And none of that is up for discussion by the whiners.

Tucanae Services said...

Fair assessment of the situation. I expect Aeroflot to announce cessation of operations due to lack of spares sometime the balance of this year.

Tucanae Services said...

And just like that, Aesop called it -- https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russia-hikes-rates-12-emergency-move-halt-roubles-collapse -- As I recall Wiemar Republic did something similar before it all went to s#$%^.

Delta Mike said...

No economist here, so if Felix is correct and I don't have this all backwards, then I am amazed that the ruble is worth even 1/6 of a Mexican peso!

Under the weight of the most encompassing sanctions in history, a dearth of trading partners, and being entirely shut out of international banking (as I gather), and on top of the Russian GDP being poured into the military, I doubt Pooty will be causing anyone trouble after his little foreign adventure soon ends.

Interesting that at one point Russia had handily passed Germany for the 4th largest economy in the world, now they have simply squandered it all in the Ukraine as global pariah par excellence.

John Wilder said...

Yup, it's a junk currency, too, and worse than the $.

Birdchaser said...

I've got a 5gal bucket full of pesos, the bucket is worth more than they are. But it's stainless steel so....

Tucanae Services said...

Delta Mike,

Check the history books and you will find that in the 1900s Argentina had an economy rivaling even the US or Britain on a per capita basis. Then the socalists got control just before WWII and by 1960 the economy was junk. They are on their 5th currency devaluation if memory serves me right.

Anonymous said...

I'm still in wait and see mode. Note "Reality Sets In" is shortly after Nordstream. Would be a little weird if your cash flow weren't a little different if a significant fraction of your paycheck suddenly disappeared for the foreseeable future.

Wouldn't surprise me if there's still a market for Russian natural gas and Russian wheat this winter, particularly when the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can no longer carry Europe through, and Keystone was killed, and the Resident starts demanding more of our grain be converted to fuel.

Anyone who buys the idea that Bidenomics is what's keeping the dollar from collapsing any faster than it is...?