Economics Is Destiny

Semi-pro thorn-in-the-foot Michael is so busy crowing about his own gains at speculation in penny currencies, he forgot the bigger picture. He also missed that the point wasn't whether or not he could make money, but rather "If Russia is winning so hard, why are they taking it in the ass economically?" 

I mean, geez, I made shit-tons of money off of Batman and Robin, but Warner Bros. walked away in a barrel, with no shirt or pants, and it killed the franchise until Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale got the thing off of life support.

So Michael's comment is like the guys wearing shirts in the movie biz in 1996 that said "Waterworld: I made money." Which was funny to them. To Universal, not so much. Pretty much like everyone who didn't short the ruble feels about how Russia's economy is performing now, and for the interminable future.

The value of the Russian ruble has dropped 40% in a year. Despite Putin pretend-backing it with gold. And it's also the only currency Vlad will accept for Russia's one and only valuable commodity: energy, in the form of oil and natural gas.

So Russia, by destroying the ruble's value, has just cut the price it's getting paid for oil and gas by 40%. Financial genius, right there.

On top of losing 60% of its energy export market overnight since February of last year, for which perpetual loss China and India haven't come close to making up. But they're getting their energy for bargain basement rates.

So the army isn't the only thing in Russia bleeding out its ass.