Monday, April 28, 2014

An Autonomous, Sovereign Nation? What a NOVEL thought!

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)




An autonomous, sovereign nation? What a NOVEL thought!

Why, with thoughts like that, they could even express fiat!!! :)

Maybe some Russians read Warren Mosler's blog, and understand at least parts of it better than the gold-std zombies at ZeroHedge do.

According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, Russian presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev proposed 15 measures to protect Russia's economy if more US sanctions are imposed. Some of the notable ones are listed here. 
Russia should withdraw all assets, accounts in dollars, euros from NATO countries to neutral ones 
Russia should start selling NATO member sovereign bonds before Russia’s foreign-currency accounts are frozen 
Central bank should reduce dollar assets, sell sovereign bonds of countries that support sanctions 
Russia should limit commercial banks’ FX assets to prevent speculation on ruble, capital outflows 
Central bank should increase money supply so that state cos., banks may refinance foreign loans 
Russia should use national currencies in trade with customs Union members, other non-dollar, non-euro partners


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe. But in any case this kind of retreat into separate capital blocs is not really good news and is extremely worrisome.

Matt Franko said...

I dont see how they can get out of any "dollar assets" in any case... unless they find another ex-US nation to exchange them with and probably no other ex-US nation has the amounts of assets needed by the Russians to be able to exit their USD positions available for exchange ...

Who are Russia's allies? Iran? Syria? Russia cannot off-load $126B+ of USD financial assets on these two 'pipsqueaks' imo...

About the only thing they can do is "give them back"...

They should probably just "give them back"... if they are serious.

Roger Erickson said...

"Potential" Russian allies?

China, India & Iran .... in roughly that order?

Maybe Brazil, if they're really ambitious.

Cyprus? Tuvalu? :) (also not doing well)
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117238/tuvalu-bruises-russia-establishing-diplomatic-ties-georgia

Ukraine USED to be their friend ... but there's a Great Game going on over that real estate.

If I were in Ukraine right now, I'd be thinking of emigrating.

Tom Hickey said...

Brazil? I would add almost the whole of Latin America. The pro-US cohort is mostly the corrupt elite that own the place, whom the US keeps in power through the CIA and military "generosity" The people down there get that the US is not on their side and never has been. As people power grows, as see already in several countries, the US actively works for regime change back to the status quo ante. It goes back to United Fruit and the US Marines.

BTW, anyone who saw the movie "Brazil" or paid attention to the Pinochet take-over that mimicked the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran knows the drill. Naomi Klein described it in Disaster Capitalism. And look at what happening in Venezuela right now with a US backed political insurgency against a democratically elected leader.

It's not by accident that much of the world is coming to see America as a rogue nation after coming out of WWII as the beacon of democracy. Quite a dismal record in a matter of a few decades by a bipartisan cabal bent on global hegemony of neoliberalism-neoconservatism under US control as the world's only superpower militarily with a global footprint and the largest economy with financial tentacles around everything.

This kind of behavior invites pushback.

Roger Erickson said...

WWSBS ?

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf

Calgacus said...

Dan Kervick: But in any case this kind of retreat into separate capital blocs is not really good news and is extremely worrisome.

Why? For Russia, it is clearly a good thing to use its wealth on its own development instead of speculation abroad - as Mosler has noted. Sochi was an example of what Russia should focus on, according to Michael Hudson. These meausures seem in line with that and common sense.

I sympathize, therefore, with those who would minimize, rather than with those who would maximize, economic entanglement among nations. Ideas, knowledge, science, hospitality, travel--these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible, and, above all, let finance be primarily national.

..a greater measure of national self-sufficiency and economic isolation among countries than existed in 1914 may tend to serve the cause of peace, rather than otherwise.
National Self-Sufficiency