China’s Cross-Border International Payments System could give Russia a lifeline and accelerate de-dollarization…
We can assume that Russia has gamed all this out already and is confident it can weather Western economic and cyber warfare. This post doesn't say anything new, but adds an influential voice saying it.
Asia TimesDavid P. Goldman
It's almost like banking transactions never happened before SWIFT.
ReplyDeleteSWIFT is just a fancy email system for banks. The message broker could be replicated in a fortnight by anybody with a semblance of development knowledge.
An alternative to SWIFT is SWALLOW.
ReplyDelete“ We can assume that Russia has gamed all this out ”
ReplyDeleteYou mean perhaps the Putin people have figured it out…
You are homogenizing an entire nation of 100m people…
You do the same thing when it’s Democrats here in the US…
Biden said they froze the assets of a Russian bank US division that has $250B in assets here… this is more punitive than “kicking them off SWIFT!”
What is Putin going to say to these people who just lost $250b? Russia bonds in Switzerland went 0 bid… what does he say to these people?
“Yeah but we got Chernyobl back!” ?
May not cut it…
No Russian bank has $250 bln in assets here. That's Whitehouse propaganda bullshit to make Biden look strong.
ReplyDeleteVTB Bank already saw this coming and the impact will be minimal.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/world/sanctions-hit-vtb-bank-has-several-plans-minimise-impact-its-clients-2022-02-24/
"What is Putin going to say to these people who just lost $250b?"
ReplyDeleteHe's going to say, 'here's the equivalent in roubles'. Or 'write down your dollar liabilities by $Xb and let the dollar lovers in Russia take the pain. The unpatriotic scum should have been saving in roubles anyway'.
"Rouble"?
DeleteIs the the "rouble" pronounced like "rubble"?
Anyways, the Russians have a great math education -- they know their decimals and how to do unit conversions ;)
Our only saving grace in all this is that Putin is still a sound money gold bug - like Erdogan.
ReplyDeleteIf they get a Damascene conversion to MMT, we're screwed.
Whose bright idea was it to capture the radioactive area of Chernobyl?
ReplyDeleteAlso, as Matt has been saying just about forever on this blog, everyone wants to hold dead presidents (albeit my genetic ancestor Franklin, too. Good man that Franklin).
You mean perhaps the Putin people
ReplyDeleteSynecdoche
A synecdoche (/sɪˈnɛkdəki/ sin-NEK-də-kee,[1] from Greek συνεκδοχή, synekdochē, 'simultaneous understanding')[2] is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa.[3][4][5][6]
A synecdoche is a class of metonymy, often by means of either mentioning a part for the whole or conversely the whole for one of its parts. Examples from common English expressions include suits for businessmen, wheels for car, and boots for soldiers.
The use of government buildings to refer to their occupants is metonymy and sometimes also synecdoche. "The Pentagon" for the United States Department of Defense can be considered synecdoche, because the building can be considered part of the bureaucracy.[7] Similarly, "The White House" is also an instance of synecdoche since it is widely used to signify the office of the U.S. president.[8][9] In the same way, using "Number 10" to mean "the Office of the Prime Minister" (of the United Kingdom) is a synecdoche. Similarly, the names of capital cities referring to the sovereign states they govern follows this pattern.[10]
There is an interesting (to me) story that fits with this. When a captain of a ship walks up the gangplank of his own ship or another naval vessel, he (or she) is piped aboard as the name of the ship, for instance, "US Constitution arriving." When G. W. Bush visited that carrier he was piped aboard as he dismounted from his copter as "United States arriving." This announcement is over the ship's loudspeaker system that is heard everywhere. This is done not only as an honor but also let everyone onboard know what's up.
One of my favourite Greek words in English is "asymptote." It's used in math. the most famous asymptote is the speed of light. The word sounds complicated, especially when you come across it in algebra class, but when you break it down to its components it's very simple and, yeah, cool. And, you probably don't see it, but they word "syn" like in "synecdoche" is in "asymptote." Just have to look closely :)
DeleteWashington, Kiev, Moscow, and Ottawa are a polite way of differentiating the imbeciles in power from the populations they rule over.
ReplyDelete"Ottawa"? Where is that? The majority of Americans have no idea where that wretched place is on a map even if their smartphone depended on it. Best thing that's happened to that city publicity-wise in the last 100 years.
DeleteThe use of government buildings to refer to their occupants is metonymy and sometimes also synecdoche.
ReplyDeleteAn example from the past:
pharaoh, (from Egyptian per ʿaa, “great house”), originally, the royal palace in ancient Egypt. The word came to be used metonymically for the Egyptian king under the New Kingdom (starting in the 18th dynasty, 1539–1292 bce), and by the 22nd dynasty (c. 945–c. 730 bce) it had been adopted as an epithet of respect.
Asymptomatic - Fauci's favourite word
ReplyDeleteFauci is so 2021.
Delete2022 Year of the Mushroom?
ReplyDeleteOttawa is the 2nd coldest capital city in the world, after Ulan Baator.
ReplyDelete