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From
ZH:
“Following
the biggest rout to the Ruble in ages, Russia - unlike Mario Draghi -
instead of talking the talk decided to walk the bazooka walk and
shocked all those long the USDRUB by unleashing an emergency rate
hike (at 1 am in the morning) from the recently raised interest rate
of 10.50% to... hold on to your hats... 17.00%, a 650 bps increase!”
From
RT:
“The
decision followed a 10 percent drop in the value of Russia’s ruble
on Monday, the biggest intraday drop since 1999. After the hike, the
ruble strengthened 11 percent settling closer to 60 per USD and 67
against the euro, bringing its total year-to-date loss to more than
50 percent.”
“On
Tuesday, in an effort to fortify monetary policy loans, the bank is
offering to provide a floating interest rate set at the key rate
level increased by 1.75 percentage points, ...”
“The
interest rate hike is the sharpest since the 1998 crisis, which saw
rates higher than 100 percent. Russia defaulted on their debt in
1998.”
“Last
Thursday, Russia increased its rate from eight percent to 10.5
percent to combat inflation, which is projected to hit 10 percent in
2014. This marked the sixth time this year that the interest rate was
spiked.”
“The
bank only sees a chance of recovery in economy activity in 2017. It
has revised its 2014 growth forecast to 0.6 percent. Other forecasts
show Russia slipping into recession in the first quarter of the 2015.
Though the currency is tanking with the price of oil and the economy
is slowing, the Russian economy still has strong fundamentals,
including $416 billion in foreign currency reserves.”
Putin will seek further autonomy
for the Russian economy and further state control of the banking
system in order to protect it by foreign financial speculative
games. It seems that BRICS increasingly gaining financial
independence from the Western neoliberal bloc. This will bring
further panic to the Western oligarchs as may fear that a fast
growing Russian economy could become a new model for other
countries even from the Western sphere of influence.
|
“'I
doubt that the Chinese or the Russians actually believe that gold is
such a great investment in terms of pure returns,' Professor Aizenman
said. 'But if they’re trying to suggest that they’re unhappy with
the dollar or that they want to become a global player, then gold is
very powerful. 'The investment is a symbol,' he explained. 'It’s
made for political, not financial, gain.'”
Actually
not. As BRICS are in the processes to decouple economies from the
Western neoliberal monetary monopoly, they could bring back the gold
standard as a base for their transactions, which is much more steady
than the paper money unstable financial bubbles. They are ready,
because they are emerging economies with billions of potential
consumer tanks and can attract other countries too being victims of
the international financial mafia, like Argentina and Greece.
The West is saturated and the best proof is that the economic elites are using governments to impose hard austerity measures, cut salaries and pensions, or in the best case, stagnate them, because they don't really care about the Western market. Additionaly, they automate fast their bussinesses, therefore increase unemployment.
The West is saturated and the best proof is that the economic elites are using governments to impose hard austerity measures, cut salaries and pensions, or in the best case, stagnate them, because they don't really care about the Western market. Additionaly, they automate fast their bussinesses, therefore increase unemployment.
What
we see now, is a cruel battle with time. On the one hand, Russia
and China, together with the rest of the BRICS, are trying to get
rid of the dollar and form their own currency system to gain
complete independence, on the other, the neocon banking-corporate
puppets in the US are in panic and seek desperately a pretext to
come to war with Russia and put an end to this threat for their
plans. This explains their agony to drag Russia into a warm
conflict.
|
A
month ago, it was revealed that Iran launched similar actions,
probably to be able to join the new anti-neoliberal bloc:
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/11/iran-to-prepare-for-big-currency-war.html
It
happens fast:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-16/usdrub-pair-will-be-discontinued-due-recent-instability-russian-ruble
Further
evidence:
“On
Tuesday, the CBR chief Elvira Nabiullina said a higher rate should
put an end to investor speculation that has been hitting the ruble.
'We must learn to live in a new reality, to focus more on our own
resources to finance projects and give import substitution a chance,'
the bank chief said in a televised address Tuesday.”
Forget about a return to THE gold standard. If you want to see where we are heading look at the structure of the euro. Rather than declare 'hey our gold is worth 1200 euros per ounce' they have a different approach. They say 'hey, we have 10,800 tons of gold'. That's all. The market is left to decide the value of the euro in terms of gold. The ECB gold does not 'back' the currency. It is available for Forex maneuvers. This is a new system and as long as the dollar is the reserve the importance of the ECB balance sheet structure will be hard to see. When the dollar goes away it will be very obvious. Gold will become the new CB reserve and it will be marked to market by all CBs. None would be so foolish as to declare a value in gold for their currencies. If they state it too low their gold will be bought up quickly. If they state it too high they'll face hyperinflation. Any declaration would mean they had to supply gold to the market. The ECB has no such issue. It just will use gold when it wants to do so.
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