Putin Watch 2009

[Rustyshakelford]

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin calls for end of dollar stranglehold

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has called for concerted action to break the stranglehold of the US dollar and create a new global structure of regional powers.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Davos
Last Updated: 11:13AM GMT 29 Jan 2009

For a few dollars less: Vladimir Putin has called for the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

"The one reserve currency has become a danger to the world economy: that is now obvious to everybody," he said in a speech at the World Economic Forum.
It is the first time that a Russian leader has set foot in the sanctum sanctorum of global capitalism at Davos.
Mr Putin said the leading powers should ensure an "irreversible" move towards a system of multiple reserve currencies, questioning the "reliability" of the US dollar as a safe store of value. "The pride of Wall Street investment banks don't exist any more," he said.
For all his bluster, Mr Putin's bargaining power is weakening by the day. Russia's foreign reserves have fallen by 34pc since August to $396bn (£277bn) after months of capital flight and the collapse in the price of Urals crude oil to $45 a barrel. The rouble also fell to a record low yesterday after sliding for weeks in a controlled devaluation.
Mr Putin said: "We are witnessing a truly global crisis. The speed of developments beats every record, and the strategic difference from the Great Depression is that under globalisation this touches everyone. This has multiplied the destructive force. It looks exactly like the perfect storm."
The Soviet Union avoided depression in the 1930s due to its totally closed autarkic system, although the regime inflicted other terrible hardships.
However, Mr Putin's own government in Russia is facing mass protest as unemployment surges and austerity measures start to bite.
The Kremlin expects the Russian economy to contract by 0.2pc this year. Expecting a deep global downturn, it has redrafted its budget plans based on oil prices at $41 this year, entailing drastic cuts in public spending

[David M.]

Our Comrad also said the US has the "perfect storm" brewing to our south with the Mexican gov't on the verge of collapse. If it falls, the drug cartels will take over Mexico and we'll have our own Gaza strip running East to West along the Texas border. Plus Hugo "citgo" Chavez would probably move in the region, that gives Iran and Russia some North American real estate.

[Visinedrops]

World war 3.

[TheUnboundOne]

Visinedrops and Fellow Forum Members,

Depending on who you talk to, World War III * or World War IV began on September 11, 2001. Nevertheless, the re-emergence of Russia and China represents another dangerous theatre of our present World War.

(* Some, such as Norman Podhoretz, characterize The Cold War as World War III. )

However the wars are numbered or named, though, war seems to be a perpetual condition of humanity and wise people prepare for all the threats that wars pose to survival.

The foremost threat I see from abroad that would affect all of us would be if an incident of war or terrorism plunges the economy from the present recession to a depression.

Between the breakdown of our borders and the control that Russia, Venezuela, and the other OPEC nations have over petroleum, whoever can provide themselves security via armaments and whoever can stockpile petroleum-based products or provide alternative energy sources will be in a very good position.

Likewise, whoever can grow, raise, hunt, and forage their own food will be better off than those who depend on fuel for their food supply.

And, of course, whoever can keep themselves gainfully employed through both a recession and a depression brought by war will be very fortunate indeed. That means we who are concerned with Survivalism must never stop learning new ways of making a living.

May we all do well despite what the world may throw our way.