I think that this does a masterful job of drawing the picture [REMEMBER THE "FOO BIRD?" WHO'S GOING TO WEAR HIS "CHIT?" VKD]

To: "V.K.Durham"
Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 12:44:45 PM
Subject: I think that this does a masterful job of drawing the picture

From Canauzzie

The Economic collapse
By Michael Snyder
3 March 2014

So much for "isolating" Russia. The Chinese government is publicly siding with Russia on the crisis in Ukraine, and that is very bad news for the United States. Not only does it mean that the U.S. is essentially powerless to do anything about the situation in Ukraine, it also means that Russia and China are starting to understand how much economic leverage that they really have. Yes, the Obama administration can threaten to slap "sanctions" on Russia or threaten to kick Russia "out of the G8", but those actions would not actually hurt too much. On the other hand, Russia and China hold approximately 25 percent of all foreign-owned U.S. debt, and if they started massively dumping U.S. debt it could rapidly create a nightmare scenario. In addition, it is important to remember that Russia is the largest exporter of natural gas and the second largest exporter of oil in the world. And China now imports more oil than anyone else on the planet does, including the United States. If Russia and China got together and decided to kill the petrodollar, they could do it almost overnight. So when it comes to Ukraine, it is definitely not the United States that has the leverage.

If China and the rest of the world abandoned Russia over Ukraine, that would be one thing. But that is not happening at all. In fact, China has chosen to publicly stand with Russia on this issue. The following is from a Sky News article entitled "Russia And China 'In Agreement' Over Ukraine"...

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov discussed Ukraine by telephone with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Monday, and claimed they had "broadly coinciding points of view" on the situation there, according to a ministry statement.

And Chinese state news agency Xinhua is publicly rebuking the West for their handling of the Ukrainian crisis...

China's state news agency Xinhua accused western powers of adopting a Cold War- like mindset towards Russia, trying to isolate Moscow at a time when much needed mediation is need to reach a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Crimea.

"Based on the fact that Russia and Ukraine have deep cultural, historical and economic connections, it is time for Western powers to abandon their Cold War thinking. Stop trying to exclude Russia from the political crisis they failed to mediate, and respect Russia's unique role in mapping out the future of Ukraine," Xinhua wrote in an opinion piece.

Apparently clueless as to how the geopolitical chips are falling, the Obama administration is busy planning all sorts of ways that it can punish Russia...

Behind the scenes, Obama administration officials are preparing a series of possible battle plans for a potential economic assault on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, an administration source close to the issue told The Daily Beast. Among the possible targets for these financial attacks: everyone from high-ranking Russian military officials to government leaders to top businessmen to Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine. It’s all part of the work to prepare an executive order now under consideration at the Obama administration’s highest levels.

Does the Obama administration really want to start an "economic war" with Russia and potentially against China as well?

read more

Posted by canauzzie on Tuesday, March 04, 2014 2 comments :

Putin Adviser Warns U.S. On USD As Reserve Currency And “Crash” Of U.S. Financial System

When is the US going to get it? If countries dump the worthless Ponzi Fiat dollar, no Petro Dollar means no US economy.

The party is playing out. The lot risks going.


U.S. Dollar Index, 1968-March 4, 2014 – (Bloomberg)

Silver Doctors
4 March 2014

The situation in the Ukraine is potentially one of the greatest geopolitical risks since the end of the Cold War.

A senior adviser to Putin said this morning that if the United States were to impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Moscow might be forced to drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off loans to U.S. banks.

From Goldcore:

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,339.50, EUR 973.90 and GBP 802.87 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,344.25, EUR 975.58 and GBP 803.50 per ounce.

Gold climbed $26.80 or 2.02% yesterday to $1,351.40/oz. Silver rose $0.26 or 1.23% at $21.43/oz.

Gold dropped 0.8% today as equities bounced higher after reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered troops engaged in exercises in an area which borders Ukraine to return to their base.

Gold rallied to a four-month high yesterday after investors sold risk assets following Russia’s military intervention, which prompted the United States to look at a series of economic and diplomatic sanctions to isolate Moscow.

As ever, it is always difficult to be prescriptive and pinpoint price movements on specific events. It is arguable, that gold could have risen over 1.5% yesterday even if events in Ukraine were not leading to a deterioration in relations between Russia and the West.

This is because gold still has strong fundamentals which is leading to robust global demand – especially from China.