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Ukraine:
This time of the year is when Ukrainian farmers start planting their crops. In 2021 120 million tons was harvested. In 2022 that fell by half to only 60 million tons. In 2023 the outlook is for only 40 million tons.
Many farmers, their tractor drivers, and mechanics, have been drafted whole-sale into the army by the Nazis. Remaining farmers are old and can’t find any qualified people to hire except old pensioners.
For many farmers, their nput costs, especially fertilizers and fuel, exceeds the price they can get for their crops, so they can’t afford to plant any crops at all.
If you get badly injured in the Ukrainian war, you are classified as “decommissioned illiquid assets” and thus not worth the money to be treated properly. If you lose a leg they will give you a wooden leg and then send you back to the front. Most of the wounded (60%) are sent back to the front.
The Ukrainian government doesn’t bother to spend money on medical care because it is far cheaper to just round up fresh bodies off the streets to send to the front. Buying an exemption from military service has sky rocketed from $3k -$7k up to $32k USD, so the Nazis have never had it so good, as now.
Eurodollars:
Henry the 8th provided a nice summary by stating “Eurodollars are a claim on US dollars”.
For those who’s first language isn’t finance, I offer this English translation!
1. Somebody with $1 USD in a US Bank 1 buys something in Britain and the seller deposits the received $1 USD at Bank A in Britain.
The US Fed then transfers this $1 USD from the US Bank 1’s account to Bank A’s account at the US Fed. (Note the $1 USD has not actually left the US!)
Also note that the $1 USD deposited in British Bank A is now a claim on the $1 USD held by the US Fed in British Bank A’s account at the Fed. This creates or births, one Eurodollar. (A claim on $1 USD.)
2. Suppose the British seller then uses the $1 USD in British Bank A to buy something in France.
The seller in France then deposits the received $1 USD from British Bank A into French Bank B.
The US Fed then transfers the $1 USD from British Bank A’s account at the US FED to French Bank B’s account at the US Fed. (Again note the $1 USD still has not left the US!)
Also note that the one Eurodollar deposited in French Bank B from British Bank A, merely transfers the claim on the $1 USD held by the US Fed, from British Bank A’s account to French Bank Bush account at the US Fed. (British Bank A’s claim to the $1 USD held at the US Fed is cancelled or extinguished or dies.)
3. Suppose the French seller decides to buy something for $1 US in the US.
The seller in the US then deposits the one Eurodollar received from French Bank B into US Bank 2.
The US Fed then transfers the $1 USD that was holding, (ever since US Bank 1 sent the $1 USD overseas), to US Bank 2. By doing this the one Eurodollar claim on the $1 USD held at the US Fed by French Bank B’s account at the US Fed is cancelled or extinguished or dies.
Thus this one Eurodollar is now cancelled or extinguished or dies.
Note the US Fed actively promotes the use of the Eurodollar!
This explains a simple cycle of how an Eurodollar is born, transfered to a new owner, then dies by returning to the US.
Much more complex is the cycle of how $1 USD leaving the US can birth multiple Eurodollars but I am ending this comment as my tablet wants to crash!
Oroboros:
Yes and the US exploits the weak leaders of these third world countries by bribing them with IMF or World Bank loans. The proceeds of these loans are privatized by the leader while the loan is socialized onto the people. Nice racket!
The US is telling the Chinese that their loans to third world countries need to be 100% written off, so the third world country can continue to pay interest on their US debts. But China isn’t agreeing that US debt ranks higher than Chinese debts! There is the rub!
Aspnaz:
Funny you mentioning the “Russia Bad” mind set.
After working in Russian in 1983, for 6 months, I left no longer fearful of Russia at all.
I realized the Russian people where simply too busy trying to survive in their own country, to have any energy left over to conquere the rest of the world, as we were told.
But what would our politicians and MSM do without Russia?
Oroboros:
I agree today’s attention span has been driven a lot shorter, than it used to be, thanks to the never ending high tech waves crashing down upon us, ever more frequently. It never let’s up either.
The “powers to be” keep cranking up the speed of our treadmills!
Breaking the USD:
One of the big problems the rest of the world is facing in trying to break free from using the USD, is how poorly most of the rest of the world’s currencies have and are being managed.
The USD is the cleanest dirty shirt. For example would you want to hold money from Argentina for even one day never mind for an hour? How about Iran, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Turkey? I didn’t think so! People in these countries don’t want too either!
Russia is pushing for a commodity based basket currency. This is at complete odds with China’s interests as a manufacturer and pegging it’s currency to the USD. So far I see little traction. Using gold is a 100% none starter because no government wants any external limitations place on themselves to print money. Ever!
What I do see happening is certain country to country agreements to use their own currencies for trade. For example, Russia/India, Russian/Iran, China/Saudi Arabia, China/Brazil. For other rest of the world countries to enjoy trading in their own currencies requires some degree of keeping the value of their currencies stable (I.e. financial self discipline). Hard!
This de-dollarization road is likely to be a rather slow, long, and bumpy parh. Not to mention with a lot of CIA directed dead leaders. Enough to fill a cemetery. War will speed it up, not slow it down. So yes it will be bloody. But it will happen and nobody can stop it.
Michael Hudson:
While Michael Hudson has many interesting observations and insights about today’s economic issues, however he has one rather fatal flaw. He believes countries should implement capital controls.
Capital controls is not exclusive to captilism, socialism, facistism, or communism.
However, it is very interesting what happens inside any country that exercises controls on the free movement of Capital. Capital, no matter where it is in the world, likes to move to places where it is wanted and valued.
This is where simple basic human nature fully rears itself.
Countries can put Capital controls in place by simply banning the export of domestic currency. In such cases, the currency is often not accepted outside the country either because it is considered nearly worthless. Countries doing this are usually printing their currency to zero. The 0.1 % screwing the 99.99%.
Outsiders in such countries will quickly notice that almost no locals are investing in their own businesses or country. The locals are all busy trying to convert their local currency into hard foreign currencies, and get it out of their country anyway they can, even though it is criminally illegal to do so.
Exchanging foreign currency at official banks may be 1:1 while black market rates may be 20:1. Often these countries require foreigners to spent so much money per day exchanged at local banks to reduce black market activity. Thus fleecing of foreigners too. Tourism is usually rather low as a result.
But the 0.1% don’t care if the economy grows or not, as long as they are the only ones screwing their “captive” locals. The locals under fasicstism often behave exactly the same way as they would under another extreme form of dictatorship, call communism. In both extreme cases nobody works hard, because to do so attracts attention and invites theft from above.
Some countries limit the amounts of capital that can be taken out of the country per year. China is one such country. The result isn’t nearly as bad as a country that doesn’t allow any capital to leave at all, as described above.
What we then see is massive corruption by insiders using official government channels to move larger amounts of personnal capital out of the country. The desire to move some capital out of the country, out of the reach of the local government, still remains very strong.
Basically, where ever capital controls are in place, the threat of capital being suddenly confiscated by the government or stolen by corrupt government authorities, remains, and ordinary people are always wary. This impedes economic growth in all forms.
Michael Hudson’s problem is he has never “lived” what he believes. He lives in one system while preaching another.
I suspect the artillery shell shortage narrative was just a red herring. The Ukrainians are showing no shortage of shells per the Russians.
The other narrative of Ukrains being short of cannon fodder is also false. Ukrainian Nazis are simply sending completely untrained cannon fodder to the from armed with a rifle they have never shot nor know how to load.
Ukrainians Nazis are only concerned about milking the gravy train and trying to make it last as long as possible to make as much money as possible. Corruption of war. Nothing is sacred in the Ukraine.
Peteypies:
Thanks for the reply.
I hadn’t heard of the great flood depositing plant matter in low lying areas before!
It certainly fits with some of the near surface coal seams I have seen being mined around the world.
Maybe I should keep an eye on Noah to see if he is building another boat!I am sad.
Nobody seems to be concerned about my new fake problem, that we are not creating new coal seams for future generations to mine.As for the Ukrainian war leaks, it is doing it’s job.
Occupying space, so something more important can not compete for that same space.As a retired ex-coal miner, I do worry that we are not currently creating any new coal seams for future generations to mine. Only by creating new coal seams can we support sustainable future coal powered energy.
As long as current CO2 levels remain low, earth can not grow plants fast enough to create the needed new coal seams required to support sustainable future coal powered energy.
So the MSM just stop reporting on the French demonstrations and just like that they all stopped demonstrating! Amazing!
Zerosum and Maxwell. Glad your both recovering!
The problem I am having with the so called Ukrainian leaks is there is nothing new in the report that I didn’t already know.
Cat Tree:
That is sure one stupid dog if it can’t find a cat!
Maybe what I saw wasn’t a dog?
No self respecting dog can’t find a cat!When I was a boy living up north, I had a black and white tom cat.
My cat, whenever outside, was constantly being chased by all of the neighborhood dogs.
There were no trees near the house for my cat to climb and escape.
So my Father installed a tree pole by the back door for my cat.
When my cat got tired of being chased by a dog, it would climb the tree pole.
Initially the dog would jump up on the pole trying to get at my cat.
My cat would climb up, safely out of reach.
Then the dog would get tired of jumping up on the pope and would then back away a few feet from the bottom of the pole.
My cat would then climb back down the pole to within reach of the dog.
The dog would immediately charge and jump up on the pole trying to get my cat again.
This up and down business would continue until my cat got tired of this game
Then my cat would only come half way down, waiting for the dog to charge and jump up on the pole.
My cat would then take the opportunity to take it’s claws and nicely rake the exposed nose of the dog.
The dog would immediately yelp and go running away nursing it’s suddenly very sore nose!
My cat then calmly climbed back down the pole and resume whatever it had been doing before being rudely interrupted!P.S. Yes, I learned early that I really didn’t own this cat! Rather the cat owned me and tolerated me in it’s house!
Zerosum:
For more ivermectin phone your local farm supply store.
Everybody knows you own some horses!
Costs about $12 – $15 for one syringe for 600 kg horse, so good for about 7 days or so.Light Blubs:
Incandescent light blubs wore out via both heat generated and by turning them on and off.
Their replacement, compact florescent blubs with mercury wore out via both heat generated and by turning them on and off, except at 5-10 times the cost of Incandescent blubs! Every broken blub nicely spilled mercury in your house.
LED light blubs supposedly do not wear out via heat generated or by the number of times it is turned on and off. However, I am reserving final judgemental, as the jury is still deliberating on this matter.
Ukraine War:
Hopefully this US war against Russia is the last war the US can afford to fight.
Up until to now, no country the US has declared war against, has ever successfully targeted the US dollar.
This ar might be different.
Kultsommer:
Your comment about “a communist standing on a street corner being institutionalized” made me chuckle&!
This brought back memories of way back in 1983, when I was serving, a 6 month sentence of hard labor, in a Siberian coal mine. One evening we invited our woman interpreters to view a video with us. The movie was “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” about a mental asylum.
Well to say our Russian interpreters were totally confused was an understatement! They could not understand why we were laughing so hard. This movie proved to them that everything the communist government had told them was indeed true!
Nothing important.
The petrodollar conceptt is kind of outdated these days. First the US no longer buys very much oil from the Saudis, ever since the fracking revolution began in the US.
Now the US fracking revolution largely depended upon free money from the Fed. With the era of free money fast disappearing, don’t be surprised if the fracking boom starts going bust.
If you look around the world, you will also notice there is very little franking going on outside of the US due to the lack of free money. Europe did see some franking.
So far no Russian has collected the rewards for destroying the first Lepard tank. They will have to wait until the Ukrainians get permission to use these western tanks at or behind the frontlines.
The west has given the Ukrainians these tanks with the strict understanding that they can’t be used anywhere near the frontlines. The Ukrainians are busy trying to eliminate these restrictions on western tanks usage. So the Russians have to wait.
This winter the called up 300K experienced Russian reserves have so far remained in reserve continuing their training. None of these forces have yet been committed.
All of the fighting this winter has been from the previous 90K Russian forces committed in February 2022. Only new Russian volunteer forces and new Wagner forces have seen any heavy fighting this winter.
This is verified by looking at the Russian casualty figures. Regular Russian army casualties has dropped dramatically over the winter months while the Wagner casualties have sky rocketed this winter. On a good day Wagner only looses 20 men. On a bad day they lose 50 men.
This winter Russia has clearly shifted to waging war on a more economical basis. Shell usage has dropped from 60K to 10K per day, so the Russians can rebuild their stockpiles for use by their 300K reserves. Russian shell production is being raised from 3.5 to 7 million per year.
Russia has tremendous stockpiles of old dumb 500kg – 1,000kg – 1,500kg bombs for which they are now adding gliding kits which allow their airplanes to release the gliding bombs at high altitudes safely well behind their frontline’s air defense systems. Gliding distances depend upon the release height from 30 km up to 70 km.
It is estimated one of these bombs replaces about 200 – 300 artillery shells. Dozens of these gliding bombs are now launched every day now. The Russians are now usingover 1 meter long laser guided 120 mm mortar shells again greatly reducing the use of dumb mortar shells.
So one could argue the Russians have not really reduced their shelling down to 10K shells per day. They have simply switched to more deadly guided and efficient ammunition.
I have heard you can now buy a train ticket in Rubles at the Bukhmut train station. The wait for the next train might be rather long though!
This reminds me of FDR telling the Polish in 1939 to not negotiate with Germany about a land corridor to Prussia.
In the Ukraine’s new spring offensive against Russia, Ukrainian forces brillantly staged a western breakthrough in downtown Bukhmut, thus cutting off Wagner forces from being able to retreat eastward.
In other Ukrainian news, reporters are no longer allowed to mention the Bukhmut “meat grinder” due to it’s negative tone. To save money and thus increase it’s chances of winning the war lottery, the Ukrainian government is cutting bonuses to it’s soldiers fighting on the front lines. Soldiers back of the front line will now no longer get any bonuses at all. This is expected to greatly increase sagging moral amoung those fighting.
Ukrainian food companies, contracted with supplying food to the soldiers have reach new highs in corruption. Thinner soldiers are harder to shoot. Starving soldiers fight harder. Why waste food on a soldier who will die tomorrow?
To save even more money all dead Ukrainian soldiers are now classified by the Ukrainian government as missing, so no pensions needs to be paid. To obtain a pension, the dead soldier’s family has to provide an eye witness who saw the soldier die. All eye witnesses are repeatedly sent back to the front line until they die.
The Ukrainian government, not wanting to waste a good crisis, is shutting down the Russian Orthodox Church as part of it’s ethnic cleansing of all things Russian. Their is a lot of very valuable church treasure, authorities are eager to seized too.
Soros is in the middle of purging all of Ukraine’s existing judges and prosecutors. These judges are being replaced by politically correct judges. Just like in the US because Soros’s new woke model works so well.
The striking Russian lady, bearing a gifted bomb to a Russian blogger in a restaurant owned by the Wagner head, finally figured out after the bomb exploded, that she had been setup and was also considered expendable by those who used her. She was supposed to have been killed by the shaped charge. Somehow she survived the explosion without a scratch! With her hair cut shorter, she does not look nearly as pretty as she did in her Hollywood videos. She was used big time by her ruthless handlers. Sadly she will suffer dearly for it too.
It seems half the EPA’s personal investigating the toxic train spill in Ohio, fell ill during their very brief investigation.
My guess is they cut short their inept investigation to prove there were no toxins released during the train derailment.
With friends like the EPA, you want me to get worked up about climate change?
Last week Wagner forces took advantage of a snow storm to launch a surprise attack in Bukhmut. The reason for doing this was to take advantage of the Ukrainian’s temporary lack of real time battlefield visual survalence.
First the heavy snow clouds blocked US satellite coverage. Second the falling snow prevented the Ukrainian’s light quad copters from being able to fly. So , the Ukrainians were not able to coordinate their forces very well.
Wagner instead used their ample supplies of night vision googles and radio identification systems, during the snow storm attack.
In addition, the fresh blanket of snow made it easier for the Russians to track Ukrainian movements by simply following the tracks left in the snow.
Ukrainian Nazi Humor. Sort of.
Everybody knows the Ukrainian Nazis use rear blocking forces to prevent their hapless conscripted cannon fodder from being able to retreat. They have also been known to weld close all escape hatches trapping crews inside their tanks.
However, one time the Nazis did this to a tank’s crew, to force them to fight, they got a rather unexpected surprise result.
The trapped tank crew quickly turned their tank around with the gun and the heavy frontal armor facing the Ukrainian side, for added protection, then proceeded to drive the tank in reverse gear over to the Russian side, where the Russians very helpfully unwelded the welded hatches!
TDK:
When it comes to challenging covid vaccines in court, no court will support a challenge. All the judge needs to know is who appointed him. End of story.
Same here in Canada. There is no judge who will accept a challenge of the vaccines. Not even one judge. Same story. Who appointed you?
The vaccine is legally set above all basic human legal rights.
Trudeau the Environmentalist.
Introduces new carbon taxes on natural gas used for heating homes to save the environment.
Buys a new large Airbus jet to travel in, replacing a much smaller fuel efficient Canadian made Challenger jet because it is too small for him.
Flying 8 Leopard tanks to Ukraine rather than ship them by boat.
Yes,Trudeau will save us. That is why I ignore the climate change nuts.
US Arlington Military Cementery in March has been exceptionally busy holding multiple funerals every day. We all know why this is happening. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Helicopter crashes have likely increased too.
I have been rather skeptical of the current media narrative of the Ukraine running out of cannon fodder. Right now many Ukrainian soldiers are currently on leave/vacation. That doesn’t sound like a shortage of cannon fodder.
The last Ukrainian mobilization supposedly raised 500,000 new cannon fodder. So if the Ukraine only loses 500 soldiers a day, it would take the Russians another 3 years to destroy them all. The Ukraine still has another 3 to 4 million men left to mobilize.
The US is planning for a very long war. They have been very busy repainting national guard military equipment from desert tan to summer green/olive colors and then shipping to US coastal ports. They have even been taking US 9military museum artillery piece5s too.
Until the mud dries up, there will be no spring offensive.
Wagner forces are now using over a meter long 120 mm laser guided mortars. This has greatly reduced the use of both dumb mortar and artillery shells while getting the job done. These new mortar shells can even hit military vehicles safely hiding behind buildings.
Ukrainians are doing a really good job of messing up Elon Musk’s Skylink terminals, that cost more in the Ukraine than in the Eu. They buy units in the EU, then try returning them to get their money back. They send them to the Ukraine where hapless buyers then discover they don’t work. Ukrainian corruption still works outside of the Ukraine for Ukrainians!
Aspnaz:
A good different viewpoint on patents. Unfortunately no patent protection also has it’s discouraging downside too. But we know corporations abuse patents through their deep pocket abilities to bankrupt others too. It is a corrupt game all unto itself.
Noirette
It is interesting that Greta’s parents had no problem with abusing their daughter while normal parents preferred to protect their children from being abused by the press/environmentalists.
Doc Robinson:
Lol! I don’t know exactly what power it is but my spouse always shows up (weak bladder) urgently needing to use the toilet, just after I have sat down on the toilet, to do god’s business! Never fails!
Concerning the covid scam, it is hard to believe the Israelis were amoung the first to fall for the covid scam and then they ensured that they were amoung the first in line to receive the deadly covid vax. They drank the kool aid more deeply and frequently than anyone else.
It certainly shows the Israelis elites must have been on one of the losing sides of the multi sided ruthlessly sick WEF/Davos/Globalist/CIA/Deep State power elites, who claim to control us.
Since the covid death scam was the brainchild of the US DoD, I can’t help but conclude that this Israeli vax outcome somehow is connected to Israeli 2016 election interference and the US Deep State’s desire to punish the Israelis as payback.
Dr. John Day:
Yes, the fact that there was no discussion beforehand of the introduced legislation tabled is proof of the the politicians wanting control over the courts. I am sure the US Deep State is in there being as helpful as only they can be, still sore for being cheated out of their broom flying witch Hillary.
But this is no different than Biden wanting direct control over the auditing department of the US Fed.
Politicians always want more control over more things and people. So they nibble away everywhere. In Canada the politicians have already succeeded in gaining total control of the central bank and the courts, so it is already way too late for us in the land of igloos.
Interesting little spontaneous color revolution going on in Israel. Maybe a little pay back from the US Deep State for a little Israeli election interference in 2016? Do you think the deep state might still be a little sore about being suckered in 2016?
The US succeeded in a color revolution in Pakistan but has hit a brick wall with all the other “stans” in central Asia. It seems that Russia has de-colored the other 4 “stans”. The 4 “stans” have also taken note how quickly the US “cut and ran” from Afghanistan. Meanwhile Russia is still there.
Yes, the French are protesting in their usual flamboyant manner but nothing will change. Just like nothing ever changed after all of the other previous protests. It is the French way of protesting after a change has been made, to ensure the change isn’t changed! Vive la change!
Doc Robinson:
EPA. Another 3 letter agency. “I am from the government and I am here to help you!”
EPA is not your friend! Just like the CIA, FBI, DoJ, DHS, NSA, SEC, etc.
The Ukraine has not run out of either ammunition nor people. That is just today’s MSM narrative to deceive. The US and Nato have huge stockpiles of ammunition and weapons. Ukraine needs to lose another 3 to 4 million men before they run out of future dead bodies.
Russia isn’t buying this narrative. They are rationing and stockpiling ammunition.
US interstate highways are full of trucks hauling military vehicles to coastal ports. US Billboards are advertising for tank and F-16 mechanics. This isn’t the signs of a short war.
