This will have absolutely NO impact on Putin and the War in Ukraine. Global Risk: Russlands Wirtschaft geht dramatischen Zeiten entgegen - OR - Worse than after the collapse of the Soviet Union: Russia's economy is facing dramatic times
The article is in German, but Google translate does an exceptionally good job with German.
The first paragraph is eye opening.
The international manufacturers have stopped producing paper in their Russian factories. As a result, there is a serious shortage, which in turn has pushed up the price for a pack of toilet paper brand "Svetocopy" from 280 to 2290 rubles - the equivalent of 25.80 euros.
That is almost $28 for a pack of toilet paper - which I'm assuming is either 4 or 6 rolls. That is expensive.
Unfortunately, like so much today, most of the article is behind a paywall. Such is life in 2022.
Empty shelves and hardship will not get Putin to stop being an empire builder.
So, he nationalizes the foreign factories, turns over to croneys whose bank accounts were frozen by the west, and the factories continue to produce TP.
ReplyDeleteThis is stupefyingly wrong and backwards. The Russian economy is as close to an autarky as exists. Wiki says it is 10 to 20% larger than Germany's. But considering all the things that Russia makes and does that Germany doesn't, it is more likely that Russia's economy is twice Germany's. That would make it half ours. The Russian economy is a manufacturing economy, and they make things. Ours is a service/financial economy, and we don't. In fact, Russia's manufacturing economy is much more comprehensive and diverse than ours. We launch our spy satellites using Russian rocket motors.
ReplyDeleteRussia runs (before the war) trade surpluses without gas and oil. Their national debt is much smaller than any European country's or the US' as percentage of GDP. The government has virtually no foreign held debt. They have some of the largest gold and foreign currency reserves.
Since the "sanctions" have been announced, Russia trade surplus has increased. Moreover the US and EU have capitulated, both on oil and gas and fertilizer and metals imports from Russia and on payments in rubles.
The US is the dying country, and the scavengers in Wall Street financiers who killed it don't care. They think they can move on to another prey. Mackinder's nightmare is coming true, and Russia and China will be the big winners.