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US battalion arrives in Western Ukraine

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Re: US battalion arrives in Western Ukraine

Unread postby davep » Fri 13 Mar 2015, 08:50:22

This is going to cheer up SixStrings and the US politicians no end http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-12/wests-plan-drop-russia-swift-hilariously-backfires

If Vladimir Putin is remotely capable of laughter (the jury is out on that one…) then he’s probably doing so right now.

Russia is once again Arch-Enemy of the United States. It’s like living through a really bad James Bond movie, complete with cartoonish villains.

And for the last several months, the US government has been doing everything it can to torpedo the Russian economy, as well as Vladimir Putin’s standing within his own country.

The economic nuclear option is to kick Russia out of the international banking system. And the US government has been vociferously pushing for this.

Specifically, the US government wants to kick Russia out of SWIFT, short for the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications.

That’s a mouthful. But SWIFT is an important component in the global banking system because it lays the foundation for banks to communicate and transfer funds with one another.

It’s a network protocol of sorts. Whenever a bank in Pakistan does business with a bank in Portugal, the funds will clear through the SWIFT network.

According to the SWIFT itself, they link over 9,000 financial institutions worldwide in over 200 countries, which transact 15 million times per day.

Bottom line, being part of SWIFT is critical to conducting business with the rest of the world. And if Russia gets kicked out of SWIFT, it would be a disaster.

Now, SWIFT is technically organized as a ‘Cooperative Society’ and governed by a board of directors.

There are 25 available board seats, and each seat is allocated for a three-year term to a specific country.

The United States, Belgium, France, Germany, UK, and Switzerland each hold two seats. A handful of other countries hold just one seat. And of course, most countries don’t hold any seats at all.

Here’s what’s utterly hilarious—

On Monday afternoon, not only did SWIFT NOT kick Russia out… but they announced that they were actually giving a BOARD SEAT to Russia.

This is basically the exact opposite of what the US government was pushing for.

Awkward…

But this story is even bigger than that.

Because at the same time that the US government isn’t getting its way with SWIFT, the Chinese are busy putting together their own version of it called CIPS.

CIPS stands for the China International Payment System; it’s intended to be a direct competitor to SWIFT, and a brand new way for global banks to communicate and transact with one another in a way that does NOT depend on the United States.

We’ll talk about CIPS in more details in a future letter. But in brief, it addresses some serious weaknesses, inefficiencies, and technological challenges of SWIFT.

And it should be ready to go later this year.

Make no mistake, this is the beginning of the end of the US dollar’s global hegemony. It’s time to stop hoping that it won’t happen and time to start preparing for it.
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Re: US battalion arrives in Western Ukraine

Unread postby AgentR11 » Fri 13 Mar 2015, 09:21:52

LOL, yeah. Every one of the big players, China, India, Indonesia, are all thinking the same question on the SWIFT threat.

Are we next if we do not obey.
And the answer they are arriving at is a uniform: Yep.

By using the Dollar as a weapon, we are spoiling our meal ticket; which was the uniform ability to use the dollar anywhere, for anything. It was OK when we made life difficult for drug dealers; and some organized crime syndicates; small numbers, no big economic impact, no unfortunate legal / debt outcomes.

But now we're playing with a trillion dollar size blob; and its not funny anymore. People are holding dollar denominated bonds on Russian companies that will go bankrupt... woo hoo!! destroy the nasty Russians; oh but wait, the companies assets are all in Russia... oh wait.. Federal taxes always come first in bankruptcy settlements with companies... oh way.. Russian Federation taxes are almost all *property* taxes.. assessed property taxes. Bond holder just realizes, Putin is going to end up in control of all the stuff he thought was collateral; and the only thing said bond holder will end up with in the bankruptcy settlement will be the mechanical pencil sharpeners.

Not funny.
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Re: US battalion arrives in Western Ukraine

Unread postby dissident » Fri 13 Mar 2015, 13:34:22

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world ... =auto&_r=1

Now Uncle Sam is bitching at his best pal, the UK. Would the retarded clowns in Washington just shut the f*ck up.
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Re: US battalion arrives in Western Ukraine

Unread postby Withnail » Fri 13 Mar 2015, 14:33:59

dissident wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world/asia/asian-infrastructure-investment-bank-britain-china.html?smid=tw-dealbook&seid=auto&_r=1

Now Uncle Sam is bitching at his best pal, the UK. Would the retarded clowns in Washington just shut the f*ck up.


Well that's a suprise. Britain wants to join the BRICS bank. If that happens, others will follow.

Goodbye IMF.
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Re: US battalion arrives in Western Ukraine

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Fri 13 Mar 2015, 17:12:33

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Re: US battalion arrives in Western Ukraine

Unread postby Cid_Yama » Sat 14 Mar 2015, 12:25:20

Provocation? NATO Conducts Military Maneuvers 300 Yards From Russia’s Border
Reading the feverish Twitter feed of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Phil Breedlove, one would get the impression that NATO is already at war with Russia. Fighter jets sit menacingly atop aircraft carriers as the General beams about NATO member countries’ commitment to contribute to the fight.

Our @NATO allies are stepping up, making significant contributions. #NATO pic.twitter.com/hTtHNvi0Bm

— Phil Breedlove (@PMBreedlove) February 25, 2015

The message is clear: Russia is about to attack! NATO has, for no understandable reason, found itself in Russia’s crosshairs. NATO cannot figure out how it is that Russia could possibly feel threatened by its actions, which, unlike Russia’s are not in the slightest provocative.

Russian military plane over international waters 25 miles from the UK coast is “real and present danger” to NATO. Yet…

Yet yesterday US combat vehicles conducted a military parade and show of military force in Estonia just 300 yards — yards! — from the Russian border. That is just over 60 miles from downtown St. Petersburg.

This is not a provocation, we are to believe. This is not a “real and present danger” to Russia. NATO is exempt from the rules it imposes on its enemies.

In the Guardian’s review of a new book by Politics professor George Sakwa, the current fallout from a near quarter century of post-Cold War NATO policies is perfectly captured:

The hawks in the Clinton administration ignored all this, Bush abandoned the anti-ballistic missile treaty and put rockets close to Russia’s borders, and now a decade later, after Russia’s angry reaction to provocations in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine today, we have what Sakwa rightly calls a “fateful geographical paradox: that Nato exists to manage the risks created by its existence”.

That line bears repeating: “Nato exists to manage the risks created by its existence.”

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