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Interesting video with Dr. Sonnenfeld. For those in the TLDR crowd, here is a summary:
- According to the IMF and World Bank, Russia's economy contracted by only 2% last year, but Sonnenfeld claims this is untrue, because all the metrics are being manipulated by Russia.
- In fact, Russia's economy is in an actually worse state than advertised. Auto industry is down 99%. Retail down 65%.
- The reason why the ruble is holding steady, is because no one outside of Russia wants to buy it, so there is no forex or even a black market, and the current rate is determined by fiat.
- The real reason why the Russian stock exchange didnt go down to 0 (after it lost 60% of its value) is because all the remaining foreign investments are frozen and cannot be sold off
- The foreign companies who left Russia actually regained all their losses, while the companies still in there face uncertainty, so its better to leave than stay.
- Russia is losing money by selling oil to India and China, because it costs more for them to produce and transport it than the price it is being paid for by these countries
- Russia cannot sell LNG to Asia at profit because there are no pipelines, and it costs a lot to transport it.