by Sean Ring, Daily Reckoning:
Buongiorno from beautiful Northern Italy!
The great Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard once said: “Everything the government touches turns to crap.”
I think we need a corollary to this statement, regarding the media.
“Everything the mainstream media feeds you is bull crap.”
And for the last year at least, and for much longer on the fringes, there is no story more lied about, falsified and fabricated than the Russia-Ukraine War.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
The Rude Awakening has covered this since I’ve been its editor. And much of the factual content in this piece is taken from my Rude newsletters.
But as we’ve only just become acquainted here at the Morning Reckoning, I’m going to show you why I always thought it was lunacy to start in with the Russians.
Russia Is Not Iran, Iraq or North Korea
It’s not just Americans who misjudge Russia. The United Kingdom – America’s faithful lapdog – is utterly delusional when it comes to the Russians.
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a great old friend of mine and what struck me when we spoke about the Russia/Ukraine kerfuffle was how he referred to Russia as a “little” country.
Little?
It’s typical BBChé brainwashing.
I’m not just talking about landmass. (Russia is 70x larger than the UK. Times… not percent.)
I’m not just talking about population. (Russia: 144.7 million; UK: 67.4 million.)
Let’s compare their economies as well…
Look at the difference between their GDPs on a PPP (purchasing power parity) basis:
Credit: Wikipedia
Notice anything there?
Yes, Russia’s economy is bigger than the UK’s.
“Russia is just a gas station!” you say?
How about “The UK is a giant laundromat!” in return?
Russia has stuff. The UK launders money and has castles.
And Russia’s stuff really, really matters to the world.
Sanctions and Price Caps
Even if you’ve taken a macroeconomics course from the most Keynesian-brainwashed professor, he’d tell you that both sanctions and price caps are stupid and never work.
Both The Wall Street Journal and Politico wrote how even Iran, of all countries, escaped the full force of Western sanctions.
What’s most galling is we’ve had recent proof that sanctions not only didn’t hurt Russia, but they also helped Russia develop expertise that didn’t have before!
But before I prove that to you, let’s look at the stuff Russia has that we need.
There’s nothing the US, EU, and UK has that Russia needs.
Coca Cola, Harley Davidson and Gucci bags are all nice-to-haves.
Don’t get me wrong, Russia’s Instagram “stars” have been crying for months. But there will be other avenues for them.
There’s nothing in Europe or North America that Russia absolutely needs.
And when I write, “nothing,” I mean nothing.
Zip, zilch, nada.
Sure, closing markets are never nice, but Russia isn’t going to starve anytime soon. And Russia has all the raw materials it could ever need to continue to build, operate, and grow.
There are many things Russia has that the US and EU need.
This is where the “English majors,” as Dmitry Orlov calls them, have really miscalculated.
The US and France need Russian uranium for their nuclear power plants to operate.
Not “want,” but need.
Even if the US ramps up domestic production, it doesn’t have the technology right now to enrich uranium.
Quite the pickle.
Another example: remember how you were taught the US has the best oil in the world, “light, sweet” crude?
Well, that’s great for making gasoline.
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