RE: Russia and Ukraine
March 1, 2025 at 7:22 am
(This post was last modified: March 1, 2025 at 7:25 am by Belacqua.)
War is bad, and ending a war is good. There's no point in continuing the one in Ukraine.
If the goal was to weaken Russia, that has failed. According to the IMF, the Russian economy is doing well. The war has failed.
https://internationalbanker.com/finance/...utperform/
If the goal was to get control of Ukraine's natural resources, this has largely succeeded. It's not clear whether Trump will get total control, after today's spat, but international investment firms have gained significant access.
Moreover, the attempt to weaken Russia has failed by driving it to become closer with China. As the US deteriorates, China is taking over.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technol...think-tank
According to Tim Cook, who should know, Chinese manufacturing is now the highest quality in the world. It has more STEM graduates. Tsinghua University surpasses MIT in STEM subjects. (Is everybody aware that China brought back samples from the far side of the moon?)
One of NATO's main goals was to keep Germany and Russia apart. Because Germany had a history of doing naughty things, post-War America needed to be sure that German industry would never ally itself with Russian resources. Such an alliance would be more powerful than the US. That part succeeded. But now Chinese industry surpasses Germany's, so by pushing Russia and China together America has shot itself in the foot.
Trump's attempt to make nice with Russia is a transparent attempt to stop the momentum of the BRICS movement, and draw Russia back into the Western fold. But that's too late. BRICS is gaining new members all the time.
If BRICS introduces a common currency, the dollar is finished as the international reserve currency. Trump can't stop this by making peace with Russia. Dismantling the unipolar world and disengaging from a leadership role in Europe is popular among US voters and, economically, probably inevitable.
If the goal was to weaken Russia, that has failed. According to the IMF, the Russian economy is doing well. The war has failed.
Quote:[Russia has] overtaken Germany and Japan to become the fourth-largest economy in the world (using the purchasing power parity [PPP] method of GDP calculation). Soon after, the World Bank also upgraded Russia from “upper-middle-income country” to “high-income country” status, with gross national income (GNI) per capita having reached $14,250 in 2023.
https://internationalbanker.com/finance/...utperform/
If the goal was to get control of Ukraine's natural resources, this has largely succeeded. It's not clear whether Trump will get total control, after today's spat, but international investment firms have gained significant access.
Moreover, the attempt to weaken Russia has failed by driving it to become closer with China. As the US deteriorates, China is taking over.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technol...think-tank
According to Tim Cook, who should know, Chinese manufacturing is now the highest quality in the world. It has more STEM graduates. Tsinghua University surpasses MIT in STEM subjects. (Is everybody aware that China brought back samples from the far side of the moon?)
One of NATO's main goals was to keep Germany and Russia apart. Because Germany had a history of doing naughty things, post-War America needed to be sure that German industry would never ally itself with Russian resources. Such an alliance would be more powerful than the US. That part succeeded. But now Chinese industry surpasses Germany's, so by pushing Russia and China together America has shot itself in the foot.
Trump's attempt to make nice with Russia is a transparent attempt to stop the momentum of the BRICS movement, and draw Russia back into the Western fold. But that's too late. BRICS is gaining new members all the time.
Quote:By January 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates joined the bloc making BRICS membership grow from five to nine countries [...]
On 24 October 2024, an additional 13 countries, namely Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, were invited to participate as "partner countries".[70] The partner status would allow these countries to engage with and benefit from BRICS initiatives.
If BRICS introduces a common currency, the dollar is finished as the international reserve currency. Trump can't stop this by making peace with Russia. Dismantling the unipolar world and disengaging from a leadership role in Europe is popular among US voters and, economically, probably inevitable.
