Friday, March 4, 2022

Russian Economic Spiral

 I noticed in the last hour....via German business news on N-TV, that some announcement came out (probably 6 AM Germany time)....Standard and Poor (the credit rating agency)....downgraded Russia's creditworthiness.

Credit rating now?  Well, it went from BB-plus to CCC-minus.

Bottom of the pit?  The only level worse than this....is bankruptcy or insolvency. 

Trend?  Moodys did this a day or so ago,  and Fitch went to a similar ranking.

Hurting them?  The Kremlin guys have zero understanding of this, and will just laugh over the paperwork drill by Standard and Poor, Fitch and Moodys.  If you were a Russian businessman with a real company....you'd probably go home, open up a bottle of scotch, and shed some tears over the future.

It's not the end of the world, but not going to be any real production....that goes beyond the Russian border.  If you had to use/operate western technology/equipment....there's no capital or bank to help you.

What'll happen on Monday as the Moscow stock exchange opens up?  It's been closed since Monday, and there were some hopes of things leveling out.  I would suggest that the stock exchange might open for an hour or two on Monday....find zero buyers, and tons of people wanting sell/dump their stock.  Then I would  anticipate closure will be announced, for another week.  

The 'Kremlin-club'?  They won't care.  

This laying a path to martial law?  Generally, if you have a well-to-do economic market, and it's dissolved into a mess....that's one of the five conditions that would make martial law a sensible (necessary) thing.  Failed banks would be another condition....food supply problems, rationing of fuel/utilities, and unstable public would fill out the rest of the 'checklist'.

(I noticed some interview via Focus this AM.....Russian stockbroker being asked where things would go, and his response was something to the effect that he may have to put on a 'Santa-suit' to make some money at the end of 2022.  He meant it in a joking way, but he couldn't cite any positive outcome)

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