Monday, February 28, 2022

The War: Monday Morning Prospective

 1.  Those anti-tank/Stinger missiles promised by Germany to the Ukraine?  The current talk is that they will be there within 'hours' (not days).  

2.  Russia's key interest rate, run by the central bank?  Going to 20-percent this morning....to avoid a bank crisis.  The EU also put a 'freeze' on the Russian assets within European banks.  Ruble in collapse?  The market (at 8 AM) was very unkind to the Ruble (a dollar at around 7 AM was buying 109 Rubles).

3.  World oil prices (at 6 AM) was reported up by 6-percent.

4.  The European side of the Sberbank probably will collapse this week (HQs in Austria).  The ECB was talking about this before 5 AM, and only by actions of the Russian central bank.....would they survive (very unlikely at this point).  

5.  Early in the AM, if you view N-24....the Pentagon has given examples of poor planning by the Russian military in this invasion.  A lot of this has to do with logistics, fuel shortages and limited orders to Russian troops.

6.  Talk of the EU now accepting the Ukraine as a member?  That started up and appears a 'sure-thing'.  I might suggest the Russians won't be happy about this.

7.  Russian nuke missiles in Kaliningrad?  This was brought up over the weekend, and it has a few Germans now scared over the threat.  To be honest, they've been around the region there for years, but it's different with the status order given by Putin. 

8.  Peace talks?  Well....something related to that will occur today.  Anyone's guess how this will go.

2 comments:

Bigus Macus said...

Pozsar Warns Of Another "Lehman Weekend" As Russia Sanctions May Trigger Central Bank Liquidity Flood
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/pozsar-warns-another-lehman-weekend-russia-sanctions-may-trigger-central-bank-liquidity

Schnitzel_Republic said...

I checked rates in the past hour. In the past hour or so, at one point, the Ruble - dollar rate was....110 Rubles to one dollar. Back around three years ago, you could still get 50 to 60 Rubles to one dollar. If you asked me what the rate will be by Friday (rush on getting any kind of currency, even gold-silver-Yen)....I'd say the dollar will buy you near 115 Rubles (not that anyone really cares to hold Rubles....zero reason).

Anton Siluanov is the Finance Minister (since 2011). Just a humble guess, I suspect he'll be replaced/fired/die by suicide by this upcoming weekend. I can't imagine anyone wanting to step into the job at this point.

The only good thing is that the US/Europe are still buying oil/natural gas in their currency, and this is probably keeping the government afloat at this point.