@ggersh
as the MoA comment includes.

In the US service economy mentality, we foolishly thought we could choke Russia's economy. The exact opposite happens because the world is dependent on so many Russian commodities from gas and oil, to fertilizers, to minerals like nickle. TPTB are so arrogant they thought the power of the dollar would prevail, but instead the USD has lost it's position and importance.

Glad you came by. Thanks for the links. Have a good holiday!

Great word salad, errrr WW, LO!!

And it began with this

"This week the G7 and NATO met trying to plot China and Russia's demise. It is almost comical."

Here I think I fixed it for ya?

This week the G7 and NATO met trying to plot China and Russia'sfully implementing amerika and Europe's demise. It is almost comical.

Anyhow here is a comment at the MOA that pretty much captures how
WS/amerika ineptness and greed over quarterly earnings helped destroy amerika.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/07/ukraine-the-bear-caught-the-kraken...

Arnaud Bertrand. @RnaudBertrand. Apr 10, 2022·
We used to think that Russia's economy was the equivalent of a small European country.
Maybe never before has an economy's importance been so grossly misjudged. [ya think???]
French economist Jacques Sapir explains what happened (at 44:13): youtube.com…

Small thread on what he says:
To him "the war made us realize that the Russian economy is considerably more important than we thought"
He says that a big reason for this misjudgment is exchange rates.
If you compare Russia's GDP by converting from rubles to $, you indeed get an economy the size of Spain's.
However this is the worst possible way of comparing the size of economies.
A slightly more accurate way is to adjust for PPP (purchasing power parity: investopedia.com/updates/purcha…)
When you do so, you already realize that Russia's economy is actually more like the size of Germany's.
BUT you also need to take something else into account: "What is the share of the service sector versus the share of the commodities & industrial sector?"
To Sapir the service sector is today vastly overvalued in the world compared with the industrial sector and commodities.
He says that when you adjust for this Russia's economy is vastly bigger than Germany's.
His estimate is that Russia represents in fact maybe "5% or 6% of the world's economy", almost double the size it's normally estimated at on a PPP basis (statista.com/statistics/271…)
This is a fascinating way to look at it and it rings very true.
This crisis is making us realize that we used to take manufacturing, the industry and commodities for granted, i.e. an antiquated side of the economy compared to shiny new "services".
What we're going through is leading us to a huge rethink.
This will undoubtedly make us conclude that what we used to view as antiquated is much more valuable than we thought.
Ironically this will force a revaluation of the Russian economy that's very much in their favor.
It's also very interesting to revalue China's economy through that lens.
If we look at the Chinese economy simply based on exchange rates, it is a $17.7 trillion economy to the U.S.'s $23 trillion.
However, if we just look at it on a PPP basis we realize it is already an almost $27 trillion economy.
This means China's economy is already close to 20% larger than the U.S.'s:
Let's also revalue it by assuming that the service sector holds much less value than previously thought.
The service sector is about 54.5% of China's GDP (investopedia.com/articles/inves…) which is even less than in Russia (at 56.27%: statista.com/statistics/271…).
This means that if we roughly apply Sapir's ratio for Russia to China, we're in fact looking at the Chinese economy being probably about 30% of the world's economy on a PPP basis instead of the 18% it's currently estimated at (statista.com/statistics/270…)!
All in all, this means that China and Russia's economies combined are in fact likely about 35% of the world's economy when taking PPP into account as well as compensating for the over-valuation of the service sector.
The service sector accounts for roughly 77% of the U.S. economy (statista.com/statistics/270…) and 70% of the EU's economy
This means that conversely, the U.S. and EU's economies are probably overvalued today.
Consequently, while we used to think that the US + the EU make up about 30% of the world's economy on a PPP basis (statista.com/statistics/270… and statista.com/statistics/253…) this is probably vastly overvalued since their service sector is such an important share of their economies
To conclude all this might end up making us realize that the Chinese + Russian economies combined are in fact far larger than those of the West.
Maybe as much as 40% larger if we assume US + EU is in fact maybe just 25% of the world's economy vs 35% for China + Russia ??

threadreaderapp.com

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jul 2 2022 12:18 utc | 182

IOW's amerika is now the 3rd world country(if not 4th) we claim everyone else to be.

Have a great 4th everyone, we might as well enjoy it just because we can.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLiMy4NaSKc]

@wokkamile

When he was just pretending to be a president.

Netflix has acquired the streaming rights to Servant of the People (also known as Sluga naroda or Слуга народу), the series starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy who has become known around the world over the past few weeks given the invasion of Ukraine. Season 1 of the show is now on Netflix although three seasons were produced in total.

The Ukrainian political sitcom follows a teacher (played by Zelenskyy, the current President of Ukraine) who rails against the corrupt political establishment, starts a viral campaign, and then finds himself unexpectedly elected to the role.

You can't make it up. Thanks for the recs!

noteworthy watches on Netflix: The Staircase series (documentary, not the other recent movie about the same subject) about a best-selling fiction author convicted of killing his wife 20 some yrs ago, shades of The Fugitive. Having watched the entire series, I'm leaning towards his innocence, certainly towards reasonable doubt. Very unusual trial where the prosecution-friendly judge allowed in 2 key pieces of evidence which were highly prejudicial to the defendant either of which would have been enough to prejudice an entire NC jury 20 yrs ago against the def, one piece being his bisexual private life. Anyone familiar with this case or the doc?

Second good Netflix doc: The Tinder Swindle, about an Israeli young conman who ripped off various women who had met him thru a dating app, Tinder, to the tune of $10m, financially devastating the women. Single women beware. Especially, apparently, Scandinavian women.

@enhydra lutris

for Ukraine, but I bet we'll continue funneling weapons and ammunition even though they know it's over. Whatta grift. And you're right about the importance of the upcoming Caspian conference.

It would be very difficult for them to pull another COViD con IMO. We've been back on our gargling routine after parties and such just in case we picked up some virus or the other. Behaviors here are back to normal...meaning hugs, handshakes, and no distancing nor masks.

Hope you're doing well and enjoying the holiday! Thanks for the visit.

in the power of covid to distract us, perhaps due to seemingly reduced lethality. Heck, my little sister who has serious comorbidities caught it can came through just fine after a few days of struggle at home. I've noted them preparing alternative scary threat tales for a while now. Here's one example: https://grist.org/health/the-disease-after-tomorrow/ subtitled "5 illnesses spreading in a hotter world". I had another in a similar vein but seem to have misplaced or deleted it about all of these illnesses that were overshadowed and seemingly shut down by covid that are now ripe to make a big time comeback.

Speaking of big time comebacks, it looks like Ukraine ain't gonna have one, just sayin'. Also, per the Duran, Russia has sewn up the Caspian and its surroundings. The Caspian is a bigger deal than most are aware of, including the fact that it is more or less pipelineistan squared and very rich in oil and gas.

Thanks for the WW and all the info, as well as the OT.

be well and have a good one

@snoopydawg
at least to my mind.
US-China cold war is inevitable.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIaU3TJEREo]
I hope he's wrong. Peace and cooperation would be better IMO.

Thanks for the link and your common sense. I learned from years in the classroom you can't force feed information, all we can do is put it on offer.

Hope you and Sam are having a great holiday! I'm thrilled we're getting a rain...already 0.5".

He reports how we got to the point that Russia had to invade Ukraine and why it was America’s ridiculous hegemonic actions toward Russia and how it’s going to be hard for the conflict to end. Russia will never allow Ukraine to become a NATO puppet nor will Washington allow Russia to win.

Simply put, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is a colossal catastrophe, which, as I noted at the beginning of my speech, will force people all over the world to look for its causes. Those who believe in facts and logic will quickly discover that the United States and its allies are primarily responsible for this derailment of our common train. The decision taken in April 2008 on the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO was destined to lead to a conflict with Russia. The Bush administration was the main architect of this fateful choice, but the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations intensified and aggravated this policy at every turn, and America’s allies obediently followed Washington. Despite the fact that Russian leaders made it abundantly clear that Ukraine’s accession to NATO would mean crossing Russia’s “most contrasting of red lines,” the United States refused to come to terms with Russia’s deep security concerns and instead moved tirelessly to turn Ukraine into a western bastion on the border with Russia.

The tragic truth is that if the West had not sought to expand NATO into Ukraine, it is unlikely that a war would have raged in Ukraine today, and Crimea would most likely still be part of Ukraine. In fact, Washington has played a central role in leading Ukraine down the path of destruction. History will severely condemn the United States and its allies for their strikingly stupid policy towards Ukraine.

America’s Monroe doctrine will not allow any country to have influence in its backyard, but thinks that its entitled to go into any country’s backyard it wants to. You know because it’s a rules based order instead of following international law that it once agreed to follow.

Sadly the mainstream media will never interview John so he could educate Americans on the truth of this conflict because their job is to repeat what the government tells them to so Americans can believe that their country is only a force for good and any country that stands in the way of its goals are the bad guys. And it’s unfortunate that the people who most need to read this essay will not.