The Currency Of Despair

Ah Yes, Desperation

One is minded of MacBeth, the Scottish usurper as detailed in the Barf Of Avon's titular play, "Macbeth", who gets into a bit of a pickle, with an English army invading Scotland under the control of Malcom, son of King Duncan (murdered by MacBeth en route to the throne) to overthrow him.  I bet it happened on a Monday, too.  Art!

Not quite what I was after

     At a point where all his troubles coalesce, Ol' Mac gets into a pet and shouts out "Come wrack, at least we'll die with harness on our back!" which is less to do with role-playing Horsey and more about dying in office whilst wielding a sword.  The person we'll be coming back to has no idea which end of a sword is the dangerous bit but the point still stands.

     Being a tad more focussed, let me quote another leader, this time Winston Churchill, who had been at the sharp end himself - unlike another current leader whose natural environment is an underground bunker - and had seen the world.

"In finance, everything that is agreeable is unsound, and everything that is sound is disagreeable."

     How very true!  Art?

Winnie as PoW

     All this is mere window-dressing, as you probably guessed by now, because, to come back to the title, I am going to regale you with ruminations about the Ruffian currency, the ruble.  Art!

     There was a positively peculiar picture to illustrate this on my browser feed, which I might have led with if it wasn't a bit too exploitative.  Art!

Why Taylor?  Because Ruffia's been kicked out of SWIFT!

     Allow me to apply a touch of statistical background here, to set the scene as of 2022, which is where this metric comes from.

     Being ranked #34 globally, and being outranked by countries such as Turkey, Colombia and Hungary is not a good start, even if you know as little about economics as Conrad.  Just remember the catchy refrain Who Needs The Ruble.  Bear in mind those figures were in mid-2022, and we've come a long way since then in terms of politics, economics and conflict.
     Part of the problems for Putinpot come from the South Canadian's increasingly strict enforcement of sanctions; whilst they were dragging their heels about supplying munitions to Ukraine, their State Department was simultaneously coming down on Ruffian trade like an anvil dropped from a mile up.  Art!

     Bad news for an economy trying to export goods and raw materials!  Not only that, most of the trade in is Yuan, because NOBODY wants to deal in the ruble.  From January 2024 onwards the South Canadians have been tightening existing sanctions and threatening secondary sanctions against entities doing trade with sanctioned Ruffian enterprises.  Art!

       This is not a minor matter.  Chinese companies are now having to triple-check that their Ruffian business partner is not a sanctioned enterprise, which not only prolongs the whole payment process, it creates lots of extra admin expenses, which the canny Chinese pass on to the Ruffians.  Overall, the smooth transfer of monies between the two countries has been comprehensively disrupted, with Ruffian companies having seriously delayed payments, which leads to problems with cash-flow, wages and investments.

     China may give up trade with Ruffia altogether, because in total it only comes to 5% of The Populous Dictatorship's overall trade, and maintaining it is a real headache.  You will note that there was an enormous 'Dedicated Denial of Service' hacking attack on Ruffia carried out a couple of days ago -

     By China!  A attack this large would require the Chinese state to be looking the other way, or even encouraging it, because Who Needs The Ruble.  Art!

     Then there is the comprehensive Ruffian shift to a wartime economy, where this means essentially disengaging from the global economy, meaning the ruble becomes even less important on the global market.  China, as above, refuses to trade in the ruble, and so does India, because again Who Needs The Ruble.

     Those who chorus in answer "Belarus!  Cuba!  Venezuala!" might as well just put up a banner saying "Economic basket-case dictatorships tied to Putin's apron strings!"

      ANYWAY this lack of interest in the ruble has caused a tremendous drop in the amount being traded, which the Kremlin deems to be a silver lining in the hurricane, as this means they can manipulate the exchange rate.  Thus, in June 2024 - Art!

     Or, ₽88.9 to the $1 as of 20th June 2024, which is where it had been bouncing around for months and months, ever since the low of August 2023, when it hit ₽100 to the $1.  

     HOWEVER - a word you knew was going to turn up here eventually - ever since things got - er - 'interesting' in Kursk oblast, why, the ruble has become the focus for Putin's despair, despite being the most controlled currency in the world.  Art!

     ₽92.67 with a bullet, as the South Canadian expression goes.  In other words, all the stability since December has gone out the window.  The only way to avert this is by burning through several billions of FOREX liquidities from the National Wealth Fund, which is itself running short.  The Little Tsar is then on the horns of a Despair Dilemma, caught between two equally bad choices of: 1) Do nothing and risk a currency collapse, or 2) Throw wheelbarrows of cash on the bonfire.

     There's a two-word response to this:  Tee hee!

Conrad: Proudly Hair-Splitting 

I don't know which numpty was in charge of creating this headline on social media (code for "I can't remember if it was Facebook or Twitter and am too lazy to check"), so I shall rage incoherently to the heavens.  

Former President Donald Trump began posting on the platform formally known as Twitter again on Monday, just hours before he was scheduled to do an interview with X CEO Elon Musk.

     "Formally"?  What you illiterate podunks mean is FORMERLY.

FORMERLY

     Sometimes I despair for Hom. Sap. until I remember I'm not one of them.

Going Loco

Earlier this month Your Humble Scribe took a look at various global companies that build locomotives, because who doesn't like to know facts like that?

     The list I ended up with had fifteen companies on it, none of which seemed to be Ruffian, as my overarching question was whether they built their own locomotives/loco power plants?

     First, in no particular order, was: Brookville Equipment Corporation.  Art!

     Their humble beginnings.  Originally, a Ford motor-car dealer called L. A. Leathers began Brookville by putting rail wheels on cars, for mine work in Pennsylvania, 1918.  The reason for this is that, in rural Penn, railways were a lot better to travel or haul freight by than roads.  Art!

     After the First Unpleasantness, they began to build actual locomotives.  Here's a pretty basic one hauling a verrrry long train of what are probably coal bunker wagons, mining being a primary industry in Penn, then and now.

     In 1942 they moved to their current location at Pickering Street, Pennsylvania.  Art!

These are one of BEC's underground vehicles, low-rise personnel transport for movement within the confines of mine tunnels.

     The company are still around, still family-run and employ only 300 employees (as of Wiki in 2012 so this has probably changed).  Not a global player, admittedly.  If you live in South Canada and need a bespoke locomotive, check 'em out.

"The War Illustrated Edition 191 October 13"

One of the minor reasons for the Allies over-running/conquering/liberating occupied France was that it eliminated the V1 launch sites, which had been set up by the Teutons in north-west France.  The Teuton's intent had been to bombard the south of England with thousands of V1s, sinking the island or at least delaying or entirely preventing D-Day.  Art!

     In reality their program was rather a bust: they had no idea where the V1s were actually landing, and Perfidious Albion, living up to it's name, completely spoofed them, leading to many flying bombs destroying -

     Fields.  Those were the ones that got through, as a huge barrage of anti-aircraft guns firing the new top-secret proximity-fuse shells downed a lot, as did the valiant Brylcreem Boys by either shooting them - very risky - or sidling up to them and flipping them over with a wingtip - also not without risk. 

     Here you see a damaged launch ramp at upper port.  These were often bombed by the RAF but were difficult to hit as they were so narrow.  Then you see a V1 in flight, above a picture of where they were stored.  At bottom, the ignominy of a crash right after launch.  I'd be careful, chaps, the warhead is still intact, meaning if you aren't careful you won't be.

Finally -

Why yes, I am enjoying these bagels with cream cheese and salmon and, no, Edna, you aren't getting any of them.