Jim, My expertise is to spend time into the minds of the criminally insane, those born as. Those comments i made in the past months that predicted that in 5-10 years Russia will obtain equal status as the United States using a down grade of the US and upgrade of Russia, while during the same time China will disintegrate into a thousand parts and become as it was a thousand years ago with a thousand small empires. I looked for that post on this thread, and Russ's and the GPM, but could not find it. But there are no "deep thoughts" behind this except that China's currently made semi-modern of manufacturing and middle class strength would collapse totally in a few years after the United States starts to collapse into a deep depression that takes other world economies along with it. This is based on your many detailed posts & articles that i gather the impression that the US Dollar now is very sick and has been inserted into most all other nations economies either directly or indirectly. As for Russia, to me it has a sad and troubled history that in a quirk of inside-out, that which was its downfall in hundreds of years of history will become a strong and stable and positive force to make gains as all other nations make loses, and there is no major or complex theories behind my thoughts about Russia, just a simple "learn from past errors" as the current government of Russia is Putin, a once senior KGB man, that now has the power of the military, and a recognition that a government forced economy failed all the past hundred of years, and he now has the means to put into control of the Russian economy a power and very able group of business men that can get the job done, a.k.a. the Mob, and they can co-exist such that 1+1 is greater than 2 in that the Mob wants the wealth of the businesses, and this way rather than do it using the USA Chicago Al Capon early 1900s fighting the Feds, the Russian Mob will own the businesses of the Russian economy, and in a twist, pay protection money to the Russian government so that the Russian military can be built up to world class again. Thus, the Mob is not working outside the law since it will legally own the businesses in Russia, and the people in the Mob "know" business, and the Russian government leaders will allow a "free" market and not interfer with government stupidness, just so that the Mob pays taxes of good amounts. Then the governemnt leaders of Russia can do what they are experts in, and that is to control the populace using brutal force with individual rights non existance. The common person in Russia will experience the same thought control, and fear of the police knoking on their doors and taken away never to be heard of again just as they did for a hundred years, except now their standard of living for all will increase greatly because the Mob knows business, and eventhought they will steal most of the workers paycheck, the Russian economy will buzz x10 as it is today. Also, as everyone knows Russia has great natural resources, and as it also knowned, the Russian people are highly educated and could overnight duplicate their science into practical engineering feats once the Russian government politician step aside and let the Mob take over the industries. China has a totally different set-up.
doug |