Winning Wheat

By Econ70 | 08/28/2014

In the complex fighting between Russia and Ukraine (R&U), there are unambiguous winners. Wheat is at its highest price in three weeks on fears that R&U, which collectively account for 20% of global wheat exports, may fail to get the harvested wheat on ships for export. Similarly, U.S. crude oil for October delivery is at…

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Kiev-Kremlin Conundrum

By Econ70 | 12/12/2013

The Ukrainians want to economically escape from Russia and without controlling Ukraine, Russia is no empire. Thus keeping Ukraine from Russia must be a strategic western objective. Making it easy, Ukrainian finances are a shambles and a balance-of-payments crisis will soon hit absent billions in loans to repay foreign-currency-denominated bondscoming due. Rather than haggling over…

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