Russian Warships head for Ukraine & 150,000 Troops sent to the Border
Russian warships have now appeared on the coast of Ukraine and Putin has sent 150,000 troops for exercises at the border of Ukraine. The conflict between the USA and Russia is as always – one of distrust. Between the American people and the Russian people there is no real conflict. The issue is always between political leaders playing king of the mountain.
The free market is what took Russia down precisely as the Russian EconomistN.D. Kondratieff warned and was killed for by Stalin. The free markets also broke the back of the West’s Gold Standard established at Bretton Woods in the Panic of 1971. The central bank of Ukraine has no choice but to abandon the peg of its currency to the US dollar and allow it to freely float because of the pressure from the free markets.
With all of this political posturing, there is a bottom line here that people refuse to look at. Adam Smith has been absolutely correct. The Wealth of a Nation is not its natural resources or “tangible” wealth, but the total productivity of the nation be it brute force labor tilling the soil or intellectual. Ideas can be worth more than hard labor for they allow are the fuel of advancement and innovation. Invading countries and destroying everything not to mention killing millions of people is really no longer necessary.
The PROOF that Adam Smith was correct is simply the fact that Japan rose from the ashes to become the second largest economy in the world without any natural resources to speak of. It was the TOTAL PRODUCTIVITY of Japan – not its resources. China has been doing the same buying up resources. Europe has raised its taxes and regulation stifling the creation of new business reducing its productivity. War does not pay – it costs a nation its real ability to advance.
Events in Crimea – Yanukovych & His Sons Are in Russia
Now Crimean protesters stormed the building of the Crimean Supreme Council. It is here where we are seeing great conflict. There are pro-Russian activists and also Crimean Tatars whose number is a lot greater than the pro-Russians. In the square in front of the Supreme Council (Parliament) building there was about 2,000 Tatars and their number is increasing all the time. They are shouting: “Glory to Ukraine!” “Glory to the Heroes!” “Crimea is not Russia!” and are signing the National Anthem of Ukraine and applauding. The leader of the Crimean Tatars Refat Chubarov is also there. Many law enforcement officers are also there and they are lined up in two columns in between the rallies, apparently to avoid the violence. However, they are throwing stones and bottles at each other and this is getting very complicated.
There are a lot of Russians in Crimea because of the port. However, the Tatars go back hundreds of years and are a people who go back to Mongol times and simply just stayed. Therefore, we have Ukrainian, Tartars, and Russians all in Crimea yet political interests from Russia given the port. The Tartars are Muslim so we have another element entering the mix.
Yanukovych and his two sons fled and made it to Russia. This is a serious development for it will provide the excuse for Russia to install the “rightful” supreme ruler of Ukraine. This further demonstrates the criminal behavior of Yanukovych and his sons who started the extortion operation for why would they need to flee if there were no involved?