Russia has their oil and natural gas, we have our coal and natural gas - could be some interesting showdowns in the decades ahead. Again folks, I am talking 10, 15, 20 years out, not 6 months. In fact in the near term, I could see a very plausible case for some serious corrections in certain commodities (I'm looking at you crude) sometime in the back half of 08. But not yet.
- Dmitry Medvedev delivered the most Anti-American speech of his 1 month presidency when he claimed that US selfishness had led the world into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. (but Dmitry, Fox Business told me that lightly regulated free markets solve everything - corporations do work for the greater good and are not just a massive transfer of wealth from the many to the few - didn't you get the memo? What are you? Communist? Uhh... check that, nevermind)
- Addressing a grandiose conference designed to show off Russia's financial resurgence, the new president said that America's "economic egoism" and Western protectionism had triggered a global economic slowdown. (I like that Dmitry - economic egoism - I might have to steal that one for the blog)
- Western chief executives who came to St Petersburg hoping for hear reassurances from a leader whose liberal credentials have been widely touted instead found a president who often sounded like a clone of his aggressive predecessor, Vladimir Putin.
- Slamming the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for their failure to end the world's problems, Mr Medvedev suggested that Russia should instead take charge of redirecting global economic policy. (uhh, not so much)
- He announced that a conference to address major issues like the credit crunch and rising food prices would be held in Russia later this year. (we're having a conference on such global crisis as steroids in baseball - would you like to attend?)
- ...the forum in St Petersburg was intended as a brash display of the country's newly acquired wealth. Fleets of black limousines brought Russia's rich to an event that organizers claim could soon supplant the World Economic Forum in Davos. (on a serious note - speaking of concentration on wealth - the uber rich in Russia now own hordes of real estate in Europe - esp London, and are certainly growing in power)
- Yet, for all its confidence, the conference served as a metaphor for the underlying economic weaknesses that the Kremlin likes to claim are either non-existent or not an issue. Behind the grandeur, the Soviet-era venue that played host to the conference – which replaced a similar forum in London last year after Britain fell out of favour in the Kremlin – creaked badly. Sound systems wobbled, western executives looked on in occasional bafflement as translation devices periodically failed, some delegates went hungry due to a shortage of food points and security officers behaved at their thuggish worst. (nice)
- "Failure by the biggest financial firms in the world to adequately take risk into account, coupled with the aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world, have led not only to corporate losses," Medvedev told Russia's main annual event for international investors in St Petersburg. "Most people on the planet have become poorer." (I wish I could disagree; but it appears Dmitry's economists must be reading my blog)
- The Kremlin leader also attacked big bonuses paid out in the financial world, saying regulators needed to ensure that incentives promoted "rational behavior based on a balanced evaluation of risks and rewards". (no, we much prefer heads we win, tails we still win executive compensation - that way the CEO's get to keep their 8th and 9th homes during tough times. Dmitry please think of the struggles of these CEOs and have a heart, will ya? Some of them have had to take a pay cut from $18 million to $14 million - how will their kids go to college?)
- Russia is the world's biggest gas producer and its second-biggest oil exporter.
