Speaking of Russia (in my last post), it was interesting to see Jim Rogers view on Russia in this interview on Business Insider. Jim Rogers has been a long time staple of the financial news channels, and he is the first one I have heard state an alternative view of Russian Relations.
As a long time commodities trader and Asia investor,its interesting to see his take on whats going on in Russia. He also is one of the few to link the suddenly falling oil prices to geopolitical pressure on Russia:
It’s [The recent drop in Oil Prices] a fundamental positive for anybody who uses oil, who uses energy. It’s not a positive for places like Canada, Russia, or Australia. It seems to me that this is a bit of an artificial move. The Saudis, from what I can gather, are dumping oil because the US has told them to in order to put pressure on Russia and Iran.
Interestingly, another recent article discusses the effect of this drop in oil prices on various governments over a 4 quarter to 12 quarter time period. This chart:
shows Jim Rogers analysis of the oil movement does not seem too far fetched. Conventional Market wisdom would have you think oil prices should be strong given worldwide economic strength – so maybe something else is going on here to put the squeeze on Russia.