Academics? Really?

I will soon begin to stutter from repeating a diagnosis--Western "leaders" and their "academe" are capable only of PR, period. They do not have real skills, knowledge or foresight. Now these "academics" are discovering what was told by many people with just common sense, forget about those, like Mr. Novak, who have serious experience and academic background in real things. 

Russia raked in significantly more money from its crude oil sales than previously thought, a group of academics have said. Russia took in more money in the weeks that followed the oil price cap implemented on December 5 last year, calculations from academics at the Institute of International Finance, Columbia University, and the University of California show. The calculations show that Russia sold its crude oil for about $74 per barrel on average, according to the paper “Assessing the Impact of International Sanctions on Russian Oil Exports” published on the Social Science Research Network.

For people whose skills do not reach beyond the realm of financial speculation at the Wall Street such a development may come as a surprise. A nasty one at that. You can download this paper here. 

Assessing the Impact of International Sanctions on Russian Oil Exports

It is a peculiar paper with the set of "recommendations" of what Larry calls "more cowbell". Same ol', same ol'--more sanctions, more restrictions and even lower cap. They DO grow them dumb in "academic" economics realm in the West. Suffice it to say that 99% of Western economics "oracles" predictions about Russia turned out to be utterly delusional. You cannot fix stupid. 

Daniel Davies, meanwhile, warns.

While it’s no secret that since 2013 I’ve argued – many times (including last month in these pages) – we place too much trust on our generals and turn too blind of an eye when they are proven disastrously wrong. With statements and claims made by a number of retired general officers leading up to Friday’s one-year mark in Russia’s war with Ukraine, however, it is more urgent than ever that the American public take what they say with more than a little skepticism. If our policymakers take the advice of these former high-ranking officers, America may find itself at war with Russia, shocked by a Ukrainian loss – or worst of all: sucked into a nuclear exchange with Russia.

Most American retired generals have been proven disastrously wrong most of the time because they do not know what modern war is and, also, because they never won shit in their lives. Come on, when you apply for credit card, let alone for mortgage, the first thing one checks is your credit history, and this is the right thing to do. What IS credit history of America's top brass since Vietnam? Larry summarized it very well in his latest: 

America’s Delusional Military Fantasy

Somebody needs to explain to Petraeus and Keane and the whole cabal of other political generals from US think tanks that military "history" they studied is not exactly a real one. But then again, with such an "academe" who would blame them for having learned nothing about real war. Or real economy, for that matter.

Ah, Those Lovely Double-Standards.

Albeit one has to admit that the US "price cap" thingy is mostly for PR (what's new) since the WH went on record today that it kinda, sort of, will not really "punish" anyone buying Russian hydrocarbons "above" cap price. Sure, when even WSJ comes up with this title...

That tells you a lot. It also gives you a glimpse into the real economic balance of the world and it is drastically not in the West's favor, to put it mildly. Oh, boy! 

Russian liquefied natural gas shipments increased in October to nearly a record, illustrating how the world is struggling to curb its dependence on the major supplier ahead of winter. LNG exports from Russia rose 1.1% year on year in October to the highest level since March, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg since 2016. That is in stark contrast to plummeting pipeline flows to Europe following the deterioration of relations between the West and the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine in February.

Something, certainly, doesn't add up in the Matrix. But this is only for people who continued to ignore REAL economic and other data from Russia in the last 7 years. And now, the only thing which is left for neocon cabal is to continue to push utterly false narrative about Russia "using nuclear weapons" in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable--a defeat of a collective West in 404. Dmitry Orlov wrote a fabulous piece on the matter:

The Cuban Missile Crisis is a malicious misnomer. Cuba never had any nuclear missiles; it temporarily played host to some Soviet ones. The crisis started when Americans put their intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Turkey that posed a new threat the Soviet Union, which responded by placing similar missiles in Cuba, evening the score. The Americans flew into a rage but eventually calmed down and withdrew their missiles from Turkey. The Soviets withdrew their missiles from Cuba and the crisis was over. And so it should be called the American Missile Crisis. What’s happening now couldn’t be more different. Unless you spent the last few weeks hiding under a rock, you have probably heard that some sort of new nuclear crisis is underway because of “Putin’s nuclear blackmail” or some such. Some people have suffered nervous exhaustion as a result, neglecting their duties and generally letting themselves go. Take former British PM Liz Truss, for instance. The poor silly thing latched on to Putin’s words that “the wind rose can point in any direction” (a factual point about the utter uselessness of tactical nuclear weapons). She then allowed the British economy to go into free-fall while she obsessively tracked the wind direction over the Ukraine. It all ended badly for poor Liz. Don’t be like Liz. I am here to tell you that there is nothing going on beyond the usual—the usual Western propaganda fakery, that is.

Are we about to start hearing about US military casualties in 404? They did happen and continue to happen on a serious scale, as is the case with other NATO "volunteers". We may, but don't hold your breath... but Midterms are coming.