Friday beaver - Hey it's Monday already

Heads I win tails you lose

This is the Ukrainian coin toss Putin style. No rest for the wicked there. The choice being being crushed by western debt or crushed by Russian debt. Nice choice eh? The third alternative would be no better. Reject them both and you're still bankrupt. Might be a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there comrade. How quickly those pro russians forgot what it was like under the old Soviet system or maybe mom and dad forgot to tell them. And really what benefit has any system gotten them? They have one of the lowest standards of living of any industrialized country. Countries like Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania aren't doing any better and yet we don't see Putin going after them at least not yet. And why exactly would any superpower want to saddle themselves with such a burden? Some answers to be revealed shortly.

How exactly did all this start and what does it mean you might ask? We quickly forgot the "Orange revolution". That was the last major protest when the country was shifting from the old communist ways. But don't be fooled it was backed and financed by the west. And for what reason? Simple, the Ukraine is a pinch point for the gas and oil that flows into Europe. Control that and you have control of most of the energy supply of Europe. And there's only two ways to gain that control, either by an agreement (in this case it was by loaning the country billions there by making them slaves to debt) or with the use of a military invasion. The latter is never looked upon too kindly as people still remember the blitz tactics of Hitler. Nope Putin tried a different tactic by making it look like the people themselves were rising up and wanting a russian system. Nothing could be further from the truth as the country is made up of just 17% russians. 

This makes you wonder if Putin isn't trying to copy something out of the Tea Party play book. Try to make people long for a by gone era. The only problem is that the good old days weren't so good. Then of course there's the flag waving and national pride. That and a couple of rubles will get you a cup of coffee. 

Lastly we have dictators in the making. In Egypt it was Morsi who wanted to give himself more power than the supreme court. We're seeing how that's working out. And now it's being played out with Yanukovych who neatly got some anti democratic laws passed the parliament (see below) and decided it was open season on anybody who didn't agree with him. Putin must have paid him off well as the next thing you know the country was about to be saddled with russian debt. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-protest_laws_in_Ukraine

In the U.S. it's business as usual. While the lame stream media is touting how things are just peachy (yeah if you have an account in the Caymans) main street is still suffering especially if you're over 50 and were laid off when the economy tanked. Don't believe the jobs numbers for a New York second they don't count 3.5 million that couldn't find work at least nothing that would cover the rent when the unemployment ran out.

No bank fails last week