[Rushy]

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=RUB&to=USD&view=1Y

As oil represents a whopping 50% of the Russian economy, the cheap oil coming from ISIS and Saudi Arabia is murdering their economy. This is going hand in hand with the fallout from sanctions over the whole Crimea incident.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/rouble_collapse_hits_finland_forex_stops_buying_russian_currency/7694302

The Finland FOREX no longer accepts Rubles, no doubt others may follow.

[model 29]

The depressing part too, is that while I certainly enjoy the break on gas and heating oil prices, they're setting us up for a major butt-hurt later after they've basically shut-down our own oil drilling industry, and then cut back on the exports, causing the price of oil to sky-rocket again, and it takes several years to get our production back online.

I hope I'm wrong though.

[Thork]

... the cheap oil coming from ISIS and Saudi Arabia

Ok, stop reading Fox news. This is nothing to do with ISIS. They aren't huge suppliers of oil.

For Americans ...

OPEC (the group of countries that produce oil) have teamed up together to smash American shale. They have lowered the price of oil to make fracking unprofitable. Once frackers go bust (due to huge investment and now continual losses) they will put the price up again. Saudi are the world's biggest supplier and refused to push the price back up.

As noted, Russia is dependant on oil and gas exports for a huge amount of its gdp. This has hurt the Rubel. Now Western media is also saying Western sanctions over the Ukraine are playing a part, but I think that's more a combination of wishful thinking and propaganda to the Western world to make out their tactics are effective. I don't think its making that much difference to be honest.

Anyway, Russia then made a huge screw up 2 days ago. First they spent $70bn to arrest the decline in their currency. They managed to halt the decline for a mere 3 hours. It was the equivalent of saying "Investors, please don't leave Russia, we'll give you $70bn to stay" and investors said "Thanks, we'll take that and we're still leaving". It was a massive fuck up and has shown the world Russia's central bank is panicking and it doesn't know what it is doing. So investors smell blood. Add to that Russia just pushed interest rates to 17%. Now that doesn't have immediate impact but it will bite them hard in the long term. No one is going to invest in property for example, especially foreigners. It was double stupidity in 2 ridiculous emergency measures that did nothing to stop their currency going from 60 rubles to the dollar to 75 Rubles in the same day!

Russia has almost half a trillion dollars of bonds in the international market. Whilst Moody's etc have not yet changed the rating, most investors now classify these as junk. No one wants anything Russian. I don't think they will do the right things to change this and I fear Russia's economy is toast.

[Vindictus]

Maybe they'll have a second communist revolution.

[Rushy]

This is nothing to do with ISIS. They aren't huge suppliers of oil.

I'm not sure what else to say, this is just plain false.

[Vindictus]

They aren't. They had enough to bring some cash in and make them wealthier than your normal terrorist group. But they're hardly comparable to the bigger players or even smaller countries. Not only that, but US air strikes have been hitting their oil production capability hard.

[Ghost of V]

It's amazing that we still have any oil left considering that it's only made from dinosaur fossils.

[markjo]

This is nothing to do with ISIS. They aren't huge suppliers of oil.

I'm not sure what else to say, this is just plain false.

Well, you could always try supporting your assertion with...  Oh, who am I kidding.

[Lord Dave]

This is also going to hurt the Canadian tar sands.  I think they need oil to be around $60 or $70 per barrel to make a profit. (or at least a worth wild one)

[Thork]

It is also breaking North Sea oil. I'll bet the Scottish are relieved they didn't go all independent based on all the billions they thought they would get from North Sea oil. They'd be more broke than Greece by now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30525539

[Lord Dave]

See, this is the kind of shit that happens when you rely on fossil fuels.  Just imagine what happens when they run out.

[Rushy]

See, this is the kind of shit that happens when you rely on fossil fuels.  Just imagine what happens when they run out.

Hopefully that won't happen for another hundred years. If oil ran out tomorrow we would be thrown back into the steam age with coal and natural gas being primary sources of energy.

[markjo]

This is also going to hurt the Canadian tar sands.  I think they need oil to be around $60 or $70 per barrel to make a profit. (or at least a worth wild one)

Not to mention the North American fracking boom.  They need oil to be closer to $100.

[Rushy]

Not to mention the North American fracking boom.  They need oil to be closer to $100.

Very few fracking operations are for oil. The vast majority of them are natural gas.

[markjo]

Not to mention the North American fracking boom.  They need oil to be closer to $100.

Very few fracking operations are for oil. The vast majority of them are natural gas.

And with falling oil prices, there will likely be even fewer fracking operations for oil.