Is this true? Russia has paid off ALL of its foreign debt?....

[Blackhatjack]

www.waynemadsenreport.com

Is this true? Can it be verified? If so, the dwindling US economic standing(trillions in debt) may be driving the need to engage Iran and control the Middle East oil to balance the loss of economic muscle, and headoff other countries converting to Euro as the preferred exchange currency.

"In another sign that the United States is rapidly drifting into "Third World" status as a major world debtor nation, Russia has announced that it has paid off its $31.1 billion debt to foreign countries incurred during Soviet times. Russia paid off its debt largely as a result of the increase in the price of oil -- a major Russian export. Not only has the ruble been made fully convertible but Russia is now attracting major investments and its bond rating has improved.

Russia's economic turnaround has also increased its clout at the expense of Bush's neo-con strategists. Russia has forgiven about two thirds of Syria's $13 billion debt and has initiated port development schemes in the ports of Tartus and Latakia, old Soviet naval bases. Russia's strong financial and military support for Syria checked neo-con plans to militarily attack Syria.

The paying off of Russia's debt to Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, France and other Paris Club creditor nations has also increased Moscow's financial and political clout in Europe at the expense of Washington's. Russia is to offer Eurobonds to commercial creditors in lieu of payment in U.S. dollars. Moscow's central bank reserves, estimated at $277 billion, are the world's third largest, ranked after those of Japan and China. On the other hand, the two Asian economic giants are America's two largest creditor nations."

MORE

[northzax]

1. $31 billion?

please. that's chump change, even for Russia.

[Selatius]

2. 31 billion is roughly half the Russian yearly defense budget

So it's not much of a burden in the first place. If the US government debt was only half the size of the US defense budget, we'd be in far better shape than we are, but roughly half the US national debt is government debt, which is roughly 3 to 3.5 trillion dollars if not more. The rest is consumer debt/corporate debt.

However, the significant thing is because they paid off their debt, they no longer are subject to disasterous privatization schemes the IMF and the World Bank have pushed on Latin America. That's the key part.

[Skink]

3. This probably accounts for Putins 70 percent approval rating.

[patricia92243]

4. Boy, if it's true that they have that LOW a national debt, it really prove

proves how badly off WE are.

[Subdivisions]

14. I don't know if it "proves" how bad off WE are or not

but it sure looks as if, while the rest of the civilized (Iran included) is booming and getting more powerful, our country is on a greasy slope toward Third-World status.

But then when you consider how much richer the president and his cronies have gotten, you can disregard any of that rhetoric and propoganda because you know if they're getting richer, WE are getting richer. :sarcasm:

edit: spelling

[acmejack]

5. LA Times says "most"

snip>
When Russians look ahead, they feel that they are on a roll. Thanks to sky-high oil prices, Russia is flush with cash. It has paid off much of its foreign debt ahead of schedule.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-menon20aug20,0,6762871.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

snip>

Russia has paid off in full its $23.7-bln debt to the Paris Club of Creditor Nations, Vnesheconombank (VEB) said Monday.

On the instruction of the Finance Ministry, Vnesheconombank, which acts as the Russian government's foreign debt payment agent, made payments worth $1.27 billion on August 18-21 to repay the principal and pay interest on its debt to the Paris Club.

VEB also transferred $22.47 billion to the Paris Club to repay its remaining debt ahead of schedule, Vnesheconombank said.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060821/52925947.html

While I was seearching I found this intersting tidbit too!

snip>
Uncle Sam has reneged and defaulted on up to 40% of its trillion-dollar foreign debt, and nobody has said a word except for a line in The Economist. In plain English that means Uncle Sam runs a worldwide confidence racket with his self-made dollar based on the confidence that he has elicited and received from others around the world, and he is a also a deadbeat in that he does not honor and return the money he has received.

How much of our dollar stake we have lost depends on how much we originally paid for it. Uncle Sam let his dollar fall, or rather through his deliberate political economic policies drove it down, by 40%, from 80 cents to the euro to 133 cents. The dollar is down by a similar factor against the yen, yuan and other currencies. And it is still declining, indeed is apt to plummet altogether.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GA06Dj01.html

[Skink]

6. That's why we must retain the petro dollar.

[Blackhatjack]

12. So where is the safe haven if the dollar plummets??

"Uncle Sam let his dollar fall, or rather through his deliberate political economic policies drove it down, by 40%, from 80 cents to the euro to 133 cents. The dollar is down by a similar factor against the yen, yuan and other currencies. And it is still declining, indeed is apt to plummet altogether."

I hear this all the time, that events could trigger a dollar plummet reminiscent of the peso plunge in Mexico, and hyperinflation in Argentina. So where is the safe haven for what little Americans have in pension plans and other accounts funded with dollars?

No one wants to talk about the untaxed dollars flowing out of this country, and converted into foreign currency holdings, by corporations and the wealthiest 1%. Would that not be a contributing factor to an eventual dollar plunge? And is that not harming the government that made it possible for each of these to accumulate so much wealth?

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. I can't work out where the "reneged and defaulted" has come from

he never tells us in the article how he claims that, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately the author died, at the age of 76, a few months after that article, so we can't find out what he meant. Can anyone explain why he says the US "defaulted"?

[Double T]

7. The USA is seriously @#%$&*............

meanwhile bushco tells us how great the economy is doing and we'll stay the course in Iraq. When will the looming economic collapse come where we live in cardboard box condos and Tijuana style shanty towns eating stone soup, if we're lucky????

[Virginia Dare]

8. Chavez has pledged to do the same...

which is why he is none too popular with the corporate overlords.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Boy, am I jealous. Look at our debt and interest. Geez, I don't

think they could pay it off in 25 years if they started today.

[BlooInBloo]

10. lol! There's some books-cooking...

... or debt-forgiveness, or bankruptcy declaration, or stealing, or something...

$31 billion total debt for Russia/USSR doesn't *make sense*.

[htuttle]

11. Much of that debt was run up many years ago

$31 billion used to mean a lot more money when the Soviet Union was around.

[Blackhatjack]

13. So the US benefits by devaluing the debt it owes by devaluing $$

I find it hard to believe that the US benefits by devaluing its debt in this way, since it wipes out the dollar as an asset in this economy and the only items of real value are hard assets other than currency.

No dollar value, no consumer buying power, massive devaluation of hard assets would have to follow and it would be a long slow climb to reestablish the currency. Is the savings realized by devaluing the US debt in this way worth it? I think not.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. I Smell Books Cooking!

Mmmmmm! Ledger in a cream sauce!

There is NO POSSIBLE WAY that the entire debt base of the USSR was $31 billion. They spent three times that in Afghanistan, and borrowed money to host the 1980 Olympics. (About $1 billion)

The debt has been slid around to look like assets or something.

If one looks at the U.S. public debt and balance against the total capitalization of the economy, it would be a bankers dream to lend the U.S. more money. Why do you think the Chinese keep buying our bonds? As a whole, our debt to equity ratio is terrific.

The USSR's was NEVER terrific. At no time ever. Geez, Lenin inherited foreign debt from Tsar Nicholas, for goodness sake. They couldn't even pay for WWI without borrowing money.

This story stinks to high heaven and it stinks from the smell of cooking the books.
The Professor

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. According to a TASS 2003 article:

The debt inherited from the Soviet Union stood at $57.1 billion.

Russia's total foreign debt amounted to $149.7 billion as of October 1
2002, posting a decline of 0.9% in January-September, according to data
released by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) on December 31.

The CBR said then that Russia's post-Soviet sovereign debt stood at $48.4
billion as of October 1.

Soviet-era creditors include the Paris Club, which is owed $37.6 billion,
and former Warsaw Pact countries, who are owed $4.7 billion.

http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/7033-9.cfm

So there's a certain amount of classification needed - the $31 billion looks like debt owed to foreign governments, rather than total foreign debt.

[radwriter0555]

16. I have been saying for years now that RUSSIA is THE language to be

learning. NOT CHINESE.

Russia is the nation that is fast becoming a very, VERY serious economic force on the planet.. and it's catching most people unawares.


My kid is taking russian next year in school so we can make sure she's ahead of the curve.

[maddezmom]

19. locking

Democratic Underground does not allow linking to waynemadsenreport.com as it is considered unreliable.