On 5/13/07, raghu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 5/12/07, sartesian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Just kidding. Or maybe not. I really don't know how an individual would
> do any of it. But state power is a big leg up for a collectivity.
>
> Anyway, I don't have the answer.
>
> Any process that would put "me," or any group, collective, party like
> "me" in a position to direct petroleum revenues would have that figured
> out "locally" first..
It is quite tricky. After all what is the meaning of the foreign
reserves in this Stabilization Fund - is it not just claims on the
future output of US workers? If Russia does not have an immediate
pressing need for US goods why should they feel compelled to buy stuff
just because they have a dollar surplus?
The fund is not so dollar-dominated.
<http://en.rian.ru/business/20070110/58838072.html>
Russia's Stabilization Fund up 7% month-on-month Jan. 1
19:12 | 10/ 01/ 2007
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stabilization Fund resources were initially intended to be invested in
highly-liquid debt securities of foreign states, but instead are now
being converted into foreign currency and placed in Federal Treasury
forex accounts with the Central Bank.
According to the Finance Ministry's investment formula, U.S. dollars
account for 45% of the Stabilization Fund's foreign currency, euros
make up 45%, and 10% is in British pounds.
I am sure Russia would love to "buy" some of the real riches that the
US has i.e. technological know-how. But I suspect the US does not want
to sell any thing other than consumer goods or services. So this
dollar surplus is really nothing more than a huge burden.
Under these circumstances there is one truly wonderful thing that
Russia/China/Japan can do with those dollars - give it away to the
indebted nations of Africa. Give it all away not loan it as in foreign
aid. That would be ultimately in the best interests of both Russia and
the US as well as Africa. Of course it will never happen...
The Russians are far more interesting than the Chinese or the Japanese
in this respect, for the former are not as directly dependent on the
US market as the latter, and the former have the kind of geopolitical
ambition about Central Asia, West Asia, and North Africa that the
latter lack. Maybe you can pitch the idea of a Russian-led Eurasian
Development Bank to Yevgeny Primakov, Russia's most influential
Eurasianist.
--
Yoshie
