Puppet Masters
Were J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller Jewish? No, they were not Jews. But many people in China think that they were. An utterly amazing positive stereotype of Jews permeates China. I felt this great warmth when I visited in 1991 as a professor of Jewish Studies. I was invited to lecture at universities and institutes and was treated like royalty.
As The Economist notes, on February 7th the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU, the central bank) finally devalued the official rate of the hryvnya, to HRN8.7:US$1.
The policy was then to set the peg to the dollar roughly in line with trading on the interbank exchange. At the same time, the authorities introduced more foreign-exchange controls.
The Kremlin has reacted with barely disguised anger to the ascent to power by political forces that had until last week occupied the ranks of the opposition, but it has been at pains to convey a non-interventionist stance over developments in Ukraine.
"We have confirmed our principled position to not interfere in Ukraine's internal affairs and expect all [foreign powers] to follow a similar logic," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Lavrov said it would be "dangerous and counterproductive" to give Ukraine an ultimatum of "either you're with us or against us."
Political unrest erupted in Ukraine in November when the government of then-President Viktor Yanukovych indefinitely postponed the signing of free trade and association deals with the European Union to instead focus on strengthening ties with Russia.

Polish minister of Foreign Affairs, Radek Sikorski, with the three main ukrainian opposition leaders, in Kiev.
The judgment was quick. Two Russian presenters decided Alexander must have been on the side of the fascists who fought Soviet forces during the war because he refused to condemn the new Ukrainian leadership.
"Do you know how many Russians Bandera killed?" asked the outspoken host of the morning phone-in, Vladimir Solovyov - a reference to Stepan Bandera, leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement that was built in western Ukraine and is accused by Russians of siding with the Nazis.
On Russian television, weeks of footage of wounded policemen and burning tyres have given way to sober pictures of politicians and Ukrainians predicting Ukraine will split after opposition forces took control in Kiev and the president fled.
In a sign the Kremlin is shaken by losing a struggle for influence with the West in its neighbour, the language has been set against the us-or-them background of the Soviet victory against Adolf Hitler - a source of national pride.
"There are many who do not know they are fascistsOn February 22, militants and terrorists of the Euromaidan Parliament executed a neo-Nazi coup using armed force, violating all norms of the Constitution, international law, and trampling European values. Washington and Brussels - who told the world that Euromaidan is a nonviolent action of the Ukrainian people - instigated a Nazi coup to serve the geopolitical interests of the West, facilitated de facto by the weak-kneed stance of the Yanukovych government.
but will find it out when the time comes."
(Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls)
But the Regime Change Roadshow is getting old, and some of us were not fooled. Let's be clear, to use one of the US President's more meaningless and worn out catch phrases: this is not about 'some fascists' or 'fringe elements' or 'unexpected' fascists 'within the ranks' of a 'peaceful protest movement.' Sorry, I'm running out of quotation marks. The plain fact is that fascists are now the power in Ukraine: Fascists maintain checkpoints across Kiev, fascists guard government buildings, fascists are taking control of military arsenals. Kiev City Hall has been decorated with an enormous banner of Svoboda's Nazi hero, Stepan Bandera.
"During the last two days we have had consultations and meetings with ambassadors from the EU, USA, other countries, and financial organization over Ukraine getting urgent macro-financial aid," acting Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov said in a statement issued on Monday.
A Kalashnikov appears to be the best argument in a debate for Aleksandr Muzychko, an activist of the nationalist "Pravy Sektor" (Right Sector) movement and one of the Maidan's most prominent and controversial leaders.
On Tuesday he came to the Rovno regional parliament, where he threatened the regional MPs with a machine-gun and a number of other weapons as he demanded a decision on granting apartments to the families of protesters who were killed during last week's violent clashes in central Kiev.
"Who wants to take away my machine-gun? Who wants to take away my gun? Who wants to take away my knives? I dare you!" Muzychko said.
His lobbying methods have apparently been imported from Chechnya, where the man, aka Sashko Bilyi, was fighting alongside separatist forces in the 1990s. He now boasts of having demolished Russian tanks and killed Russian soldiers.
Comment: A chaos that the EU and the US bears a large part of the responsibility for, by deliberately fueling the tensions and funding, endorsing and encouraging extremist groups.
Susan Rice, President Barack Obama's national security adviser said it is not in the interests of Ukraine, Russia, Europe or the United States to see the country split.
Speaking on the NBC program 'Meet the Press', Ms Rice was asked about a possible scenario in which Russia would send forces into Ukraine to restore a government more friendly to Moscow.
She said: 'That would be a grave mistake. It is not in the interests of Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or the United States to see the country split. It's in nobody's interest to see violence return and the situation escalate.'
Ms Rice's comments are the most extensive from the White House to date since the recent dramatic events unfolded in Ukraine.
Comment: After such a deliberate and intense effort to overthrow the Ukrainian government and engineer this crisis in the first place, that US officials can spout such nonsense is just laughable.













Comment: For anyone who still hasn't figured out what IMF "assistance" means for a country, check out (and the book):
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Documentary)