Russia Is Imploding -- Death By A Thousand Cuts -- March 3, 2022

US economy: set to surge (or, more accurately, already surging):

• jobless claims: fewer than expected
• productivity: rises 6.6%; 
• after that report, the US stock market is surging.

UNP: this tells me all I need to know about the US economy. Early this morning I wrote:

UNP: the stock I'm most interested in today? UNP. After that huge run-up yesterday, will it be able to hold off profit-taking? If it remains flat or slightly green, I will be quite impressed.

So, what is UNP doing today? Up aother $8.20/share. up 3.3% and trading at another all-time high. Whoo-hoo!

Russia is imploding: death by a thousand cuts.

• Sabre Corp -- software giant that pretty much sells seats for all airlines -- ends service with Russia's Aeroflot; will cripple the airline's ability to sell seats
  
• sure, Russia is still selling Urals; sure, the tankers are still moving if they can get out of the Black Sea;
• so, sure, Russia oil is moving; at what price?
• even before sanctions, even before the incursion, Russia fails to meet OPEC+; spare capacity myth;
• link  to Charles Kennedy;
• US hits Russian oil refining sector slaps export curbs on Belarus;
• Superyachts owned by oligarchs being seized: France first to seize one
• the West is out to destroy Russia's economy; some think the West will succeed; me? I know it will.
• Russia's economy will die by a thousand cuts
• compared to what the G-7 has in store for Russia, the oil story will merit barely a footnote.
• UK bans Aeroflot. 
• Russian shares on London exchange now collapsing; trading now suspended.
  

Germany: maybe next year. Talk about irony. Won't ban Russian oil and natural gas. Link here.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck said he wouldn’t support an embargo on Russian imports and would “even speak out against it” given his country’s heavy reliance on the supplies.

Mr Habeck, former leader of the Green Party, said Europe urgently needed to reduce its reliance on Moscow for energy supplies as the war in Ukraine threatens to upend the market – a transition backed by the International Energy Agency earlier today.

I can't make this stuff up.