Russia Finances -- February 8, 2023

I remember readers telling me that sanctions would never work, Russia would sell more oil than ever, and China and India would buy all the oil Russia could produce. 

If gasoline in your neighborhood dropped to 33 cents / gallon, how much would you buy today?

That was the premise from which I was working. Nation-states are not much different than human beings in some respects. 

Russia is probably buying no computer chips or semiconductors. Or much of anything else. A year from now, if not sooner, we're going to be hearing about massive food shortages in Russia.

From Charles Kennedy, so you know it's important, link here:

From the "I hope it was worth it" department,  Reuters,

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For The Archives

There are two things of which I never tire: walking and biking. And I might as throw in public transportation to complete the three-legged stool.

I was reminded of that today, when for the third day in a row, I found myself in downtown Portland, OR. I absolutely love the process of getting here and the process of exploring. I was walking in Gresham, saw the MAX (light rail) and said "why not?" For $2.50, a 24-hour public transportation pass that is valid on all public transportation: light rail; electric buses, and conventional (mostly diesel) buses.

Somewhere else I blog my biography, but will post this note here for the grandchildren and archives.

I've hitch-hiked across the United States three times -- decades ago -- and many, many shorter regional hikes. And much of that hitch hiking -- as all hitch hikers know is walking.

In England, north Yorkshire, on Saturdays I would leave at 0800 and hike the back country until 2000 -- sometimes barely able to get back home, my legs were so tired. I never thought that could happen. 

In Boston, in between work / study in Los Angeles, I would walk all day every day for five or six days exploring Boston. I had "no" money then, so it was more of a challenge than it is today. I was going to school in Los Angeles at the time but had a friend in Boston whom I would visit as often as I could. She worked 12-to-14-hour days but we had a few hours together each evening. I had plenty of time to explore Boston. She told me where not to wander.

Which reminds, when I spent a full summer hiking in Europe, I really had "no" money and my daily rations, many days, were a single beer and a large serving of French fries. After the first 72 hours hiking in Germany, the blisters on my feet were so bad, I had great difficulty putting my boots back on the next morning. After that, I slept with my boots on and gradually the blisters turned into callouses the size of dogs' digital  pads. 

But I digress. 

I'm back in downtown Portland. No rain, slightly cool, and unlike yesterday, the streets are busy with pedestrians and the stores are much more full. I'm back at Starbucks -- I stopped back at Powell Books and bought another book for today's reading, although I will get through very little of it:

Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and The Great Environmental Awakening, Douglas Brinkley, c. 2022. By the numbers:

• 673 pages of text
• 12 pages of acknowledgments
• 18 pages of appendices (three)
• 102 pages of notes
• 13 pages of bibliography
• 4 pages of image credits
• 33 pages of index

The author lives in Austin, Texas. The author's pronouns appear to be he/him but that should, like everything, be fact-checked.

The first chapter of the book is why I bought the book. Chapter 1: The Ebb and Flow of John F. Kennedy. 

Decades later my wife and I spent countless hours on Cape Cod National Seashore, created by President Kennedy. And that's why I bought the book. 

In scope, I see America's "southern surge" issue as big in scope as America's "great environmental awakening." I'm hoping that a "JFK visionary" can work the solution to that challenge.

I hate watching sausage being made, but I love brats. I hate watching politics in action, but I enjoy the history. So, we'll see. 

Later: wow, wow, wow. Never quit reading. On page xxv in the preface, the author writes,
"Strange as it may seem, one of my models for this book was Daniel Yergin's The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, an Power, c. 1991.

The Prize was one of the best books I ever read; not so much due to its good writing and story-telling -- which were both superb -- but in one book I held the history of oil, at least how one writer saw it. It is an incredible book. To some extent, that book may have lost some of its relevancy but as a model for this environmental book -- how incredible is that!