Dinar

You are being melodramatic and choose to ignore history, Russia does not have the troops to subjugate Ukraine, particularly in light of probable guerrilla movement. There is no way in hell that any Russian leader will give up Crimea (look up the history of the place - it was never part of Crimea until it was gifted by Khruschev, himself a Ukrainian, in 1954), and if that prevents an armistice, then I am very sorry for Ukrainians, since the war will continue and Western support will dry up.

Not everyone in Congress received bags of cash the way Biden did via Burisma. Calling people you disagree wackos is not a way to convince people that you are right. Have you polled Congress? Henry Kissinger is a wacko too? I think that you are drastically mistaken regarding the support Ukraine has among the American public and Congress. How about this slogan? Instead of giving $45bn for Ukraine cut personal income taxes by 3%. I bet that would pass by a big margin in a nationwide referendum. Divisions do not determine much - look at Germans in WWII, USSR vs Finland, US vs Iraq, US vs North Vietnam, US vs China/North Korea in the Korean War or every Arab-Israeli War. Who cares what Russia did 150 years ago? Mongols conquered half the world in 1200s and is anyone afraid of them now? Alexander the Great did quite a bit who is afraid of Macedonia now? I am just quaking in my boots at the fear of Italian invasion, after all Romans waged wars of aggression for 1000 years! Are you busy learning Italian? Russia is a paper tiger. China wants to avenge past wrongs - loss of Siberia to Russia, Taiwan, et all. Listen and read what President Xi and company say. Look at them muscling India. In any case, in my opinion, the best outcome here for everyone involved is a peace treaty or a truce. In a continued war, nobody wins, and Russia where a number of village have neither electricity nor gas can suffer way more than we in the US or Europe will agree to. Look at all of the "accidents" that keep happening to the US electricity grid and substations. We are very vulnerable.

@ValueArb, a) Russia is NOT USSR, it has a fraction of military might population b) It is not up to Biden, Congress has to go along. c) Western Europe is NOT US d) Russia is not a treat to the US, China is

@John Hjorth, John, I would not be so pessimistic. While the situation in Ukraine is awful, and unclear when it will end and how, I would be shocked if there is any long term impact on the Baltics, let alone Denmark/Sweden/Finland, besides possibly higher energy prices as these countries diversify from Russia. I cannot imagine after the bloody nose that Russia has received in Ukraine, that it would attack any of those countries. In addition, given that all of them are either Nato members or about to become Nato members I would not be worried. I hope that you had a merry Christmas, and I wish you and your family, a healthy, happy, prosperous and peaceful 2023!

Usually yes, brokers get a % rather than a fixed commission.

@Spekulatius, forget Tucker. The more important issue is that the support for Ukraine will drastically erode over time as the cost born by the West keeps growing over time while the people get worse off.

I was in Vilnius and Kaunas 35 years ago, what an amazing place, and a culture shock for a someone coming from the Soviet Union. It was more European than Soviet.

I was in Alsace and Freiburg in fall of 2014, I wish I knew...

Where can you buy this champagne in North America? You are in Alsace? I looked up the cheese monger, he is in Alsace, no?

PM is actually having volume growth as smokers are switching to IQOS. Yes, I agree re SWMA (PM bought it from me), but PM owns it now.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-is-rushing-arms-to-ukraine-but-running-out-of-ammo-11671707775?mod=hp_lead_pos6 Western European and somewhat US incompetence is stunning

Yeah, and if we just give Ukraine a trillion dollars, then the Germans who can't be bothered to live up to NATO commitments for the past thirty years and Ukrainian government that steals everything will send troops without weapons and ammunitions to help the US.

Finland fought the USSR to a draw, while Ukraine with 10x the population would have already collapsed without Western aid. Go cheer for Ukrainian corruption.

USSR lost at least 20M people in World War II, and USSR was much bigger with more resources than Russia. No way can Russia afford this kind of a victory. USSR was several times bigger than Germany, and Germany was fighting US & UK as well. Western Europe has 3-4x more population than Russia today. Oh, and Putin is not Hitler. As for what Europeans can or cannot afford, go to a German or UK pub and tell people that each one should suffer $5K in more expenses per annum via higher fuel & food costs as well as higher taxes to support Ukraine and see whether you can come out of there alive. Talk is cheap, telling other people that they should sacrifice their prosperity for the sake of foreigners is easy when you do not have to do it. Go and sell all of your possessions, turn off heat in your home and give all the money to Ukrainians before telling the people in Europe to sacrifice anything. Nobody owes Ukraine anything.

You are being melodramatic. Hitler was an existential threat to Europe, Putin is not. Putin has shown that Russian army is incapable of winning a war, it is not Wehrmacht and Shoigu is no Rommel/Erich Von Manstein. You are also conveniently forgetting the tens of billions of dollars that Ukraine has received and continues to ask for. When your people are freezing, they may not understand giving tens of billions to Ukrainians. The moment Western money ends, the war is over.

Yes, but won't materially higher oil prices kill Europe's economy and hence end support for Ukraine? Similarly in the US it would be hard to send $30-50bn a year when people are struggling to afford gas and food?

Yes, but what about Venezuela? Can its production recover? Could it go back from 400K barrels a day to 2MM?

It is not in the management's interest to do a tender offer or to give people an option to redeem via ETF.

Incredible how fast this was built

SD, with all due respect, inflation is another tax on savers/investors/home owners, so it confiscates the wealth of people. I have nothing against business paying good or above market wages, but I remember how in college economics professors praised inflation since wages are sticky on the downside and inflation allows for wage cuts without actually cutting wages.

Bought CNQ & GHC

Ok, when you compare Putin to Hitler, I know that further discussion is not productive. Sandro from Chegem (Fazil Iskander) would laugh at you and your assertions regarding Abkhazia and Transnistria.

@dealraker, Charlie, thank you for the post. Would you be able to share what you think are good business to own? (forget about current valuations, as you know they fluctuate) I am just trying to add to my database of businesses to follow and buy if the occasion presents itself. Thank you.

Actually, no. Neither Putin nor any other Russian leader will be able to sell leaving Crimea. You are conveniently ignoring history. Crimea was part of Russia for two centuries before it was transferred to Ukraine in 1954 by Khruschev (Ukrainian) to celebrate 300 year anniversary of Russia - Ukraine unification. Also, eastern Ukraine and Western Ukraine are very different. Eastern Ukraine is very much like Russia while Western Ukraine, a huge chunk of which like Lviv (Lemberg) was Austrian until 1917, is more nationalistic and closer to Poland and Austria. Even in Soviet times, everyone spoke Ukrainian and did not want to speak Russian in Western Ukraine (Lviv, et all) while speaking Russian and not Ukrainian in the eastern part. The key to ending the war (assuming Putin is rational and just miscalculated) is to find a way for him to save face, so he can declare victory and leave Ukraine. As for Russia not respecting treaties and only respecting power and force, yes you are right. Sadly, however this is not limited to Russia. Germany, US, China, Japan and the list goes on.