Monday, March 3, 2014

SUNDAY 3/2/14; China HSBC PMI; Ukraine Unrest

The Russian parliament approves use of military force. The Ukraine crisis escalates but the West, especially Americans, are war weary and uninterested in beginning another military conflict. Putin understands this attitude and ignores President Obama’s timid threats. Russia is in control of the Crimean peninsula. Ukraine places armed forces on combat alert and warns of war but the Ukraine troops are ill prepared to fight the Russian military. Ukraine is requesting help from the West to defend their sovereignty. Putin has the upper hand and will decide how far the incident escalates. EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels tomorrow to discuss the turmoil. NATO is meeting today....



[Text is Redacted: Purchase March 2014-03 to Read the Complete Chronology]



A coordinated knife attack occurs at a Chinese railway station resulting in 33 dead and over 100 wounded. China calls the assailants terrorists. Unrest from the Xinjiang area of China is starting to spread across the country. North Korea fires two short-range missiles at 5 AM Hong Kong. North Korea typically performs these actions to piggy-back on other world trouble and uses it to leverage aid. The 10-year Treasury yield briefly drops under 2.60%.

NATO calls for a Russian withdrawal from Crimea. Secretary of State Kerry flies to Kiev. Russia has 6K troops in Crimea and is in full control of the peninsula. Ukraine military bases are surrounded. The military action takes a tactical pause but further escalation is expected. A peaceful solution remains possible since Russia has not fired any bullets. Merkel speaks with Putin condemning the action in Ukraine and draws one concession from Putin to permit human rights observers to enter into Crimea and Ukraine to determine if Russian citizens are being discriminated against. Russia’s basis for invading Crimea is to protect the Russian-speaking citizens.

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