2022/03/11 (018) Column

Brother War 2.0 – A National Socialist Dejavu!?
How Can We Help Ukrainians? Like MAGA & Not Warlords!
Meanwhile The USD Index Edged Higher To Around 98.30 On Monday,
While The 10Y US Bond Yield Crosses 2.3% – The Highest Since May 2019.


Brother War 2.0

Both of my parents were Franciscan Catholics. My father had 5 brothers and one sister. Two of his brothers have married Serbian Orthodox women and one of them is even my favorite aunt of them all. I know and get along well with both Jews and Christians from Serbia. Let alone with Jews and Christians, from my fatherland Croatia. Rather than with numerous Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina – as well as Jews and or Christians. Politically, many feel comfortable on the left. Most, however, on the religious right. But what unites us all now is the fact that the Balkan wars just weren’t worth it back then! 30 lost years! And now a stunningly similar political drama, in Ukraine! Admittedly not one-to-one comparable – no problem! But for what?

I also know numerous Jews and Christians from both Russia and Ukraine.
And again many are dreaming the political dream of a Red Star that should hold both sides together, on the one hand. While most of them, admittedly probably also because they are also mainly concerned with religion, politics and economics, perceive themselves politically as religiously conservative on the right. And again we are united by the thought that we all don’t want that after all. That we want to live together in a very healthy, peaceful, self-confident and free, civilized way! That we would like to fight against each others in the jerseys of our fatherland, of our homeland, of our chosen country of choice, on the sports field, vicariously! And then Russia’s attack on Ukraine under the rule of Putin – and his power apparatus!

I never excepted that! Honestly, i couldn’t have imagined that…
Thought it was a duck until the end, because Putin himself is also, for example, a black belt in judo.
Judo is the art of the warrior, encompassing all of the Japanese martial arts. They combine ethics, religion and philosophy. The connection between martial arts and sport is a classic from the East – and in our so-called West, most only smile at it wearily. Be that as it may, ancient writings refer to a specific form of mental training. How do I behave correctly? All martial arts have in common a mental attitude that comes from Zen Buddhism. Their goal is the perfect harmony between mind and body – software and hardware, if you will. Hence the “Do” in the name of most Asian martial arts. Do can be translated as “path”, but also as “principle” or “the way it needs to go”. Furthermore, the syllable “Ju” is expressed in Judo. “Ju” means something like “gentle”, “yielding” or “evasive”. That`s why, judo is often referred to as “the gentle way” and the principle of judo as “victory by giving in”.

But what just happened in the Ukraine has nothing to do with giving in! Or?
I dont know! Which is why I actually had to ask God. But he certainly doesn’t occur to me, of all people, why he should send me a signal why the Ukrainian people have to pay such an high price – life, material prosperity, freedom! That`s why I who is interested in the financial market, also have to – want to – deal with the topic of the Ukraine war. And I just have more questions:
What was the trigger for political Russia to no longer want to negotiate with Ukraine?
How does Putin (and his Russian power apparatus) come to bomb Ukraine into rubble and ashes?
Why don’t we (NATO, the so-called West) get civilized Russians and Ukrainians at the negotiating table?
And what does the political class in Ukraine actually want? NATO membership? EU accession? Did the West promise that? Or was it just fooled in retrospect?

You will surely notice while reading that I too have come to my intellectual and creative limits!
That`s why I want to focus all week on the price of oil as a 4XSetUp Technical Analysis. Because regardless of the inflation that had already built up beforehand, should the war chaos continue, nad or the oil price should more or less remain above USD 100?! Unfortunately…

US Stocks Snap 4-Day Winning Streak
Wall Street closed lower on Monday, snapping a four-day winning streak after Fed Powell hinted at faster rate hikes if needed to tame inflation. Also, Ukraine has rejected an ultimatum to surrender the city of Mariupol, and Ukraine’s President warned that if peace talks with its Russian counterpart fail, it could start a third global war. Falls were most pronounced in high-growth tech-related stocks amid rising Treasury yields. On the flip side, energy stocks outperformed the broader market amid higher oil prices as the EU is weighting joining the US in a Russian oil embargo. On the corporate side, Boeing shares dropped after a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 passenger plane crashed. On the other hand, Alleghany Corp rose after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said it agreed to buy the company. The Dow Jones dropped 202 points to 34,553; the S&P 500 edged down marginally to 4,461, and the Nasdaq went down 0.4% to 13,838.Dollar Regains Some Momentum
The dollar index edged higher to around 98.30 Monday, as investors continued to monitor the outlook for monetary policy and developments surrounding the war in Ukraine. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in prepared remarks for the National Association for Business Economics that the central bank remains committed to tame higher inflation, which is currently running at 40 years highs. Powell also noted that the US central bank could move more aggressively by raising the interest rates by more than 25 basis points at a meeting or meetings if necessary. The Federal Reserve has already kickstarted its monetary tightening, hiking interest rates by 25bps and signalling six more rate hikes this year..