Danny Jung's Blog

On Tuesday, Russia’s currency, the Ruble, faced a record low against the US dollar after penalties were made by the US and the European Union for their recent actions on Ukraine. The sanction consisted of blocking Russia’s major companies off from Western financial markets. As a result, Russia’s currency dropped more than 1 percent to 38.30 rubles to the dollar and within two days, lost nearly 2.7% of its value. With this penalty against Russia in action, Russian economist Alexi Kudmin claims that the country may face a recession.

I never thought that Russia’s actions against Ukraine would lead to a situation as serious as this. Because Russia’s basically been cutoff from their essential markets, this limits their opportunities to invest in many companies, which will most likely send them into a recession for the next few years. At this point, I think Russia’s really got a make a move and step up some sort of peace process with Ukraine so that some of the sanctions can be uplifted. Otherwise, this may take a huge toll on their economy later in the future. Already, the Kremlin’s offered to reimburse money that companies have lost. In addition, many investors have withdrawn billions of dollars worth of investments.

source (including picture):

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/russian-ruble-drops-to-lowest-level-on-record-1.2768009

On April 2010, The Deepwater Horizon, drilling rig, owned by BP, had exploded, spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico along with taking the lives of 11 men. After 4 long years of battling this spill, it’s finally been sealed on September 4, 2014. Despite this fix, it still doesn’t change the fact that this is now the worst offshore spill in US history. According to US district judge Carl Barbier: BP’s oil spill was based off a hasty decision to save time and money instead of making sure that the well was secure.

As my mom used to tell me repeatedly, haste makes waste. I thought it was absolutely appalling how such a lack of planning would lead to such a huge catastrophe. The fact that BP was driven by profits rather than ensuring the safety of their workers and the financial stability of their company makes me question whether or not such a company should even operate anymore. I agree with the fact that even after spending billions of dollars in compensation, it’s still not enough to cover the damage done to the environment much less the credibility of the company.

Source of article: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-bp-reckless-gulf-oil-spill-20140904-story.html

Source of picture: http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BP-oil-spill.jpg

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