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keep it up and we should be looking at $2 dollar Frdiay soon.
Do you know the carry forward losses on Trenwick Group, I recall that Trenwick Group sold their London carry forward losses of $200 million for about $2 million dollars before the run-off started.
Nice to see the Trainwreck running.
The song is changing as the record slowly flip sides, watch GE the parent of CNBC pull the strings of the talking heads.
The government will create jobs within the United States by
(1) Drilling oil off the coast of Alaska, California, and Florida to increase the Oil reserve.
(2) Expansion of the HV electric transmission grid to support wind, solar, and nuclear power.
(3) Expansion of the Gas pipeline to support the storage and transmission of natural gas.
(4) Development of electric power cars and charging infrastructure.
(5) Construction and expansion of Nuclear power within the United States.
Wish list of an Electrical Engineer....somebody has to build WB dreams
Hold off from drinking d'CNBC kool-aid....the world not coming to an end, it's only a changing of the guard.
The lesson learned this year and next is to be able to break away from living off of credit cards and reducing one's debt.
Nope no yet, but I making some homemade refried beans tonight.
I'm making about 36 bean burrito - need to start freezing some of my assets.
Trying to teach my son how to survive life.
Hold d'Lemming suit and make it a Oak Barrel...
Grab some cardboard for the kids and collect a few dollars
Hold the milk and go with just an Americ'no - (coffee w/o the milk), you will save half the cost and be able to drink twice as much for the same cost as a Latte. (use their FREE milk and make your own Latte)
At Fred Myers you can get a young senior DRIP ( only have to be 50) for only $1.00, then you cab walk around the store eating the FREE food samples.
At Jack-in-Box the wife and I order the Jumbo Jack Combo, I eat the Burger, she eat's the fries, and we share the drink...we been doing this for about 20 years.
My FX-wife bought her $1400 airplane ticket for $60 dollars, and exchange her $3500 traveling money for chilean peso.
Almost like traveling back in time, bought her airplane ticket with 1932 dollars and traveling money with 1996 dollars.
Life is sweet and cash is king.
It's getting hard to hold the faith in our Leaders.
Disney Lemming Movie with the background music Jump!
You may want walk to another cliff and talk to a different lemming...
If the World is looking toward the US for Leadership....it needs to look somewhere else....the man with the biggest stick is never right
Jester Vandalay
Proof that Women do not need Men....
Scientists: Virginia shark's pup a 'virgin birth' By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 10, 2:32 PM ET
RICHMOND, Va. - Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.
The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Neb., zoo.
"This first case was no fluke," Demian Chapman, a shark scientist and lead author of the second study, said in a statement. "It is quite possible that this is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."
The aquarium sharks that reproduced without mates each carried only one pup, while some shark species can produce litters numbering in the dozen or more. The scientists cautioned that the rare asexual births should not be viewed as a possible solution to declining global shark populations.
"It is very unlikely that a small number of female survivors could build their numbers up very quickly by undergoing virgin birth," Chapman said.
The medical mystery began 16 months ago after the death of the Atlantic blacktip shark named Tidbit at the Virginia Beach aquarium. No male blacktip sharks were present during her eight years at the aquarium.
In May 2007, the 5-foot, 94-pound shark died of stress-related complications related to her unknown pregnancy after undergoing a yearly checkup. The 10-inch shark pup was found during a necropsy of Tidbit, surprising aquarium officials. They initially thought the embryonic pup was either a product of a virgin birth or a cross between the blacktip and a male of another shark species — which has never been documented, Chapman said.
Tidbit's pup was nearly full term, and likely would have been quickly eaten by "really big sand tiger sharks" that were in the tank, Chapman said in a telephone interview from Florida.
That is what happened to the tiny hammerhead pup in the Omaha case.
"By the time they could realize what they were looking at, something munched the baby," he said of aquarium workers. The remains of the pup were used for the DNA testing.
Virgin birth has been proven in some bony fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds, and has been suspected among sharks in the wild. The scientists who studied the Virginia and Nebraska sharks said the newly formed pups acquired one set of chromosomes when the mother's chromosomes split during egg development, then united anew.
Absent the chromosomes present in the male sperm, the offspring of an asexual conception have reduced genetic diversity and, the scientists said, may be at a disadvantage for surviving in the wild. A pup, for instance, can be more susceptible to congenital disorders and diseases.
The scientists said their findings offer "intriguing questions" about how frequently automictic parthenogenesis occurs in the wild.
"It is possible that parthenogenesis could become more common in these sharks if population densities become so low that females have trouble finding mates," said Mahmood Shivji, one of the scientists and director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
The DNA fingerprinting techniques used by the scientists are identical to those used in human paternity testing.
Chapman, who is with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook, was assisted in the study by Beth Firchau of the Virginia Aquarium.
Chapman and Shivji were on the team that made the first discovery of virgin birth involving the Nebraska shark.
Credit Default Swaps: A blind date goes wild
Posted October 10, 2008
We have all heard about credit default swaps and their responsibility in the current market crisis. But what are these mysterious banking creations? In this piece, I take a different approach to explain them.
By Andrew Snyder
Baltimore – (TFN): Major economic downturns are caused by a combination of many factors, but every recession in the nation’s history can be associated to one deadly flaw, greed.
Throughout this country’s history, greed has tempted investors to take on huge piles of leverage. Eventually, the levels of debt grow to such huge proportions, the system that created it comes crashing down under its own weight.
It was massive amounts of investing on margin that kicked off the Great Depression. It was the sudden impact of massive deregulation that allowed banks to lend huge amounts of cash to just about anyone that caused the savings and loan collapse.
Now, it is the deleveraging of the credit default swap (CDS) industry that has the entire planet wondering where all its money went. Tens of trillions of dollars have been wiped from investor bank accounts.
Where there is a will, there is a way
During each of the nation’s major financial crises, we learned our mistakes, governments created new laws, and the markets moved on. The lessons learned and the rules implemented have kept us from making the same mistakes over and over, but they have not prevented us from going around the rules and creating new types of excessive leverage.
This is exactly what has happened in the CDS industry. These so-called insurance policies became so popular and so profitable for banks, hedge funds, and other debt-industry investors they could not get their hands on enough of them.
Unfortunately, many investors have a tough time grasping the default swap concept. They are unique investments that can become quite complicated. I will do my best to explain them and show how they got us to where we are today.
A CDS is a bit like a blind date. At first, they sound like a fantastic idea. But we all know differently.
Your buddy’s wife calls you up and says, “I got this fantastic girl I want you to meet. If you don’t like her, I’ll pay for your dinner and you can go home.”
What’s the worst that could happen? You get a free dinner, right?
You wish.
When the big date comes around you get another phone call from your so-called friend, “Sorry bud, we can’t make it to dinner with you and your date tonight. But we are going to send our other friends along.”
That’s not what you agreed to. But it is too late to back out.
Next thing you know, you are at a cheesy Japanese restaurant with some guy in a goofy hat throwing shrimp in your mouth. Your date is a cross-eyed parolee that has been eyeing your wallet all night. And your buddy’s friends skipped out before the first round of drinks arrived.
Credit default swaps are a tad more technical but they offer a pretty similar risk/reward ratio.
A CDS is nothing more than an insurance policy on debt. If the person owing the debt fails to pay it back, the insurance kicks in and the policy seller pays you what is owed. All that you have to do to get the coverage is pay regular premium payments, just like nearly every other type of insurance.
A betting man’s insurance
For example, let’s say you bought a General Electric (NYSE:GE) bond. Its face value is $1,000 and it promises to pay 5% annually. You are not so sure the company will be able to pay you the money when it comes due, so you call up Lehman Brothers to buy insurance on the bond.
Lehman Brothers checks GE’s credit rating and default history and tells you it will insure the debt for a two percent premium. You lose a few percentage points on your annual yield but have a guaranteed payout. Lehman Brothers gets a nice stream of cash flow and has little default risk.
You purchased a CDS and effectively “swapped” the risk to Lehman Brothers.
Basically, both sides of the party just agreed to go on a blind date thinking they were being set up with the blonde cheerleader captain they remember from high school.
We all know blonde cheerleaders never need to be set up on blind dates.
The problem continues to get worse. As a bond holder, you can sell your bond at anytime. You can also sell your default insurance at anytime.
The insurance issuer can also sell the policy and its associated cash flows anytime it wants. This would be the equivalent of your friend exchanging your blind date during the middle of dinner.
The CDS market was entirely deregulated in 2000 (under the watchful eye of Slick Willy, mind you), so just about anything goes.
Let’s go back to our GE example. Imagine your thoughts of GE’s default woes go away and you no longer want to pay premiums on an insurance policy you will not need. You sell the insurance policy to a friend but kept the GE bond.
If the bond goes into default, you do not get the payout, your friend does. But he has to figure out who is now the insurer. After all, Lehman Brothers has the right to sell the policy as well. It could have sold the note and the associated cash flows the minute you signed the contract.
Who knows who owns the contract now? It could have changed hands over a dozen times. (The average CDS is sold over ten times.)
Imagine walking into a restaurant filled with women. One of them is your blind date. When you ask which one is Amy, if you are good-looking they will all raise their hands. If you are not-so-hot, you won’t see a single hand go up (ask me how I know).
It is the same in the CDS market right now. Nobody wants to claim ownership or fair values on their books. It is because the banks are all over-leveraged and cannot afford to pay as company after company defaults on their debt.
We need more regulation?
The lack of regulation in the market gets worse, though. Any bank, hedge fund, or other investor can create these insurance policies. Over the past two decades, they were extremely lucrative sources of premiums and cash flows. As long as the economy was soaring and defaults were low, everybody wanted in the market.
In other words, as long as curvy good-looking women were going on blind dates, every guy wanted to go. Unfortunately, we all know there are a lot of fish in the sea and not all of them are model material.
Back in the CDS world, it is the same deal. During the peak of the CDS industry in 2007, over $45 trillion worth of swaps were on the market. It is a ludicrously huge number that is nearly three times the value of the entire American equities market.
Suddenly, companies started to default and insurers suddenly had to pay on their debts. It drained them of huge amounts of cash. A company like GE could have $100 million of debt on its books, but banks were selling tens of billions of dollars worth of insurance on it. After all, the more they sold, the larger the bottom line.
Who knew the economy would slow, companies would default, and insurers would be forced to cough up billions of dollars they do not have? Don’t answer that.
The CDS market created incredible financial leverage. It was a great tool when the economy was trending upward, but now that growth has slowed and so-called insurers are forced to make good on their multi-trillion promises, swaps are not nearly as dreamy as they once appeared.
It is as if the market tried to go on too many blind dates at once. Eventually, the CDS market got caught and now all of its potential suitors are slapping it with their purses.
A serious matter
Obviously, credit default swaps are much more complicated then I make them out to be, with issues like transparency, pricing, liquidity, and regulation all playing a monumental role in their demise. History will show they were just one more mistake caused by greed and overleveraging.
Later today, the last of Lehman Brother’s credit default swaps will be auctioned off to the market. They will be sold for a fraction of their previous values.
Instead of a blind date, it will be a public date auction. The market will be able to see what it is getting before it opens its checkbook.
The CDS market has learned its lesson. Trading practices are being questioned. Valuations are created differently. And regulators have finally realized how deadly these huge leveraging creations can be to the free market.
It may have been a multi-trillion dollar date gone bad, but we learned our lesson and must move on. Once all this blows over, the equities market will be a safer place for your money than it was a year ago.
Link - http://www.todaysfinancialnews.com/investment-strategies/credit-default-swaps-a-blind-date-goes-wild-4718.html
Trading between themselves to create a market.
We may end-up with a greater respect for the rest of the human race....
Fellow Trainwreck Survivor - hope all is well, someday we will all be walking the white sands of Bermunda.
Hobo Code
As inscribed in the Annual Convention Congress of the Hoboes of America held on August 8, 1894 at the Hotel Alden, 917 Market St., Chicago Illinois;
1.-Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule you.
2.-When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.
3.-Don't take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.
4.-Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but insure employment should you return to that town again.
5.-When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.
6.-Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals treatment of other hobos.
7.-When jungling in town, respect handouts, do not wear them out, another hobo will be coming along who will need them as bad, if not worse than you.
8.-Always respect nature, do not leave garbage where you are jungling.
9.-If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help.
10.-Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible.
11.-When traveling, ride your train respectfully, take no personal chances, cause no problems with the operating crew or host railroad, act like an extra crew member.
12.-Do not cause problems in a train yard, Another hobo will be coming along who will need passage thru that yard.
13.-Do not allow other hobos to molest children, expose to authorities all molesters, they are the worst garbage to infest any society.
14.-Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.
15.-Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed, you may need their help someday.
16.-If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it, whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!
I could go for a Queen for the next 100 years and remove all MEN from political office for the next 400 years.
If the US goes BK in 17 days - we can call off the Presidential Election...
I'm crossing the river to Mexico with d'cAt.
Good-luck and keep the family safe.
I'm hold'n out for DOW @ 4400....
I'm hold'n out for DOW @ 4400....
Tired of wearing the same shredded, dirty underwear day after day? Now you don't have to with the Underwear Repair Kit!
This handy, inexpensive kit provides you with the two essentials every man needs to get their unsightly under shorts back into presentable shape:
* DUCT TAPE
(the universal fix-all)
and
* A BOTTLE OF
WHITE-OUT
Now you can save not only your drawers, but also your dignity.
The Underwear Repair Kit fits neatly in your dresser drawer or your car's glove compartment (for those last-minute, emergency date situations).
Save the cash, and buy a few rounds of Beers, Fish and Chips at the next pub stop-over...
Euro may be going the way of the DODO bird by not supporting it's Member Nations,
Prepare for a wave of global dollar buying....
I'm getting to old to trust the O'rooster, maybe it's time to replace him.
A farmer goes out one day and buys a brand new stud rooster for his chicken coop.
The new rooster struts over to the old rooster and says, "OK, old fart, time for you to retire."
The old rooster replies, "Come on, surely you cannot handle ALL of these chickens. Look what it has done to me. Can't you just let me have the two old hens over in the corner?"
The young rooster says, "Beat it! You are washed up and I am taking over."
The old rooster says, "I tell you what, young stud. I will race you around the farmhouse. Whoever wins gets the exclusive domain over the entire chicken coop."
The young rooster laughs, "You know you don't stand a chance old man, so just to be fair I will give you a head start."
The old rooster takes off running. About 15 seconds later the young rooster takes off running after him. They round the front porch of the farmhouse and the young rooster has closed the gap. He is already about 5 inches behind the old rooster and gaining fast.
The farmer, meanwhile, is sitting in his usual spot of the front porch when he sees the roosters running by. He grabs up his shotgun and BOOM!, he blows the young rooster to bits. The farmer sadly shakes his head and says, "Damn it... third gay rooster I bought this month. "
Age, experience and treachery will always overcome youth and ambition. -- author unknown
I'm pulling together my Fed's bailout team to manage the taxpayers money.
Bottom is when the Federal reserve owns all the asset in the World....printing dollars 24/7...time to go long green paint, and cotton.
Bank of America settles lawsuit over bad mortgages
Monday October 6, 12:10 am ET
By Christopher Wills, Associated Press Writer
Bank of America agrees to modify loans in 11 states to help keep people in their homes
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Facing a lawsuit over deceptive mortgage practices, Bank of America Corp. has agreed to modify tens of thousands of loans to keep people in 11 states from losing their homes, the Illinois attorney general's office said Sunday.
Borrowers stuck with mortgages they can't afford could see their interest rates reduced or have the loan principal cut. Some might qualify for having to pay nothing but interest for a decade. Even people who can't afford to keep their homes with such changes will be able to get help moving to a new home.
"This is going to provide a tremendous amount of relief," said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
Her office and officials from California negotiated the settlement. Nine other states have also joined the settlement, and other states could sign on, said Deborah Hagan, chief of Madigan's Consumer Protection Division.
If all 50 states were to join, the settlement could provide $8.7 billion in relief to 400,000 borrowers, Hagan said.
In California alone, the settlement will offer $3.5 billion in relief. For Illinois, that would translate to $190 million. The total for the 11 states was not immediately available.
The settlement applies to people who obtained their mortgages through Countrywide Financial Corp., which Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America purchased in June, at the same time Illinois and California sued the company.
"Countrywide's lending practices turned the American dream into a nightmare for tens of thousands of families by putting them into loans they couldn't understand and ultimately couldn't afford," California Attorney General Jerry Brown Jr. said in a statement Sunday.
The other states joining the settlement are Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington.
Bank of America will launch the new mortgage aid program in December, said Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America's mortgage, home equity and insurance services. In a statement, she called it "a comprehensive program that provides more solutions than ever before to assist trouble borrowers and put them back on the path to sustained home ownership."
The mortgage aid includes revising customers' payments so they don't exceed 34 percent of income. Other options include reducing interest rates and adjusting principal so that borrowers don't wind up actually losing equity under some payment plans.
Countrywide will not charge loan modification fees and will waive prepayment penalties.
Madigan said she hopes the settlement could serve as a model for steps that other lenders could take to make up for misleading mortgage practices. She stressed that the agreement involves no tax money but will help people keep their homes and keep money flowing to lenders
"This settlement will help homeowners stay in their homes, which ultimately helps investors and also helps communities," said Madigan, a Chicago Democrat.
Worthless, I enjoy the oneness and profit of our current U.S based money system.
LoL - from the sidelines
IHobo@gmail.com sounds better, ride the rail trading Forex.....I can see the cAt telling all the girls that he's a World traveler in the 4-sex business.
Fed trying to reinflate the asset bubble....dump @$%&'s forgot that people that have deflating assets don't spend money...and if the money wheel stops then the tax money stops flowing.
Farmer and the Democrats
A farmer was out working in his field one day when a carload of democrats came flying by.
They were going too fast for the curve and turned over in the ditch.
Later the sheriff stopped by and asked the farmer if he has seen the car.
"Yep" replied the farmer.
"Where are they?" asked the sheriff.
"Over there," replied the farmer pointing to the ditch filled with fresh dirt.
"You buried them?" asked the sherrif, "Were they still alive?"
The farmer replied, "They said they were, but you know how those people lie."
If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000.
With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.
If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left.
If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left.
But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for recycling, you would have $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle." "This is called the 401-Keg Plan."
I'm not sure making Paulson Ruler of the Currency Reserve Universe is a smart idea....time for Ben to start dropping pallets of $1000 dollar bills.
Cup of milk - $10.00
Two non-chinese Oreo cookies - $2.25
Time to grab a gun and start marching to Washington.
All I want is for somebody to show me the money and I will sell them my share....
As the Family CFO, somebody has to pay for this Taxpayer's Golden parachute....
...the rules of Wall Street should be same on Main Street, if this TAXPAYER is going to be the backstop to their losses.
As the RESERVE CURRENCY of the WORLD, the Global ATM of worthless US dollars, and the backstop of all future CREDIT DEFAULTS....this US taxpayer cannot wait for filing of my 2008 tax returns.
I would like to offset my 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 FEDERAL TAXES against my Family 2008 $18,000 mark to market losses.
Since I no longer TRUST this Government, will I be able to resubmit my FEDERAL TAXES for 2005, 2006, 2007, for the 2008 $18,000 mark to market Family losses?
Russian bombers arrive in Venezuela for joint maneuvers
Officials in Moscow deny any link between the conflict in Georgia and the Caribbean exercises.
By Liam Stack
posted September 11, 2008 at 11:35 am EDT
Russian long-range bombers arrived in Venezuela today for exercises in the Caribbean. The deployment marks the first time that Russian bombers have been sent to the Western hemisphere since the end of the cold war and escalates the already tense relationship between Washington and Moscow.
This comes on the heels of Venezuela's announcement Sunday that that four Russian naval vessels will participate in joint exercises in the Caribbean later this year, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Venezuela's naval intelligence chief, Adm. Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas, said in a statement that a task force including four Russian naval vessels and 1,000 Russian military personnel would take part in mid-November exercises with Venezuelan frigates, patrol boats, submarines and aircraft.
Agence France-Presse reports that the larger exercises scheduled for November will involve Russian planes, nuclear submarines, and warships. But the bombers that arrived Thursday are not be armed with nuclear weapons.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a longtime antagonist of the United States whose country is also a key oil provider, has supported the Russian stance in Georgia, reports the Associated Press. In a televised speech, he called the US an "empire" and pledged that "every day, relations between Venezuela and Russia will continue to deepen."
Chavez called the deployment part of a move toward a "pluri-polar world" — a reference to moving away from U.S. dominance. "The Yankee hegemony is finished," Chavez said in a televised speech....
Chavez said Wednesday that Venezuela is looking to buy Russian submarines and is working with Russia to set up an air-defense system including long-range radar and "rockets ready to defend the country."
He also announced the country will soon buy 24 Chinese-made K-8 flight training and light attack aircraft.
The socialist leader, who survived a failed 2002 coup he blames on Washington, repeated his accusations of U.S.-backed attempts to kill him or topple him, saying U.S. forces are "looking for active soldiers, looking for pilots to bomb Miraflores," the presidential palace.
The U.S. Embassy denied it.
CNN reports that Russia has denied any link between the conflict in Georgia and the Caribbean joint military exercises. Speaking to Agence France-Press, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko repeated that stance.
He said the exercise had been planned for some time and was "not in any way connected to the current situation in the Caucasus," where Russian forces last month fought a brief war with US-ally Georgia.
"It is not aimed at any third country," he said.
But some see it as part of an escalating military tit for tat playing out in the Black Sea and the Caribbean, reports the Associated Press.
Alexander Konovalov, head of the Moscow-based Institute for Strategic Assessment, said the deployment would lead to further deterioration in U.S.-Russia relations.
"It's a demonstration of Russia's ability to do things nasty: You send warships to the Black Sea and we send bombers next to your door," Konovalov said. "It will have a negative impact on global stability."
The Caribbean exercise comes hot on the heels of a regular NATO joint naval exercise in the Black Sea. Ships from the United States, Spain, Germany, and Poland left the region Wednesday after an 18-day deployment, reports the Associated Press.
The New York Times reported that such NATO exercises have long caused unease in Russia and that "after the war in Georgia, the Kremlin has expressed increasing frustration over the presence of NATO and American ships in the Black Sea."
Russia has also criticized the US for using military ships to deliver aid and humanitarian relief to Georgia, reports Al Jazeera International.
Russia has criticised the US for sending a command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia on its southern border.
The US has said the vessels' mission was to deliver aid and show support for Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president.
Following the recent hurricanes in the area, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, asked on Saturday how the US would feel "if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean ... using our navy?"
Russia will send its largest and most powerful vessels to the Caribbean for the exercises, including the nuclear battleship "Peter the Great" and the destroyed "Admiral Chabanenko," reports Reuters. Speaking to reporters in Moscow ahead of the maneuvers, Russian Adm. Eduard Baltin left no doubt as to why his country was engaging in such attention-grabbing exercises.
"Russia is returning to the stage in its power and international relations which it, regrettably, lost at the end of last century".
"No one loves the weak," Baltin was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.