“You pay them, you own them.”

from the New York Times:

This is what it boils down to: Britain is ready to betray the United States to protect the City of London’s hold on dirty Russian money. And forget about Ukraine.

Britain thinks of itself as a trading nation, open for business, but it no longer has a “mission.” Any moralizing remnant of the British Empire is gone; it has turned back to the pirate England of Sir Walter Raleigh.

Britain’s ruling class has decayed not just to the point where Mr. Cameron is considered a man of exceptional talent, but to where its first priority is protecting its percentage on Russian money — even as Russian armored personnel carriers rumble around the streets of Sevastopol. But the establishment understands that in the 21st century what matters are banks, not tanks.

Markets and economics have always been one of the driving forces behind geopolitics, they stand shoulder to shoulder with religion as primary causes of just about everything in this world.

I’m glad Wall Street’s just addicted to plain ol’ American money right now.

Source:

London’s Laundry Business (NYT)