Ways we can help the Ukrainians:
+ Send money to World Central Kitchen (WCK).
When the refugees started, WCK started distributing hot meals at a border crossing in Poland as families arrived. Now, they’re delivering meals to hundreds of locations in Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and even in Ukraine with the help of dozens of partner restaurants. They told me they’re preparing for this to be one of their largest relief efforts to date. I’ve sent money. For WCK, click here.
+ Send money to International Rescue Committee The IRC is on the ground in Poland supporting displaced children and families with vital supplies. I’ve given them money also. Click here.
+ Book yourself an Airbnb in Ukraine. You won’t use it but it’s a good way of getting money in. On March 2 and March 3, guests from around the world booked more than 61,000 nights in Ukraine, according to an Airbnb spokesperson. More than half of those nights were booked by Americans. For the story, click here.
+ Email and call your congresspeople to support The Banning Russian Energy Imports Act, which would prohibit the purchase by the U.S. of Russian crude oil, petroleum, liquified natural gas, and coal. By continuing to buy their petroleum products we are helping them finance their Ukrainian war.
+ Email and call your congresspeople to speed humanitarian aid and military armaments to Ukraine. This week important bills are in Congress. They need a push.
+ Tell your employer company to cut ties with Russia, as many have already done, including Apple, BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Volkswagen, Netflix, MasterCard, Visa, Airbnb, Dell, Spotify, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Boeing, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi.
+ Reduce your own energy consumption. Turn down your thermostat. This is important. If we cut off Russian oil imports, prices at the pump will go up. More inflation will prompt the Fed to raise interest rates rapidly, and could plunge the American economy into a recession. Although the link between energy prices and the economic cycle is far from one-to-one, the recessions of the early nineteen-eighties, 1990, 2001, and 2008 were all preceded by a spike in the price of oil and higher interest rates.
+ Call your friends in Russia. Tell them what’s really happening. Many of them believe it’s a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine, that only military installations are being targeted and civilians are safe. Many family members in Russia refuse to believe that Russian soldiers could bomb or shoot innocent people, or even that a war is taking place. That’s what their state media is telling them. There’s no other media left. The Kremlin has tightened freedom of speech laws, shut down what remained of Russia’s free press. And many journalists, fearing long prison sentences of 15+ years, have fled Russia.
+ Do whatever you can to get yourself and your family off oil long-term – with solar, wind, geothermal energy, etc. Oil is used by many bad countries to finance their bad ways – think Saudi, Iran, Venezuela and Russia, etc.
+ Open your house to Ukrainians when they arrive, as they will, soon.
+ Don’t buy any Russian products. Not that there are many to buy. Most “Russian” booze is actually made here.
+ Beg your friends and relatives in Europe to pressure their governments to send food, medicine and military aid to Ukraine. As fast as possible.
It’s been a difficult weekend for me. I look at pictures of the one and a half million refugees, mostly women and children. Many of them will never again see the people they left behind. Fathers. Brothers. Uncles. Grandfathers. Grandmothers. Just as I never saw many members of my father’s family when he ran away in the late-1930s from what is now southern Ukraine. He ran from Nazis because he was Jewish. And he ran from the Russians because he was a capitalist. One of them was going to get him.
On March 1, 2022, the Mayor of Chernivsti (my father’s birthplace) offered a cash reward of $300 for every Russian tank or armored personnel carrier destroyed by citizens should Russian forces attack Chernivsti.[25]
He also called on the residents of Chernivsti to organize themselves in order to prepare a defense of the city from Russian invaders.[26]
Where will the market go from here?
Down is the most obvious answer — at least until we get some good news out of Ukraine.
The New York Times tried to make sense of where stockmarkets might go from now.
The piece began:
And the New York Times piece ended:
Given this fairly bleak outlook, I asked what ordinary people ought to do, in the current crisis and in thinking about the future.
He was reluctant to give advice or make any predictions. “I’ve learned not to make predictions,” he said. “Can’t do it. Who knows?”
But he agreed that based on the historical data, for the long run the stock market is “probably” a good bet. He stressed, though, it was absolutely not a sure thing.
Hold whatever money you need to survive in some other asset, he said, probably in Treasuries. Then, if you can stand the stress and the risk, invest in stocks. “If you can’t handle it, you shouldn’t do it,” he said.
After a lifetime of study, he’s concluded that the markets do provide answers. But they may not be what you want to hear.
For the full piece, click here.
My advice: Make sure you have enough cash for two years.
For some light relief
When I was young and stupid, I visited several war zones. I greatly admire the courage of the reporters in Ukraine bringing us the remarkable footage from the area. Some of the reporters I was with 56 years never survived war zones. They were shot by nasty regimes.
I wish I were younger I’d be in Ukraine and Poland now, doing what I could to help. Poland is sending a bunch of old Russian warplanes, which the Ukrainians know how to fly.
Meantime, I’ll send money and follow up on my list above. And I beg you, too, also.
I’ve opened a new web site: www.Rescue-Ukraine.org. I hope to get it up and running within a few hours.
“Slava Ukraini!” (Glory to Ukraine!)
— Harry Newton
