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The Almighty Buck

Roblox Currency 'Robux' Is Outperforming the Ruble (vice.com) 36

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: As of this writing, the Ruble is worth about 0.012 U.S. dollars. The Robux, the money people use to buy things in Roblox, is worth about 0.0125. This means that the Robux has slightly more buying power than the Russian ruble. The Russian economy has been in decline for some time, but both the Ruble and its main stock index took a nose dive on Thursday after Russia invaded Ukraine. As trading began that day, the Ruble collapsed and the Russian equities index, the MOEX, fell 45 percent. Both are in flux and have recovered some of their losses, but the situation with the Ruble is so dire that the Russian central bank has decided to step in and prop it up.
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Roblox Currency 'Robux' Is Outperforming the Ruble

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  • If bread was 100 Rubles a week ago and today it is still 100 Rubles, does it really matter from inside Russia?

    -Disclaimer: I don't know the cost of bread in Russia, and I also don't know if people must buy it or if it is simply given out as rations.
    • Sure, it doesn't matter... as long as you have 0% imports and 0% exports amongst your goods and services.
    • Except that's not how the world works, not even in the former Soviet Union. For one, panic buying will have a devastating effect, driving prices up as supply can not meet demand. And then you have the Russian Mob who will undoubtedly hijack shipments of food, clothes and other supplies to distribute amongst themselves and to sell in the black market with massive markup, while giving kickbacks to the Oligarchs. This will inevitably result in the majority of average families not being able to make ends meet a
      • I'm not so certain. Russia has a 600 billion (billion, not million) war chest to prop up the economy, and if you look at the sanctions you'll see the one thing that no-one is doing anything more than making noises about is cutting off the west's ability to pay for Russian oil and gas. In fact if you go through all the possible sanctions there's nothing significant the west can do that won't either hit them at least as hard as it hits Russia or that's mere tokenism. It's an unfortunate truth, although one
    • by Jzanu ( 668651 )
      Bread has a production process down to flour (multiple machine intensive processing steps) and even wheat where harvesting, drying, storing, etc involve other machinery. At every stage a part is required even a bolt where currency changes are required then the actual cost goes up as the ruble looses value. Bread does not stay 100 rubles when it costs more to make.
      • But they already have and can make those equipment. Let's assume that it reduces production, that's OK .. Russia already produces a huge excess of wheat anyway.

    • Russia can't afford a protracted war. Putin is counting on achieving his aims quickly and without too many lasting repercussions. But it's a chance roll and the risks are great.
      • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Friday February 25, 2022 @08:11PM (#62305005)

        Russia can't afford a protracted war. Putin is counting on achieving his aims quickly and without too many lasting repercussions. But it's a chance roll and the risks are great.

        Before Russia invaded (this time) I was listening to NPR and the guest made a comment to the effect of having all those troops in a combat-ready state was expensive. Meaning, the longer they stood around picking their noses while preparing to invade it was costing far more than just having them exist in barracks.

        With the second invasion, the costs are far higher so yes, a quick end is what Putin needs. The longer Ukraine draws this out the more costly, in all respects, this will be for Putin. A notice posted by the Ukrainian information agency (or whatever it is called) indicated well over 2,000 Russian soldiers had so far died along with hundreds of tanks, vehicles and some aircraft. Tanks aren't cheap so for a less than 200K javelin to take out a 2+ million dollar tank is a good return on an investment.

        • As a follow up, it now appears Ukraine shot down a Russian IL-76 carrying paratroopers near Vasilkiv. Assuming the cost of the plane plus the now dead paratroopers and any equipment they were carrying, that's one expensive flight to lose.

      • it's a chance roll and the risks are great.

        Trump said it was "genius".

        He's been bankrupt a few times though, so...

      • I think it can be the opposite. The poorer a country is, the longer the people can tolerate a long war. If you are used to living poor you won't mind bartering for food. A lot of the sanctions won't affect food production -- which is the most essential thing. Besides, Russia is essentially a dictatorship .. it doesn't really matter to him what the people think. Also, you are forgetting that Russia was able to mobilize against the Germans in WW2.

    • Russia produces a huge excess of wheat, it is one of their main exports .. if they can't export it, bread will be cheap for Russians. Sanctions might not be very effective against Russia, because they will have excess gas+oil they can use for economic output. Oil, gas, wheat, and weapons are Russia's main export.

    • Sure, right up until your crops fail, your people are starving and then they become reliant on overseas wheat...

      Just look up "The Fall of the Soviet Union" for reference

  • by nichogenius1 ( 9413819 ) on Friday February 25, 2022 @07:44PM (#62304953)
    Relative Value Between Currencies is Meaningless. For example, the Japanese Yen is currently worth 0.0087 according to Google as of this writing. The Japanese economy is much stronger than the Russian economy, so why is the Russian Ruble worth more? The true strength of a currency is determined by a few factors, but the direct trade value isn't really one of them. These factors include how many people are willing to accept your currency, the total value of goods exchanged using that currency over a given time, and the relative stability of a currency. To illustrate why relative stability is important, consider cryptocurrency. Is it easier to pay your rent/mortgage in cryptocurrency? Or USD? Why wouldn't landlords accept cryptocurrency? The most likely reason is because it is still very volatile. The strength of a currency is ultimately a popularity contest.
  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Friday February 25, 2022 @07:49PM (#62304965)

    Roblox Currency 'Robux' Is Outperforming the Ruble

    Now Putin's going to invade Roblox ...

    (Do they have a mutual defense (Article V) compact with Minecraft?)

  • A quick google and a look at the graph for the past 5 years, shows that in the last 5 years it had a maximum of $0.018 and is now down to $0.012 -- a 33% decline over about 3-4 years. Not any kind of crash or hyper inflation.

    • If you due the math that's about what the dollar value will lose in that time period if inflation is at the 7% rate for those 3 or 4 years... that's nuts... thanks Biden
      • by Klaxton ( 609696 )

        The dollar won't lose value relative to the other major currencies, the current inflation is global and it ain't because of Biden. Much of it is due to the price of oil and gas.

        5% in the EU for example, energy there is up 30%.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        Don't be such a dumbass. 7% is not the rapid volitile inflation rate that people have trouble factoring into their expectations. It's not gonna slow business down, it's not gonna cause people to cancel contracts, it just plain doesn't matter.

        Something like a third of us have no cash at all. The next third, while having some actual net worth, have next to nothing in cash- it's all in their home equity. The only possible negative effect inflation can have on a supermajority of Americans is the possibilit
        • by narcc ( 412956 )

          the possibility that increases in their wages will lag inflation in time.

          If by "possibiliy" you mean the reality for the last 40 years.

    • a 33% decline over about 3-4 years

      Dang, we've probably come pretty close to that in just the last two years, at least in non-essential, silly stuff like food, fuel, and housing ...

  • It's worth over 20% more than a US cent. The Russian economy is BOOMING.

  • Why bother about Rubublux while you can have Coinyeeees!
    Ye!

Business is a good game -- lots of competition and minimum of rules. You keep score with money. -- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari

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