John Rubino: Russia, Middle East, Markets

Russia has been running a surplus and is using the proceeds to buy gold and fix things up. Things are looking up. The demographic situation is improving and they're diversifying their economy. The question is what benefits they'll realize from their relative frugalness?

The Mideast is a total basket case. Iraq is becoming Italy. There's widespread rioting in Israel due to the US opening of its embassy in Jerusalem. Is this a longer term deterioration of the situation or is it just business as usual for this troubled region of the world?

John Rubino is the founder and manager of the popular financial website DollarCollapse.com. Mr. Rubino is the co-author, with GoldMoney's James Turk, of The Money Bubble and The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It. He spent the 1980's on Wall Street as a Eurodollar trader, equity analyst and junk bond analyst. During the 1990's he was a featured columnist with TheStreet.com and a frequent contributor to Individual Investor, Online Investor, and Consumers Digest, among many other publications. He currently writes for CFA Magazine.