Vladimir Putin wants to have his dollars, spend them too, and invade Ukraine. That’s impossible, of course, but he’s trying to make it a little less so with some financial legerdemain that covers up what’s really going on. Putin, you see, is forcing Russia’s companies to spend their dollars instead—but Russia’s government will be on the hook if those firms get into trouble as Russia’s economy implodes. So Putin, in other words, is playing a financial shell game to try to buy enough time for oil prices to rebound and bail him out. Russia’s problem, as I’ve said before , is that it doesn’t so much have an economy as an oil exporting business that subsidizes everything else. And that business is in bad shape now that oil prices have halved the past few months. Cheaper oil means Russian corporations have fewer dollars to turn into […]