Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money.

From full global headquarters, this is Motley Full Money.

It's the Motley Full Money Radio Show. I'm Chris Hill joining me in studio this week for Motley Full Funds, Bill Mann and Tim Hansen.

Thanks for being here, Jens. God be here.

It is our 2015 preview show. A lot of things to get to, including, of course, reckless predictions and stocks on our radar.

But Tim, let's start with Russia. And I hastened to point out we're taping this a couple of days before the show is going to air.

We're starting to get here, though.

And since we're starting with Russia, it kind of seems like anything goes at this point.

But when you combine the rubble falling to the degree that it has and the central bank recently raising its key interest rate from 10.5% to 17%.

My first question is, is this every bit as bad as it seems? Because from where I sit, this seems really bad.

Yeah, this is a very tough situation for them. Some domestic commentators are predicting a fiscal crisis next year.

I'm not sure what that looks like. That's worse than what they have today, but a crisis next year.

And then you know, the other point being oil prices. Obviously oil is key.

Exporting oil is key to Russia's economy. And oil prices volumetratically.

So that cuts off a key source of revenue for them. And apparently several news outlets are reporting that Russia is unwilling to shut down some production because they're worried that due to the

the poor state of those, that equipment that they wouldn't be able to bring it back online.

So that makes kind of forces their hand into being pretty irrational actors.

So you know, it looks pretty bad. It always, probably always looks worse and it will turn out to be.

But certainly a number of challenges for that economy and the central bank there has already had to step in and bail out a couple of banks now.

So mostly bad news.

Here's the thing. In 1998, Russia was also in a crisis during the Asian crisis and rates in Russia for some short term loans were 150%. And now they're at 17%.

There's a crisis going on in Russia, but you know, if you're looking for a political crisis, I don't think we're anywhere close to the conditions, you know, by which that would happen.

...