Start Up Done Right - Wine by the Keg

There are so many start-ups done right, it makes me sad to see and report on those who seem to be off-track.  I want all small businesses to succeed.

Here is one doing it right, wine kegged for food service:

Free Flow Wines was founded in 2009 by two wine-industry veterans and a restaurateur who wanted to innovate beyond the bottle and give wine lovers a better glass of wine, by eliminating spoiled & oxidized wine. They developed the Free Flow Wines system, a process of kegging, preserving and serving wine on tap that has been vetted and approved by the world’s most respected wineries.

The start-up is right - passion, that is experience a problem that makes them suffer (usually in a field one loves); a solution to the problem (kegging wine for foodservice) and working on the solution gives them joy.  A home run as to motivations.  Happiness is life is ephemeral, but you can harvest much joy when you work on a project you love, in spite of the suffering (passion) that comes with any work.  In fact, joy cannot be had directly, it can only be reached through passion (suffering).

Now I think their financial backing this team is a little heavy with first stringers, but then this is the wine business, and everyone wants in.

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Hointer Repositions

Yesterday I predicted the demise of American Giant sweatshirt company out of San Francisco, and claimed I had a pretty good track record.  What was the last company I reviewed and predicted demise?

Why Hointer, on 20 Nov 2012, I panned Hointer and followed up a year later.  How are they doing today?  Six months on?

Oh.

The revolutionizing retail did not work out so well, perhaps for reasons I mentioned at their launch.  They have repositioned themselves as a consultant to other stores, and recast their retail store as a "laboratory."  I imagine trying to recover a sunk ten million dollars is an important job.

I believe the problem with these centimillionaires who made money in dotcoms is the dotcom itself is a false economy.  They labor under what is called survivorship bias, they must be smart because they have the most money and the best degrees.  They just know that wet sidewalks are what causes rain!  How do they know?  Because they have advanced degrees from prestigious schools and lots of money.  So not only can they assure you wet sidewalks cause rain, very, very many people believe them.  Because they have advanced degrees from prestigious colleges and lots of asset-less tallies to the name!

Until they try something else.  She could have found with $100,000 what she dropped ten million into. Show might have found with $5000.

She is an Amazon veteran, and running a retail operation because Amazon cannot make money on eCommerce (supposedly a big secret, except for Amazon will readily tell you the model is not so good.)  So she brought Amazon skills to brick and mortar.  Nonperformance in eCommerce does not translate into performance in brick and mortar.

Nonetheless, I meet countless people who just know they will get rich with online ecommerce since it is simple, cheap, and foolproof.  I wonder when a critical mass will come to understand the internet is an unlikely place to launch a business.  I get cranky when lots of money is spent to promote bad ideas that other emulate because the proponent is rich.  In all cases, whether rich or poor, you must talk to the customer.  Rich and poor, everyone wants to skip that step.

Those who sell TO ecommerce sites, and stay away form eCommerce itself,  especially any wholesale to consumer, have a much better chance.

Let's watch and see how Hointer does as a retail shop consultant.  "My plans did not work out.  Let me advise you on how to do what I did."  Seems like a non-starter to me.

In the meantime, there are the photo-ops with no sales taking place to keep the image alive.  Wow! Privy council!  I swoon!  (Does it sell jeans?)

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The Pope On Wealth Redistribution

Time Magazine reports on the Pope's call for redistribution of wealth:

Pope Francis reaffirmed his plea on Friday for world leaders to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor during an address before top U.N. officials and called for a global initiative to reduce the income gap.

Here is what the Pope said:

“The gaze, often silent, of that part of the human family which is cast off, left behind, ought to awaken the conscience of political and economic agents and lead them to generous and courageous decisions with immediate results, like the decision of Zacchaeus.”

See a difference?  Not a single word about redistribution.  Nor had he said so, would it be a "reaffirmation " since he has never called for redistribution before.  How come so many want to believe the lies Time Magaine reports, especially when with two clicks you can get an accurate report?

And, by the way, Zacchaeus, to whom the Pope refers, was a tax collector, who repented.  If there is any message at all, it is tax collectors and their masters need to repent immediately so that good effects can be felt by the poor immediately.

Now you know why the Pope is misquoted, nay, lied about.  He speaks the truth.

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Competing On Design: Sweatshirts

Here is a story on a designer sweatshirt maker that is making many right moves, but I think will fail pretty quickly for some pretty classical errors.  These are errors I warn against when I teach the better way of proceeding. he called in designers for his Sweatshirt, which is a very good idea. 

For starters, it appears to weigh more than two pounds. The fabric, which is 100% cotton, feels about three times thicker than most sweatshirts. And ribbed paneling along the shoulders and sides help create a tailored look, eliminating the boxy silhouette of most hoodies. Bayard said he spent about eight months designing it with the help of former Apple engineer Philipe Manoux and world-renowned pattern designer Steve Mootoo.

 Obviously the design is valid, since it is selling well, at $89.  I notice College Logo hoodies are in the $60 - 80 range, so if these are obviously nicer quality, the price should attract, and it does.  

The zip-up hoodie, made by San Francisco startup American Giant, costs $89. It had been on the market for 10 months when a December 2012 Slate article declared it "the greatest hoodie ever made" and suddenly sales exploded.

Now this is dangerous.  A blip from a news article, and sales jump.  An increase due to an article is usually not sustainable.    Careful about meeting such demand.

“We are absolutely throttled down on manufacturing,” Winthrop said. “We are maxing out all of our capacity at all of our factories. As much as they can give us, we are taking.”

Now this is fine since they are using subcontractors, who are probably delighted to get the work.   And farming the work out means they are not investing in plant and equipment.  Very good. But next, the model is business to consumers, which I question...

The company advertises that it’s “bringing back American manufacturing” and pledges to never outsource jobs overseas. It can afford the higher labor costs in the U.S. because it is a direct-to-consumer business and therefore avoids expensive overhead associated with brick-and-mortar stores.

Four problems here.  1. Nobody cares where clothes are made. There are no studies showing peoples' preferences depend on where something is made.  Sure, no end to surveys that SAY people prefer made in USA, but when it comes to actually buying, they contradict themselves in action.  American Apparel advertises made in USA as well, but plenty of importers out sell them.  If you spend time promoting what no one cares about, then you are wasting time and money.  

2. Manufacturing clothes in USA is still a big business, look at where your tshirt is made.  But it is the cheap stuff made here (see American Apparel).  Quality is made overseas since it is management intensive plus the duties and restrictions cause producers to have their expensive stuff made overseas, as anti-trade barriers in cotton goods are by weight, not cost.

3. A promise to never outsource overseas is extremely unwise, when Federal policy is get big or get out, and having regs directed at ruining specifically you can and will be written.  Here they do it to lettuce growers. People go overseas to stay in business, not to save money.  The fourth problem relates to brick and mortar, but let's let them expand first....

“One of the great unspoken, dirty secrets about the apparel industry is that brands for the last 40 years have been investing a tiny amount in the product to sustain huge marketing and huge distribution costs,” Winthrop said. “In American Giant’s case, we do almost the exact opposite of that.”

So above they say their model is business to consumer and here they reveal a "secret."  Whole lotta errors here, and one of the biggest mistakes you can make in business, indeed life, is to believe your own PR.  First wholesale (business) to consumer is a bad idea since online sales are only about 6% of retail sales in USA.  That means this company will miss about 94% of their potential market. 

The "dirty secret" described relates to the specialty market, not the Walmart model.  It is no secret, since everyone already knows it.  Everyone knows the model, and yet 94% still prefer to walk into brick and mortar.

Specialty brick and mortar are constantly looking for such things as new sweatshirts, a luxury version.  Now someone will come along and offer a $400 retail version, but the quantities will be very low.  Sine the quantities are low, the markups are high to cover the costs of all those involved.  At $400, Saks will sell through.  The vendor to Saks will make more money doing less work that American Giant.  Just because you can sell X at $89 does not mean you cannot sell Y at $400.  And no assurance you'll make more profit at X than Y overall.

Of course higher price slows down demand, demand is a problem with which American Giant contends.  Further, as a start-up, their brand would be associated with Saks and Neiman, etc, not a bad association as the company moves forward.

Companies that have a higher revenue in relation to lower production are easier to finance than otherwise.

By eschewing those leading retailers, he is also denying himself steady feedback that is valid and reliable, upon which he could build his company, like a Nike.

The opposite of the "dirty secret" is what Walmart does.  So here we have a specialty product being sold on the Walmart model.

What goes on is not a  secret, dirty or otherwise, it has been around about 5000 years, not 40,  it relates to about 20% of the market, not 80%, what they claim is secret is well-known and beneficial, and their response is to adopt the Walmart model.  My guess is if and when American Giant gets to numbers that interests Walmart, having proven the Walmart model is good for their sweatshirt, Walmart will put their version of the same thing on Walmart  brick and mortar shelves AND the Walmart website.   At $59, same quality, made overseas.

Looking ahead, Winthrop said he plans on sticking to the basics: t-shirts, jackets, hoodies and sweatpants.
“When we think about next year, just being in stock — not expanding the product mix — but just being in stock will be a huge lever up for us,” he said.

Sitting duck.  He should be wholesaling to specialty retailers and working on new designs.  Fine if they are just tshirts, sweatpants, etc, if that is what customer feedback says.  My guess is he'll stock up as demand wanes, because the news article plug is a lightning that will not strike twice.  

My predictions as to who will make it has been pretty good over the last decade.  I wish all small businesses good luck and success, but some moves are deleterious.  Not too late to change the model, but the mantra needs to be "our opinion does not matter" and get in front of the opinions that do matter, 94% of the market, the brick and mortar specialty stores, at a higher price.

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Perspective

Dennis checks in with some perspective:

Pythagoras' Theorem: ..............................24 words.

Lord's Prayer: ................................................ 66 words.

Archimedes' Principle: ..................................67 words.

Ten Commandments: ..........................................179 words.

Gettysburg Address: .......................................................286 words.

US Declaration of Independence: ...............................1,300 words.

US Constitution with all 27 Amendments: ................................7,818 words.

EU Regulations on the Sale of CABBAGES: ...................26,911 words

As you can see, the more the states gets involved, the less good happens.

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Enrollments and Entrepreneurs

Anonymous checks in -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/05/u-s-businesses-are-being-destroyed-faster-than-theyre-being-created/?hpid=z5
"The American economy is less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades."  

John, I was just curious, is your course enrollment (both off and on-line) increasing or decreasing over the years?
I think think that people believe a lot of persistent misconceptions about entrepreneurship. They think it's too risky, need a lot of money to start, they need a really big idea, etc. 

Noncredit enrollments have been decreasing as the enrollments in credit programs are increasing.   The people who would be taking classes are now taking credit classes.  Java coders are learning to be roofers, roofers are learning to be java coders, and they are graduating with 20k, 40k, 100K in debt and no job prospects.   And they cannot bankrupt a student loan.  Trapped!

This is not accidental.  Capitalism needs war when it fails, and it fails regularly.  A dispirited, trapped people need a strongman to lead them into war.

Yes, the misperception that business start-up is risky is social conditioning... the idea of risk is a part of business is very recent and western, it can be traced to the legalization of the crime of usury, in which bankers could lend credit as "money" with no logical limit, so they had to introduce the idea of risk to sop up all that excess credit.

The other odd idea is health insurance must be, and it must be paid for by an employer.  In spite of the relentless efforts of big biz, big govt, labor, religion, academia and so on to socialize medicine in USA, there are still plenty of options if one is struck by malady.

We have been socially conditioned to fear inconvenience or set-back.  Odd that, since set-back if self-employed has so many more options then set-back as an employee.

Entrepreneurs take no risks.  They get rid of risk.  People believing they are avoiding risk by getting a degree find themselves unemployed and heavily in debt, with the military as the only option out. Ironic.

Yes, enrollments are down, but the students that are enrolling are a tad bit more realistic and driven I think.  We'll see in time.  They are fun to work with, and a main reason I teach is to keep on the cutting edge.  These people are keeping me there...

All those people going to school could be starting up businesses with no resources and no debt.

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Regulating Food Carts

It can get tedious to constantly correct bad ideas...  and so I held my tongue as a friend surmised it was lack of regulation that caused the plethora of food trucks in Portland, Oregon.  The ubiquity is causing prices to fall, which is usually a bad thing, but not after expenses incurred are high.

The fact is Portland heavily regulates food trucks, unnecessarily.  Between customers and insurance companies (free market versions) necessary and sufficient regulation obtains.

Because of the regulations, the process between decision and sale is very long indeed. Someone may get the notion of providing food by a truck and then engage in the process of actualizing that dream.

Permits proving compliance take time, and it is that time line of uncertainty in who people invest much before they are out of the regulation-compliance pipeline and out on to the street.  The pipeline has trucks that have emerged and are making money.  The pipeline is full of people inspired by the success of the early trucks to emerge.  New applications are entering the pipeline constantly based on the success of the early trucks that emerged.  So we have a few trucks sending signals there is money to be made.  Those signals will change as people currently in the pipeline emerge.   And people entering and in the pipeline will not know their decisions were made on price signals distorted for lack of information.

A list of how many people are in the pipeline cannot substitute for the price signals of the actual market.
The problem of regulations unnecessarily distorting markets cannot be fixed, yet the benefits of third party QC can be provided nonetheless by free market insurance and customer feedback.

I have no doubt the point of these unecessary regulations is to destroy the small businesses.  Portland has many small restaurants and such in place so long the owner owns the land.  Cities want big biz and big dev so they can have big tax income.  By stuffing the streets with food trucks, and monkeying around with parking meter times, costs and violation fines, the cities destroy the small business trade.

The in come the developers to sweep up the property and build massive high-rises to house big business. The problem is these are false economy, welfare/warfare driven big businesses.

Who knows how this will turn out.

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Never Give Free Samples

If someone wants samples to test at no cost, then they are not a buyer.  If you give them a free sample, you are wasting time and money.  I think the idea of giving free wine at trade shows is nuts, crazy, delusional.  I recall when wineries in California used to do it, now of course they charge.

Since it is apparently Hong Kong day on this blog today, here is a website about pop-up food carts ala Hong Kong.  People sell the samples.  This is done right...

Of course, this should be marketing as well, anyone who buys should have a means to buy again, after the event.  I don't see that with what little info there is...  check it out...

I will not charge for samples when I get value beforehand, say in the form of market intelligence...  if someone can convince me their market intelligence (studies info) is worth ten times the cost of my samples, then I might trade no cost samples for no cost market intel.

Never give a free sample.

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The Hong Kong China Wine Business Update

The HKTDC reports:

How have the Central Government’s austerity measures affected wine demand on the mainland? The direction from Beijing on gifting and banquets – measures that have been in place for over a year now – has certainly slowed down the demand for premium and luxury goods in many markets, including fine wine. But this is the rarified air at the very top of the wine range. Individual consumers have helped cushion the effects of government austerity. Consumer interest continues to grow as they explore the growing selection of wines becoming available across China.

And much more, give the article a read...  and then this...

The huge wine business this demand brings to Hong Kong is evident by record attendances at the city’s two leading industry events: the HKTDC Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair, held each November, and the biennial Vinexpo Asia-Pacific. Vinexpo returns 27-29 May 2014, to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, bringing about 1,400 exhibitors from 31 countries, and an expected attendance of almost 18,000. To accommodate about 200 new exhibitors, the showcase will occupy 50 per cent more floor space this year. 

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MOQ FOB and Alibaba

Things can get so confusing...

Alibaba started as a matchmaker for international trade.  It was part-owned by Yahoo at one point.

Matchmaking services have always been a bad idea, and when anyone thinks of Alibaba, they think of matchmaking service.  So it must be a successful matchmaking service, since it is talking USA IPO that is scaring amazon and ebay.

No.  Alibaba is a Chinese version of AT&T, eInsurance, ebay, Amazon, Uber, paypal, twitter, google, Apple, facebook, you name it, all-in-one.  Since it is everything, it is big, and you know, USA investors are size-queens. Alibaba is a miserable matchmaking service, but it is getting excited hype.

Hong Kong Trade Development Council is a database of suppliers.  It is industry based, and grew organically with the Hong Kong Trade starting back in 1966.  It is an intelligence service, not a matchmaking service.

It tests new ideas, here promoting companies that offer MOQ FOB.

HKTDC does research and interviews, here on the wine business.

Hong Kong Trade Development Council provides a database of suppliers and buyers for traders to contact.

So there is a difference between state-run matchmaking services, industry based databases, and corporate efforts like Alibaba.

Back in the day we would do research to find the best place in the world for something, say mid-quality diamonds ready to set, and find that is Antwerp.  Then we'd collect the phone books of Antwerp and contact suppliers with our requirements.  We'd get catalogs of the best as we proceeded (if there were catalogs). As we got closer to agreements, we'd check references.  And then we'd start small and grow the business.

The best suppliers have too much demand to mess around with exposure on Alibaba.  There is no benefit.  The best buyers know Alibaba is a firehose of wastewater when you want a sip of clean water.

The internet has put the databases online, catalogs and contact info, and speeded up the process, but has not changed the process.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council is unique, like Hong Kong.  It is a industry based databank and intelligence collect and distribute center.  Alibaba will never threaten their mission, because HKTDC gets the real traders.

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San Francisco UCBerkeley Start Up Seminar

One week left to enroll in the San Francisco UCBerkeley extension all-day international business start-up seminar.  The seminar is highly rated for content pace and humor, and includes a copy of the book and follow-up indefinitely after the seminar.

You'll take away specific tactics to find customers, develop products and build a thriving business, and how to save time and money getting to your goals.

Join us now by enrolling here.



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Putin is First String

Fascism comes when third string people run for office, because first and second don't want any part of the regime.  Pres Putin of Russia is first string. Here Mish has a quote:

"While a modern state must honor its obligation 'to take care of its population and ensure its social protection' or face the risk of collapse, European countries have been 'living beyond their means' and are now witnessing the rise of a dependency mentality … [that] endangers not only the economy but the moral foundation of society. It is no secret that many citizens of less developed countries come to Europe specifically to live on social welfare."

And also noted is Russia as a 13% tax rate, lower than even Hong Kong.

And China is offering the world a better deal:

The US has used its dwindling dominance in the global financial field to unilaterally impose sanctions on other countries. Actually, the US has been practising unilateralism in diplomacy since the end of the Cold War when the collapse of the Soviet Union made it the sole superpower. Since its global military dominance is on the decline, the US has started exploiting the intensified globalization process by imposing economic sanctions on other countries, even some major ones, to force them to comply with its policies.

WE need to make breathtaking cutbacks on military and welfare spending.  Not going to happen, but we need it.

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Chris Hitchens and the NDAA

The Supreme Court let stand the NDAA which says the USMilitary can seize USCitizens in USA and disappear them until the "end of hostilities" without due process.

The government, by ignoring the rights and needs of ordinary citizens, is jeopardizing its legitimacy. This is dangerous. When a citizenry no longer feels that it can find justice within the organs of power, when it feels that the organs of power are the enemies of freedom and economic advancement, it makes war on those organs. Those of us who are condemned as radicals, idealists and dreamers call for basic reforms that, if enacted, will make peaceful reform possible. But corporate capitalists, now unchecked by state power and dismissive of the popular will, do not see the fires they are igniting. The Supreme Court ruling on our challenge is one more signpost on the road to dystopia. 

He is hoping for a mass movement.  No, we'll get a strong man.  By definition, the USA is a fascist state, big business and big government are one.

Get used to it.

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Bitcoins as Money?

Comes a correspondent:

... The authenticity of a bitcoin is very easy to verify. But I suspect you mean the whole bitcoin system is a scam. It is only in the sense that any and all monetary goods are a scam.

Well, now that is interesting.  My understanding of the pro-bitcoin side has been the premise that the application of state of the art tech to monetary goods has been a breakthrough of some sort (and a recitation of the benefits which always strike me as highly debatable.)  Then a frisson of virtue of some sort, and for good measure rebellion.

Depending on how monetary goods are defined, I might agree.  Money being called a monetary good would be tautological, so I take you to mean derivatives and tallies. Fractional reserve currency is a scam, warehouse receipts as currency can easily be a scam, using tallies as money is inevitably a scam ( the Prophet expressly forbids this).  But money itself, defined as a medium of exchange (in a free market) and a store of value (as derived from its commodity price, if an when its value is stored)  can hardly be a scam.  

So depending on definitions, I think I'd agree...

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ExIm Bank

This is how the USA works.  Here is an article on the third largest contributor to democratic candidates.

Grover Connell and his wife Patricia have thus far contributed$220,000 to Democratic candidates this election cycle. His company, the Connell Company, is the number 2 recipient of Ex-Im Bank insurance, according to a study by the Mercatus Center.

Now, to be the second biggest player in the EXIM bank thing quite an achievement, especially for a private company.  #1 is Boeing, to give some sense of scale.  What amazes me instantly about these articles is how little one needs to contribute in order to be a huge player.  Why is our congress so inexpensive?

Now there is absolutely nothing illegal going on here.  And with that much money involved, doing anything illegal would be silly indeed.    What I call problems with the EXIM bank are precisely the stated purpose of the EXIM bank.

Looking at the #2 user, it is almost as though they have followed whatever is hot, something I expressly call a bad idea.  They are probably billionaires, I am not.

Check out their home page, with a shot of their humble beginnings, 1933 as commission dealers in rice, sugar, grain.  What that picture says to me is "wow, the right place at the right time!"

First, 1933, the height of the depression.  The powers that be, having embraced capitalism, necessarily destroyed their economy, and so switched to the Marxist-Leninist line to maintain power.  All of the new deal programs were simply socialist programs, the "future that works."  This was an era when Adolf Hitler made Time magazine Man of the Year, and cover boy several times.  The other leading socialist, Stalin, made it in 1940.

So why is 1933 so significant...?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Export-Import Bank of Washington by Executive Order on February 2, 1934. Executive Order 6581 created the first Export-Import Bank of Washington to "aid in financing and to facilitate exports and imports and the exchange" of goods between the U.S. and the world during a period of economic distress.

A small unknown trader of rice and sugar could make serious money shipping USA goods to policy-driven, famine plagued Soviet Union. It is reliably noted the Soviet Union would have failed without USA credits to support their failed systems, and to this day all sorts of dubious regimes are much assisted by American taxpayer risk and loss.

History: EIBW established under DC charter by EO 6581, February 2, 1934, to assist in financing U.S. trade with the Soviet Union. 

Now, if during a depression, you are a rice dealer and the government wants the price of grain to rise (for horrible reasons), and if you do not export it, the feds will burn it, and you can make your family wealthy just doing a lot more of what you do, then wouldn't you go ahead too?  Heck yes!

Especially since the Federal policy is "Get big or get out...." why fight the federal policy and be driven out of business like all those other chumps who refused to go along with federal policy, and ended up in soup lines?  I am not being facetious here, extremely few, if anyone, offered the deal, would refuse.

My only objection is that collectively we embraced capitalism, which destroyed the USA economy, and  then we allowed the same fools to institute communism in USA (all those alphabet agencies and Get Big or Get Out.)

I suppose it gets down to how you define wealth.  Progressives define it as how much free stuff one can have, capitalists define it as how much stuff the rich can buy, but the etymologically correct definition is  the range of goods and services a person can buy with their own money (with money properly defined.)

There is a wee bit of irony here.  The founder is named Grover Cleveland Connell, no doubt named after the president Grover Cleveland, by Irish parents who at the time like the despised Americans of any other era name their kids after presidents, to approximate belonging.

The irony is Grover Cleveland was the last USA president to veto a congressional spending bill on the grounds it was unconstitutional.  The Connells then got into the swim of USA political-economy.  Admirable!  Erin go Braugh.

Now, let's get rid of the ExIm Bank, before we do any further damage to the world.

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Germans and Chinese Currency Bonds

Kevin checks in with an article on the Germans issuing bonds in RMBY.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication says the renminbi is now among the top ten most-used currencies for global trade payments, overtaking the Swiss Franc to occupy position seven in February.

Mish has done yeoman work on how using one currency or another does not much matter, and I would add to his critique the phrase "since it is not money anyway, it is just tallies."  The fact that RMBY is in the top ten SWIFT transactions should not be surprising since China is the #1 importer/exporter in the world, but some accounts.

These are financial accommodations.   At a mere billion dollars, they are surely experimental for now.  When the Chinese begin to offer finance management every bit as well as the West (and probably for a lower cost, but secrecy is becoming an issue in industry) then there will be a shift in the book to China accounts.

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Chaos in Kiev

When there is too much government, chaos follows.  For example, when the USA began destablizing the Ukraine, that was one government too many involved.  When the USA succeeded in their stated goal of overthrowing Yaks, then you had a split in the Ukraine people, and then three governments involved (four if you want to admit the Nazi elements).  All this invites a fifth government to intervene, Russia.

“It’s important for Russia to withdraw support from the separatists and to assist in removing people from the buildings and begin to deescalate the situation,” Kerry said in remarks to the press in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Congo?

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