Tag: economic sanctions

Biden’s “Russian Sanctions” Are Wrecking the Western Economy

Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts

1-2 Knockout: Blazing Saddles

This is what the White House spokes idiot Jen Psaki describes as “wrecking” the Russian economy:

The unprecedented sanctions against Russia have pushed energy costs higher in Europe and the US, driving record inflation and making it ever more expensive for farmers and truckers to fuel their machinery, afford fertilizer or keep up with other costs. In Europe, which is dependent on Russian energy and minerals, the sanctions have worsened an energy supply crunch that has driven up costs for households and businesses.

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China Warns West’s “Outrageous” Sanctions Are Forcing Nuclear-Armed Russia “Into A Corner”

Via ZeroHedge

On Saturday a high-ranking Chinese government official lashed out at the West’s sanctions regimen against Russia in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, blasting the far-reaching punitive measures which have also served to severely isolate Moscow as increasingly “outrageous”.

“The sanctions against Russia are getting more and more outrageous,” Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told a security forum in Beijing, according to Reuters.

Via AP: Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kiev

Strongly suggesting the sanctions would only serve to harm common Russian citizens, he described that the West depriving the people of their overseas assets were ultimately “for no reason”.

“History has proven time and again that sanctions cannot solve problems. Sanctions will only harm ordinary people, impact the economic and financial system… and worsen the global economy.”

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Washington and Moscow Vie for the Stupid Prize

Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts

Is it Washington or the Kremlin which is the most confused about sanctions and their impact?  Washington and Europe have made it very clear that sanctions do not apply to payments for Russian energy and minerals.  Only the US has banned the import of Russian gas and oil.  As the US uses no Russian gas and only 7% of its oil is from Russia, the sanction is without effect.  There are no bans on imports of Russian minerals as the West can’t get by without them, just as Europe, especially German industry, cannot get by without Russian energy. There are no sanctions on banks for processing payments for Russian energy and minerals.

So, what do the Western sanctions do?  They identify for Russia the pressure points where Russian sanctions on the West can severely damage the West.  Why doesn’t Russia use this power?

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Rickards: The Sanctions Boomerang & Putin’s Options

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoninig.com,

Putin’s Options

There’s no doubt that the financial sanctions put on Russia by the U.S., the U.K., EU members and others are the most severe ever imposed. The U.S. Treasury has announced 15 separate sanctions programs in recent days and no doubt more are on the way.

The targets of these sanctions include Russian banks, Russian stocks and bonds and various payment channels. Most significantly, the U.S. froze the accounts of the Central Bank of Russia. That’s the first time a major central bank’s assets have been frozen since the Cold War, and possibly ever.

Yet the financial attacks on Russia go far beyond official sanctions.

Numerous private companies including Microsoft, Exxon Mobil, Shell and some major airlines have ceased their business activities in Russia. Visa and Mastercard have stopped accepting credit card charges from Russia. Google and Apple have turned off the mobile payment apps on phones held by Russian citizens.

Shipping giant Maersk has stopped its vessels from unloading or taking cargo from Russian ports. Stock index funds are pushing Russian companies out of their indexes and the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is divesting Russian stocks. The list of public and private embargoes and boycotts goes on.

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WILL THERE BE A 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?

“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” ― George Orwell

Vanessa E. Thompson on Twitter: "Just a reminder..." / TwitterEvil Assad, Evil Gaddafi, Now Evil Putin: How the West Sells War (and Makes a Killing) | Groupe Gaulliste Sceaux

“Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.” ― George Orwell

The smell of tyranny is in the air. The level of propaganda, disinformation, and mistruth has reached astounding heights, as the ruling oligarchy/Deep State/globalist cabal are thrashing about violently because their frauds are being exposed on a daily basis. This shift to the tyranny of force has massive implications for everyone on the planet. When every quote from Orwell’s 1984 applies every day to everything swirling around us, you begin to realize we are in the midst of a dystopian nightmare which gets more ghoulish by the day.

The last two years have been a fraud of epic proportions, conducted by a cadre of evil money titans, their financial, media, and medical apparatchiks, with the objective of tearing down our existing social and economic structure and “resetting” the world where they own everything and you own nothing, eat bugs, and provide the slave labor needed to keep society functioning. Of course, this will be after they dispose of tens of millions of useless eaters through their Covid/Vaxx scheme, global war, and mass starvation.

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Economic Sanctions Cause War, Not Peace: Some Lessons From FDR’s Embargo Against Japan

Submitted by Roberts Higgs of The indepedent Institute via Contra Corner blog,

Ask a typical American how the United States got into World War II, and he will almost certainly tell you that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Americans fought back. Ask him why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he will probably need some time to gather his thoughts. He might say that the Japanese were aggressive militarists who wanted to take over the world, or at least the Asia-Pacific part of it. Ask him what the United States did to provoke the Japanese, and he will probably say that the Americans did nothing: we were just minding our own business when the crazy Japanese, completely without justification, mounted a sneak attack on us, catching us totally by surprise in Hawaii on December 7, 1941.

You can’t blame him much. For more than 60 years such beliefs have constituted the generally accepted view among Americans, the one taught in schools and depicted in movies—what “every schoolboy knows.” Unfortunately, this orthodox view is a tissue of misconceptions. Don’t bother to ask the typical American what U.S. economic warfare had to do with provoking the Japanese to mount their attack, because he won’t know. Indeed, he will have no idea what you are talking about.

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