Something is wrong with our sanctions policy against Russia..
On Wednesday, the Russian ruble closed 6.6% higher against the US dollar at 66.30 — its highest level since March 2020, according to Reuters' records.
Yesterday I posted this essay about the apparent coup in Pakistan for the crime of doing business with Russia.
When I did some more digging the whole sordid affair becomes clear.
The propaganda war against Russia is so extreme that it appears that the authorities don't care if their misinformation is obvious.
For instance, UK's Express led with this headline: Putin's ruble meltdown.
I've pointed out before that most of Asia doesn't support our foreign policy.
But now we have a number because someone did the math.
Denial can be a useful coping mechanism, but when taken to an extreme it just gets sad.
People living in the middle east are dumbfounded at the ability of Americans to convince themselves that we actually have a moral high ground when talking about Russia's war in Ukraine.
Centuries ago governments would grant Letters of Marque to people who wanted to be pirates, but didn't want to hang for it.
The United States depended on these privateers during the Revolution and the War of 1812.
We haven't used them since.
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
- from Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises.
The first thing you've got to ask is "How much pain will the sanctions inflict?"
Will they absolutely crush Russia's economy, or just throw it into recession? The correct answer is closer to the latter than the former.
Sanctions don't have a great track record for making political change possible. Just look toward Cuba as an example.
