e-commentary

. . .

J          “But stupidity, absurdity and futility may be the unwitting goals.  Or they may not even have a goal.”

K          “Or an idea.”

. . .

K          “At least sanctions have the saving grace of not being more bombing and more killing and more killing and more bombing and more bombing and more killing.”

J          “They are considered tools of diplomacy rather than weapons of war.  However, I am not so sure whether they are not ineffective as tools of diplomacy yet very effective in instigating war.”

. . .

K          “Sanctions imposed on a country unite the country against a common threat and accelerate the drive to be independent of the good or service being withheld.  Denying a people things ranging from exotic fromage to the esoteric internet financial infrastructure to handle business transactions becomes the mother of invention.”

J          “And in the intermediate term, the sanctioned people become more independent and much stronger.”

. . .

K          “Far too many of the sanctions imposed by the United States are illegal under national and international law, weaponize the U.S.’s control of the world’s reserve currency, and/or are simply counterproductive and invite blowback.”

J          “There will be blowback.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary including the discussion of sanctions at “‘Grexit’, ‘GrexEUnt’, Percolating Problems:  PIIGS, BRICS, EU, EC, ECB, IMF, NATO, WTO, WAR (February 23, 2015)”, a discussion of SWIFT and other topics at “The China-Russia Affair: Advancing The Petro-Yuan; Dictating The Future (March 26, 2018)” and “World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“That which does not kill me only makes me stronger.”  Nietzsche

“The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don’t mind admitting it.  They worship money and power and death.  Their ideal solution to all the nation’s problems would be another 100 Year War.”  Hunter S. Thompson

This entry was posted on November 11, 2019 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Sanctions, SWIFT, World's Reserve Currency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.