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America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

economist.com

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Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#221

Post by hopia »

La1n wrote: post #209
jariel wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What is this protection that the US provides" The US has bases all over Europe, they spend a fortune on their own defensive tech, capabilities and leadership which Germany et. al. depend on, which acts as a massive deterrent, but also provides security partners with 'almost free R&D'. Also, the US specialises and practices so many things that are just far beyond the reach of pretty much all European forces. The abil…

>If the US simply 'did not exist' - Russian Imperialism would reach just about as far as in the Soviet era We can speculate a lot, but that's a this is, speculation. This comment and a lot of others smell of American exceptionalism to me as a non US citizen.

If there was no Cold War, or there was one that Russia would've won against Western Europe, half of Europe would still be occupied as the USSR wouldn't have fallen.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#222

Post by hkt »

bloodm wrote: post #208
La1n wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine is not a Baltic state, the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) are all in the EU and NATO members. No way the EU would let that slide.

I never said Ukraine is a Baltic state. Take out a map. Think about why the Baltic states can hardly be defended militarily. Think about what would be different if Ukraine were in the Nato (and a decent amount of Nato troops on the UA/RU border). "No way the EU would let that slide." They EU has no ability in military things if the UK is out. The Nato would not let it slide but they also would not fight back to win i…

Sorry to be a pedant, but the UK's military capability is at an all time low. We have made awful purchasing decisions across the army, navy and air force, as well as failing to recruit enough people. There isn't a part of the UK military which isn't in crisis. We are not the force your post suggests we are.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#223

Post by hopia »

pinkfoot wrote: post #200
pnw_hazor wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Along with the reliability woes of air force jetliners, only about a third of Germany’s 128 Eurofighter jets are combat ready and just a quarter of its 130 army helicopters are operational, mainly because of shortages of spare parts. Only one of six submarines and fewer than half of 244 Leopard tanks are working, according to a recent report to Parliament." https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-germany-armed-forces-20…

And you don't think they would change that pretty quickly if they really needed to?

Considering Russia annexed Crimea in a matter of days, I don't think that gives Germany enough time to fix their equipment operational.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#224

Post by hopia »

lispm wrote: post #212
kmlx wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the UK was one of many countries objecting to the current form of the EU. this will not go away with one member leaving. the EU is expecting another round of new participants in 2025. and the countries are the likes of Macedonia and Serbia. of course the EU politicians are already arguing about this, since the last expansion was a small disaster: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.politico.eu/article/eu-en... persona…

Major EU reforms, which were blocked by the UK, for example. Good relations with Russia is in the interest of the EU countries.

Europe has been trying to build good relations with Russia for as long as anyone can remember. But in the end it takes two to tango.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#225

Post by Udik »

wavefunction wrote: post #101
Udik wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a small group of people who are strangely very friendly to Russia on all other matters. Can you give actual examples of this friendliness? I see it cited very often but I don't know any concrete example. I know Trump has imposed new sanctions on Russia last September, that is sanctioning European companies for the Russia pipeline, and that he's doing anything that he can to destabilise Iran, which is supported by R…

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/sanctions-ole... Maybe you should have asked for 100, or 1000. I can probably come close to 100 though.

Ok, you could have come up with 100 examples. But the only one you give me is one from 2018, where Trump lifted sanctions on a Russian oligarch's companies. But Trump had imposed the sanctions himself some months before, he actually left the sanctions in place on the oligarch's assets and lifted those to his companies after he reduced his stakes in them.

PolitiFact explains well the context in this article:

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/jan...

"most experts we spoke to said this is a case of the Trump administration’s clumsiness, not coziness.

Back in April, when the sanctions hit the aluminum giant Rusal, it sent shockwaves through the global aluminum markets. The price of aluminum soared over the following weeks. Europe, which relies heavily on Russia’s metals market, faced the prospect of plant closures and lost jobs. Even now, the European Union strongly supports the lifting of sanctions."

"according to experts, the Treasury discovered it had bitten off more than it could chew.

"They were done clumsily," Alina Polyakova, of the Brookings Institution, said of the sanctions. "It seems clear that the administration did not plan for the dramatic effects on aluminum markets and the knock-on effects on European businesses.""

So the only example you came up with in fact says nothing of the presumed friendliness of Trump towards Russia. Next one.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#226

Post by lispm »

hopia wrote: post #224
lispm wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Major EU reforms, which were blocked by the UK, for example. Good relations with Russia is in the interest of the EU countries.

Europe has been trying to build good relations with Russia for as long as anyone can remember. But in the end it takes two to tango.

Maybe you can‘t remember those times, but I knew germans who were invading the USSR. I spoke to one who learned russian in the USSR in military prisons in siberia - he having served in the Waffen SS. I grew up in the cold war times. Then we saw the collapse of the USSR and its block. We‘ve made a lot progress since then. There is a russian view to that and we also need to listen to that, too.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#227

Post by tpxl »

redis_mlc wrote: post #180
Animats wrote: post #150

Whether China's yuan should be freely convertible to other currencies is something the PRC has struggled with for years. A freely convertible yuan would increase China's influence on the world financial system, but it would also increase the influence of the world financial system on China. And it would require much easing, if not elimination, of China's exchange controls. A decade ago, a freely convertible yuan was…

Euros are, literally, a joke. A currency without an army is nothing. You can pretend whatever exchange rate you want between the Euro and the USD, but the USD is the real currency.

>A currency without an army is nothing.

The Swiss beg to differ.

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#228

Post by bambataa »

headcanon wrote: post #66
sschueller wrote: post #2

For the rest of the world this is a good thing. Why would the United States be the one to decide if Germany is allowed to build a pipeline to Russia or not? Image if it was Germany that used sanctions to prevent the US from building a pipeline to Mexico. Would you be ok with that?

The United States' main geopolitical imperative is to maintain global hegemony. Part of this is ensuring regional powers are either allied (in the case of NATO countries or Saudi Arabia) or contained (in the case of Russia and Iran). It is a fundamental rule of Geopolitics that every country assert itself to the best of its abilities with the strengths they have. One of Russia's biggest strengths is natural resources…

Is it not also advantageous to Western Europe to have Russia dependent on WE’s oil and gas revenue?

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#229

Post by hopia »

lispm wrote: post #226
hopia wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has been trying to build good relations with Russia for as long as anyone can remember. But in the end it takes two to tango.

Maybe you can‘t remember those times, but I knew germans who were invading the USSR. I spoke to one who learned russian in the USSR in military prisons in siberia - he having served in the Waffen SS. I grew up in the cold war times. Then we saw the collapse of the USSR and its block. We‘ve made a lot progress since then. There is a russian view to that and we also need to listen to that, too.

What's the Russian view we need to listen to?

Re: America’s aggressive use of sanctions endangers the dollar’s reign

#230

Post by [deleted] »

tpxl wrote: post #227
redis_mlc wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Euros are, literally, a joke. A currency without an army is nothing. You can pretend whatever exchange rate you want between the Euro and the USD, but the USD is the real currency.

>A currency without an army is nothing. The Swiss beg to differ.

[deleted]
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