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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

#81

Post by empath75 »

LatteLazy wrote: post #14
aazaa wrote: post #11

The lack of any viable alternative has kept the dollar in its current dominant position. That alternative won't exactly announce itself so that US policymakers can rationally decide to change course about the weaponization of money. It will instead, sneak up on the country in the form of weird little experiments that don't seem worth the time and effort to track or regulate. By the time one of them becomes the obviou…

Isn't the answer the euro? Stable, inflation proof, light or no sanctions. As brexit proceeds and more financial services move to mainland Europe, you won't even have to worry about the brits messing with it... I seem to remember the EU agreeing to setup a psudo bank to deal direct with Iran so they can bypass restrictions on trade? Edit: here it is! https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/eu-mechanism-for-...

The thing is any currency that took over would be used for similar ends.

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

#82

Post by LifeLiverTransp »

jariel wrote: post #64
taurath wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this protection that the US provides other than ensuring the US would be drawn into a war between the EU and Russia? France has enough nukes to provide MAD protection.

"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…

? Dirty money is welcome anywhere. The whole overpriced apartment ghost towns that spread in most popular american cities are basically storage for dirty money.

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

#83

Post by pishpash »

tjenkinsqs wrote: post #47

I prefer sanctions a thousand times over war. Don't we have enough of the endless wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. from the last 2 administrations?

Sanctions are standoffish modern version of siege warfare.

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

#84

Post by [deleted] »

zozbot234 wrote: post #71
rayiner wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course that’s the reason. Different people use different euphemisms, for the same reason we do now. (“Defend against tyranny.”) But we’re talking about an amendment the founders wrote shortly after they took up arms to overthrow their government. It’s clear what they were talking about: https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/04/second-amendment-hist... > Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; a…

Note, the point is not to overthrow the government in any real sense, but rather to make it incredibly costly and perhaps outright infeasible for the government to actively use state-organized violence against its own people , as dictatorships everywhere are wont to do. Combine an armed populace with a strong tradition of being loyal to the Constitution and its principles first and foremost, even in the context of a…

[deleted]

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

#85

Post by thrower123 »

Udik wrote: post #35
wavefunction wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US opposition to a pipeline to Russia is confined to a small group of people who are strangely very friendly to Russia on all other matters. There is no widespread or popular opposition to Germany building a pipeline to Russia in the United States. This doesn't really treat with the dollar-denominated world economy but I wanted to point this out to differentiate the current irrational foreign policy of the US governm…

> 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…

It's not possible because it is a bit of mass propaganda, from people who haven't yet realized the Cold War was decided thirty years ago and still see a KGB agent under their bed and in every dark closet.

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

#86

Post by cavisne »

UncleSlacky wrote: post #59
tjenkinsqs wrote: post #47

I prefer sanctions a thousand times over war. Don't we have enough of the endless wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. from the last 2 administrations?

Sanctions can be just as deadly as warfare, though, and they almost exclusively affect civilians, and don't get nearly as much media attention as warfare. From https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/06/23/starvation-sanctions... "Starvation sanctions kill people. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have reportedly already died as a result of this administration’s relentless assault on their economy; those human beings are no…

[flagged]

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

#87

Post by Supermancho »

DeonPenny wrote: post #77
geggam wrote: post #20

Given the amount of global debt does it really matter ? https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/economy/global-debt-record/in... Its like the world is playing musical chairs and at some point the music will stop and not everyone will have a seat

Thats not how global debt works.

I'm pretty sure it does. The more debt increases against a property, the more valuation is boosted since the price of the unique property is bundled with the debt.

This is how nations have been looking at debt for some time. Yeah, you can make a margin call on the US (directly or via a partner), but what are you going to replace that resource pipeline with?

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

#88

Post by elfexec »

LatteLazy wrote: post #14
aazaa wrote: post #11

The lack of any viable alternative has kept the dollar in its current dominant position. That alternative won't exactly announce itself so that US policymakers can rationally decide to change course about the weaponization of money. It will instead, sneak up on the country in the form of weird little experiments that don't seem worth the time and effort to track or regulate. By the time one of them becomes the obviou…

Isn't the answer the euro? Stable, inflation proof, light or no sanctions. As brexit proceeds and more financial services move to mainland Europe, you won't even have to worry about the brits messing with it... I seem to remember the EU agreeing to setup a psudo bank to deal direct with Iran so they can bypass restrictions on trade? Edit: here it is! https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/eu-mechanism-for-...

> Isn't the answer the euro?

Only 19 out of the 28 european union members use the euro. So I don't think the euro (a 19 year old currency ) is the answer. Unless something changes, then in the future it might be one of the answers.

> you won't even have to worry about the brits messing with it...

The brits never adopted the euro as their currency, so they never messed with it to begin with.

> Stable, inflation proof, light or no sanctions. As brexit proceeds a

Stable... brexit. The problem with the euro is that its political foundation ( european union ) seems weak. With britain leaving the european union, with the EU sovereign debt crisis and potential for further problems in the near term, it's more likely the EU will break apart and the euro discarded than the euro will replace the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Being the reserve currency of the world requires the political and military backing of a stable superpower. For all our problems, the US isn't losing states like the EU is losing countries.

If the dollar's stranglehold in the world break, we'll probably get regionally dominant currencies. The dollar will still dominate the western hemisphere. The eastern hemisphere will be dominated by regional economic powers and their currencies.

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

#89

Post by igravious »

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…

> Russia may attempt to assert itself to a greater extent in the next few decades, possibly going so far as to annex a Baltic country or two.

This is in the book that forecasts that Japan will attack the US in 2050 except that it'll be all space-borne battlestars and lasers and hypersonic weapons. Among other preposterous scenarios. Riiiight.

> It is advantageous to them to have Western Europe dependent on its oil and natural gas supplies.

Loaded language. Don't you think Western Europe has thought of this? And hey, if Russia turns off the tap they turn off their revenue stream. Besides, Europe, like the US, keeps strategic fossil fuel reserves.

> The United States' main geopolitical imperative is to maintain global hegemony.

> Not saying this is a good or bad thing. Depends on your perspective and what country you live in.

Seems to me that if the US keeps sanctioning foes and allies alike every country bar the US will consider this a bad thing.

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

#90

Post by OrgNet »

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?

Is it the beginning of the great/bad crash of 2020? That would be the only way that Trump would loose the 2020 election...
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