Sanctions are Good for You

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

More sanctions coming to Russia if the "bill from hell"* gets signed but, apparently, the effect on Russia's oil industry will be more modest than the sponsors of the bill may have hoped for. Lack of access to Western banks and tech have simply spurred local R&D and production growth with Chinese money. Basically, sanctions have been almost good for Russian oil. Who cares about some high-cost projects, after all.

*Do these guys live in an action movie or the real world?

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

"Sanctions are Good for You"

 

[jaycee + 348]

Good for a country probably not short term but long term they probably are as they will open new ways of thinking and doing things and probably bad for America long term due to the knock on effects.

Sanctions will make Russia, and China, realize there is no point trying to trade with the US if they can avoid it, they can't off course just now but how much they have to is the question, and to rely more on internal development just like the cold war only this time China and Russia are much more developed industrially and more open so can deal with other countries. Europe will continue to deal with Russia and China,as they need them for trade as America is proving very fickle in its trade alliances. The real downside though for America trying to stop the world from dealing with countries it does not like through the power of having the $ as the world's trading currency is to make the possibility of the rest of the world deciding to use other currencies, or even gold, for world trade is that American debts which are in $s  are going to become difficult for the US government to service. All this posturing round the world by Trump throwing his weight around may play well short term but long term the consequences for America are potentially massive. An interesting gamble by Trump, that is assuming he has considered the consequences, lets see how it plays.