The United States is experiencing the
problem of their sanctions no longer working as nations increasingly disobey
what is declared by those in government. Despite sanctions, the Russian
economy continues to grow at a steady pace and expand.
Inflation in Russia remained
low while the expansion of the economy occurred last year according to a World Bank report. “Although economic sanctions tightened, Russia
experienced relatively low and stable inflation and increased oil production.
As a result of robust domestic activity, the Russian economy expanded at a 1.6
percent pace in the year just ended,” said the report.
The U.S. has long used
sanctions to harm the economies of other countries for a variety of reasons,
however, those sanctions seem to be failing. According to a report by RT, The World Bank pointed out that
Russia and other oil exporters “maintained steady
growth in 2018, supported by a rise in oil prices.” In Russia, “growth has
been resilient, supported by private consumption and exports,” the bank said, projecting a short-term slowdown
this year to 1.5 percent. In 2020 and 2021, the bank expects an increase in the
growth rate of Russia’s GDP to 1.8 percent.
In
October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its forecast for Russia’s
GDP growth in 2019 to 1.8 percent. IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said
that the positive impact of rising world oil prices on the Russian economy
would outweigh the negative effect of Washington’s sanctions. –RT
In May of last year, Bloomberg reported that the U.S.’s “sanction
power” was reaching its limits. It appears that countries susceptible to U.S.
sanctions are dropping the dollar like hotcakes
and working around them making the issuing of sanctions powerless.
Six
years ago, in the course of investigating London-based bank Standard Chartered
Plc over suspicions it had flouted U.S. sanctions against Iran, the New York
State Department of Financial Services published an email from a senior
executive to one of his counterparts in New York. “You f***ing Americans,” the
message read. “Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not
going to deal with Iranians?” –Bloomberg
Russia isn’t the only nation to make sanctions obsolete. China
has set up its own lending institutions parallel to the
Washington-based World Bank and International Monetary Fund and pushed the yuan
as an international currency. The country is likely to strengthen its presence
in Iran no matter what Trump does.
The key decisions, to comply or defy,
will be made by the only actors on the same economic scale as the U.S.: China
and Europe. “For absolutely core national security reasons, China will find
ways around the hold of the U.S. banking sector,” says Jeffrey Sachs, an
economics professor at Columbia University.
Reprinted with permission
from SHTFplan.com.
Mac
Slavo [send him
mail] is a small business owner and independent investor.
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