Thread: Economic sanctions

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

And there are plenty of places to get gas from other than Canada

It appears Germany for one is unable to obtain any, even Qatar.

Originally Posted by OhOh

It appears Germany for one is unable to obtain any, even Qatar.

It's already buying Qatari gas. It just doesn't want to commit to a 20-year contract at the current price.

It's also buying gas from Australia and the US.

Don't you know anything?

Love that commitment to reducing global warming. Anyone remember the climate change accords? Nah.

Originally Posted by sabang

Love that commitment to reducing global warming. Anyone remember the climate change accords? Nah.

That kind of idealism goes out the window in times of War. I’m sure Putin accepts responsibility for pushing the world into economic reverse, just because dictators can do whatever they want.

Ask the Pentagon- by some accounts the most polluting organisation in the world.

"Hoohoo is a boring sack of shit who just cuts and pastes Russian propaganda".

- Bloomberg

Wapo? Bloomberg? The links are all just horseshit propaganda. There is no Wapo or Bloomberg. Just lies and horseshit.

According to your references, Russian industry is in decline, but this is only an example of Russia adapting to sanctions?

I wonder who published that assumption?

Bloomberg and the Washington Post are quite clearly linked in those articles. The worst hit sector seems to be auto manufacturing. The truth is not treason, and there is no question these 'draconian sanctions' have not turned out the way we expected, or at least were told to expect. Continental Europe, in particular, has endured the double whammy of a plunging Euro and a declining trade balance, still faces energy insecurity as Winter approaches, and is going into recession.

Originally Posted by sabang

Bloomberg and the Washington Post are quite clearly linked in those articles. The worst hit sector seems to be auto manufacturing. The truth is not treason, and there is no question these 'draconian sanctions' have not turned out the way we expected, or at least were told to expect. Continental Europe, in particular, has endured the double whammy of a plunging Euro and a declining trade balance, still faces energy insecurity as Winter approaches, and is going into recession.

Russia has to adapt, others will too. Your obsession with FX is noted.

I am more concerned about the punitive effect on all sides. It will always fall on the poorest.

Strange how uninterested I am in the UK these days, considering I was born there- hence this has come as a bit of a surprise. Anyway, the economy is even worse than Europe.


Global Economic Depression: U.K. “Sharpest Economic Contraction” Since 1709. European Economies in Straightjacket



The United Kingdom is currently going through the sharpest economic contraction in the last 313 years. According to Reuters, this is the country’s worst recorded fall in output in more than three centuries. Since 2020, the UK broke this unflattering record multiple times, first after it faced the severe consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, then after the fallout of the suicidal anti-Russian sanctions started to kick in.

Curiously, this contraction is a far larger decline than is the case in any other major Western economy, updated official figures showed on Monday. GDP (gross domestic product) fell by 11.0% in 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. This was a bigger drop than any of the ONS’s previous estimates and the largest fall since 1709, according to historical data hosted by the Bank of England.

The UK statistics experts regularly update GDP estimates as more data becomes available. The ONS’s initial estimates had already suggested that in 2020 the UK suffered its biggest fall in output since the “Great Frost” of 1709. But more recently the ONS had revised down the scale of the fall to 9.3%, the largest since just after World War One. According to Reuters, even before the latest revisions, the UK’s economic slump was the largest among the G7 countries, and the latest downward revision makes it worse than that of Spain, which recorded a 10.8% fall in economic output. However, the ONS advised against drawing direct comparisons with other Western economies, as most – with the likely exception of the United States – had “not yet undertaken the same type of in-depth revisions as the UK had.” The downward revision in GDP reflected lower contributions from healthcare and retailers than previously thought, the report says.

The European Commission’s Plan to Ban Russian Oil Imports Receives Backlash

“The health service faced higher costs than we initially estimated, meaning its overall contribution to the economy was lower,” ONS statistician Craig McLaren said.

According to the report, the ONS had already factored in a fall in routine care provided by the UK’s troubled NHS (National Health Service) as it focused on treating COVID-19 patients and limiting the spread of the disease in hospitals. A closer look at the increased costs faced by individual retailers also led to a downward revision of the sector’s contribution, while factory output was revised up to take account of lower raw material costs. The UK economy bounced back sharply last year and recovered its pre-pandemic size in November 2021. But fast-rising inflation means the Bank of England expects the economy will slip back into recession later this year, the report concludes.

The UK is hardly the only Western power with severe economic output problems. The European Union, which the UK formally left on 31 January 2020, is also going through a tremendously difficult economic and financial crisis. This is also affecting many other countries around the globe, regardless of whether their economies are more or less integrated with those of other European countries or the EU itself. Sanctions aimed against Russia are already wreaking havoc in many, if not most Western economies.

Although the political West was initially confident the sanctions would work, in time, the belligerent power pole started losing this misplaced self-confidence. As the Kiev regime kept suffering defeats, and despite a massive media campaign to portray it as winning, people in the West became less enthusiastic. This worsened after sanctions started affecting the West more than Russia itself. Western leadership tried spinning the narrative, claiming sanctions supposedly had no boomerang effect, but that “Russia’s unprovoked, brutal invasion” was the reason behind everyone’s troubles. In June, an LA Times column, authored by Doyle McManus described his experience after visiting Europe. The columnist was in Italy to see how sanctions affected life in Europe:

“It wasn’t hard to find the effects. You’re unhappy about $5 a gallon for gas? Try $8. ‘It’s painful filling the tank,’ my friend Roberto Pesciani, a retired teacher, moaned. Utility bills? The cost of natural gas is four times higher in Italy than in the US. ‘Heating prices are up. Grocery prices are up.

Everything’s going up,’ Pesciani said. The worries go beyond inflation. Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, warned recently that Russia’s blockade on Ukraine’s grain exports could spark a global bread war, producing famine in Africa and a new wave of migrants heading for Europe. ‘The problem with sanctions on Russia is that they will only work if they hurt us too,’ Pesciani observed.”

If we ignore false narratives, such as the supposed “blockade” of Ukrainian ports by the Russian Navy, the problems mentioned in this short interview are currently plaguing tens or likely hundreds of millions of people in Europe. As a result, the so-called “Ukraine unity myth” is slowly but surely starting to crumble in most Western states, particularly EU members.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/global...jacket/5791185

NaGastan has Europe's back. Nice phrase but, now as usual, will fail to deliver:

Granholm to Europe: Tough Luck

The Energy Secretary bullies U.S. companies to reduce fuel exports.

By The Editorial Board

Aug. 24, 2022 6:43 pm ET

"America’s allies in Europe are desperate for alternative supplies of fuel amid the Ukraine war, and U.S. producers are happy to provide what they can. So wouldn’t you know the Biden Administration now wants to limit fuel exports.

That’s the message Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm sent last week in a letter imploring seven major refiners to limit fuel exports. We obtained a copy of the letter, which the administration did not publish. Ms Granholm warns that east coast petrol stocks are at a nearly decade low and diesel stocks across the region are nearly 50% below the five year average ....."

Continues behind a paywall at:

Granholm to Europe: Tough Luck - WSJ

Also, more reporting available at:

Biden Energy Secretary Quietly Bullies US Refiners To Reduce European Fuel Exports | ZeroHedge

Ok so nothing other than propaganda crap here.

This is just sad. Germany has to start negotiations with Russia. Soon.

Originally Posted by sabang

"Until a few years ago, "Russian propaganda" meant media created by the Russian government to facilitate the information interests of the Kremlin. Now it just means any media that criticizes the foreign policy of the most powerful empire that has ever existed."

Caitlin Johnstone


The fact that you, and people like you, are now describing articles by the likes of Bloomberg, Washington Post, Henry Kissinger, Pat Buchanan, Jack Matlock, Noam Chomsky, John Mearsheimer, Jeffrey Sachs and so on as "Russian propaganda" merely exposes your limited mental capacity and the paucity of your argument snubby.


[To be responded to by an ad hom and irrelevant dig at Caitlin Johnstone, no doubt.]

Johnstone seems to be a former journalist come life coach and consultant. A crowd funded hack, who has a hard on for your love of Assange?

Could you find a more obscure and indecisive Australian? Maybe you are just a star struck teenager. Maybe she just enjoys freedom of speech, something her Russian and Chinese counterparts are denied?

Anyone with such a pernicious presence on twitter is very scary, when that medium is used for expression of their own reality

She comes across as a z list mouthpiece for sale to the highest bidder.

in essence, she is just a shouty blogger.

Nice try to add a list of your favourite quoted supporters, in order to attach them to a person with much less credibility.

Related to sanctions, related to war, related to the environment ... this thread will do.

Europe is destroying itself. I thought some sanity would prevail at this point. But no

Beer shortages and pig pile-ups: Fertilizer crisis rattles European food chain – POLITICO

"Until a few years ago, "Russian propaganda" meant media created by the Russian government to facilitate the information interests of the Kremlin. Now it just means any media that criticizes the foreign policy of the most powerful empire that has ever existed."

Caitlin Johnstone

Swish-

Could you find a more obscure and indecisive Australian?

^ Have you read any of Johnstone’s books?

No. I've read some of her 'ethereal' poetry though. But it's her quite regular catty, pithy comments that selectively get copied here.