Sanctions-Hit Russian Bank Urges Halt to Foreign Payments. © RIA Novosti. Igor Russak
Economically Deflating Russia Can Be Done -- Lawrence Kudlow, Washington Examiner
President Obama has ramped up his second round of economic and financial sanctions on Russia, and on Vladimir Putin in particular. Some of this is already working. But if anybody believes it will be easy to financially deflate Russia, they better think again.
Russia holds $132 billion of U.S. Treasury securities. That's a big number, and it could be sold in the event of financial warfare. That won't kill the United States. But it will undoubtedly cause interest rates to rise.
Would Putin spend it all? Who knows? His central bank just spent $50 billion to defend a sinking ruble, which is off about 10 percent year to date. But that still leaves about $400 billion in foreign-exchange reserves that could be called upon to defend the Russian homeland in an emergency.
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My Comment: This is one of those articles that does present a viable way to economically punish a country like Russia .... but because it will also negatively impact one's own country's economy is the guarantee that such measures will never be adopted.
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