DISCLAIMER
: This is mostly an opinion piece. I am not an expert in economics or sanctions or how to stop an invasion by a guy sitting on a shit ton of nuclear weapons. Now that we got that out of the way…
…quite frankly, I’m not even entirely sure what these sanctions entail.
I heard something about freezing assets or tariffs or refusing to trade with Russia, but I don’t really know any of the details. I’m going to look them up right now. Hang on. I’ll be right back. While I’m gone, if you’d like to brush up on the subject, here are links to the official White House and Treasury press releases from February 24:
FACT SHEET: Joined by Allies and Partners, the United States Imposes Devastating Costs on Russia:
The Treasury’s press release has a lot of words and I know a lot of people hate that shit, but the White House press release was kind enough to make us a bulleted list highlighting the major sanctions and I have included that below for you guys who are too lazy to click links:
Severing the connection to the U.S. financial system for Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank.
New debt and equity restrictions on thirteen of the most critical major Russian enterprises and entities.
Additional full blocking sanctions on Russian elites and their family members: Sergei Ivanov (and his son, Sergei), Nikolai Patrushev (and his son Andrey), Igor Sechin (and his son Ivan), Andrey Puchkov, Yuriy Solviev (and two real estate companies he owns), Galina Ulyutina, and Alexander Vedyakhin.
Costs on Belarus for supporting a further invasion of Ukraine
Sweeping restrictions on Russia’s military to strike a blow to Putin’s military and strategic ambitions.
Russia-wide restrictions to choke off Russia’s import of technological goods critical to a diversified economy and Putin’s ability to project power.
Historical multilateral cooperation that serves as a force multiplier in restricting more than $50 billion in key inputs to Russia- impacting far more than that in Russia’s production.
Ok. Now that all of us are like…tooootally experts…are the sanctions working or not? If their goal is to end this invasion, not yet. Granted, the desired impact of these sanctions obviously takes time to materialize, and it’s not gonna happen overnight.
That said, there is a period of time between when sanctions are imposed and when they bring about the desired outcome, and it would seem to me that during this time, some folks are getting rich, and stopping the invasion becomes a conflict of interest to the people with the power and authority to help do so, and this seems to be true of most “crisis” situations, not just this one.
CUI BONO or whatever : Who Benefits?
I’ll tell you who has not seen any benefit: Me. Have you seen any benefit? Or have you been paying jacked up food and gas prices? The citizens of Ukraine are still being attacked, despite our government’s constant flow of ‘aid’ (that mostly means weapons if you haven’t noticed by now). And the citizens of Russia will probably feel the pain of these sanctions more than anyone as their economy gets squeezed.
The immediate concern for anyone with an ounce of compassion in their soul is clearly for the Ukrainian people. Ending this violence would benefit them the most. What they are going through is atrocious and the sooner it stops the better (for them). That is where I stand. But I’m a decent human.
Defense contractors, our government, large corporations and big spenders that dominate global trade, however, are not decent humans. They are a bunch of greedy cunts, and as luck would have it, they are making a fucking KILLING right now. Let's take a peek at some of the big dick swingers!
ExxonMobil:
Lockheed Martin:
Amazon:
Hedge Funds:
Google:
Abbott Labs (medical supplies):
BlackRock:
I won't go through everyone that might potentially have an interest in this situation, don’t get me started on “news” media, but the biggest companies in the world are making out like bandits.
MY 2 CENTS©️?!
Glad you asked. The unfortunate reality of violence is that violence creates chaos, chaos creates volatility in markets, and volatility creates opportunities to make big money. And companies that are making big money like to continue making big money for as long as possible.
I'm not saying these companies are all run by evil maniacs. I'm saying…even if some of their executives are loving, caring humans who are morally opposed to war and violence and murder, the current business model of for-profit corporations requires them to put shareholder interests above all else. In an article written by me right now, I was quoted as saying:
Bank accounts count more than body counts. And you can take that to the bank.
If a war breaks out and ExxonMobil sees dollar signs 💵 💸 💵, they’re going to make a note of that. These people are not stupid. They pay nerds significant salaries to study these correlations.
Now imagine a make believe fantasy world - certainly not our world - where, over 75 years or so, a decade-long conflict breaks out every ten years. Now the nerds at ExxonMobil have a nice big data set to look at. Now they have a pattern.
If a company’s primary objective is to make money and they spot a pattern and that pattern tells them “Every time X happens, you will make a shit ton of money”, they will exploit it. They’d be fools not to. Furthermore, if their shareholders found out that the executives knew of a way to make more money and DIDN’T do it, they would be pissed, and those executives would probably be replaced with someone who will do it.
Corporations function to make money. That’s the bottom line. When the money starts rolling in, their morals go right out the window (assuming they had any to begin with). Their culture is “If you don’t like making money, you can get the fuck out, and we will find someone who does.” So…you stuff your personal feelings in a box. You might even start to develop a pro-war worldview. You might start hoping for war. Some madman might even get real wild and just...start a war!
That last part is obviously exaggerated; the most extreme example. I’m not saying anyone has done that…but...the idea that someone could or would instigate a war for profit probably wasn’t that much of a stretch for your brain was it? So it’s probably also not much of a stretch to think that, for all the same reasons, someone might be interested in prolonging a war for profit.
The human cost doesn’t really factor in to business decisions made on a global scale. From my observations, the math says that scale (X) and concern for human life (Y) are inversely proportional, the larger the scale, the less of a fuck is given about human life, and Y -> 0 as X -> ♾️. If some people have to die, oh fucking well.
Defense contractors are unloading billions of dollars in weapons. Oil companies are raping you on gas prices. Commodities traders are going bananas. 🍌 Tech companies are pumped. The rich fucks like Warren Buffet who just dumped $7 billion into Occidental Petroleum are happy. Nancy Pelosi and all the other swine in Congress who engage in constant insider trading are getting paid. Biden’s brigade of billionaire campaign donors are getting what they paid for. And all those businesses and donors will funnel some of those profits back to the politicians via more campaign donations. It’s the circle of life in Washington DC. And sadly, that circle often revolves around death.
Let’s be real here…do you think some executive at Lockheed gives a fuck about dead Ukrainians? Or Russians? They make weapons that kill people. Do you think Joe Biden cares? Him and Obama spent eight years dropping drone strikes on civilians on the other side of the planet. Do you think Larry Fink at BlackRock cares? Doubtful.
I’m not saying these sanctions won’t work, or aren’t working. Cutting a country out of the global economy is certainly gonna hurt. But even doing that will only creates a situation where Russia is shopping around for willing buyers of their exports, and selling them at bargain basement prices. Investors in countries that have not sanctioned Russia can now swoop in and buy up those distressed assets. Now those guys are making money and they have an economic incentive for dragging this out and milking it for all it’s worth. And the cycle of greed continues. On and fuckin’ on. Way she goes, I suppose.
I’ll leave it there. Drop some comments if you want. Hit me up. Subscribe. Share. All that shit.