The US on Thursday hit Iran with fresh sanctions that targeted companies accused of facilitating the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals to Asia.
The US Treasury Department said that the sanctions targeted “six Iran-based petrochemical manufacturers or their subsidiaries, and three firms in Malaysia and Singapore involved in facilitating the sale and shipment of petroleum and petrochemicals.”
The US has been increasing sanctions on Iran throughout the Biden administration, but more so since indirect talks to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, have been stalled. In November, President Biden was caught on camera saying the JCPOA is “dead” but that he couldn’t announce it.
Besides the sanctions, the US has also expressed support for protesters inside Iran and is stepping up military cooperation with Israel. Last month, the US and Israel held their largest-ever joint military exercises that involved massive live-fire drills meant to send a message to Iran.
The joint exercises also sent a message to the region that the US backs the controversial new Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu, which has vowed to expand settlements in the West Bank and eventually annex the territory.
Following the exercises, Israel launched a drone attack against a military facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan. US officials told The Wall Street Journal that Israel was responsible for the attack and said it came at a time when the US and Israel were discussing ways to contain Tehran’s military capabilities.
The US does not need allies. Chinese creditors, yes. Allies? Who?
The age of foreign creditors is essentially over.
Then who will buy enough US bonds to cover our deficit?
The Fed in cohoots with the Treasury will keep creating ‘currency’ until it become virtually worthless. With digital currencies on the way, they won’t need to run the printing presses as much as they can just import figures on a screen.
That’s already mostly the case. According to Forbes, almost 90% of US “dollars” (and about the same percentage of other global fiat currencies) are entirely digital and have no physical (e.g. printed or minted) existence.
I figured out a long time ago that the intrinic value of paper is about what it costs to print the paper currency considering they could just as easily do like they did in Zimbabwee and put a million or a billion dollar amount on the bill, costs the same to print it regardless. The ‘backed by the full faith of the U.S. Government’ doesn’t seem to engender a lot of confidence at this point.
You can wipe yourself with dollar bills-can’t do that with digital or gold.
It was once common to compare how many hours someone would have to work to buy a loaf of bread in the US vs. the USSR. That approach strikes me as a useful way (if it can be done accurately and without bias) to determine how much value a nation’s currency might have.
Average price of bread in the US, December 2022: $1.873 per pound
Average US income, October 2022: $63,214
That income, at 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year (2080 hours), would break down to $30.39 per hour, so the average American would work for about 3.75 minutes to buy a pound of bread.
Average price of one pound of bread in Russia: 41.72 rubles
Average income in Russia: 1,240,000 rubles per year
At 52 weeks, 40 hours per week, that would break down to 596 rubles per hour, so the average Russian would work for about 4.2 minutes to buy a pound of bread.
Doesn’t seem like a huge difference.
One thing to consider is the possible nutrition differential, though.
I haven’t been to Russia to check, but my impression is that the most frequently consumed types of bread over there are less processed Stolichiy (rye) and Darnitskiy (“black bread,” mix of rye and wheat), compared to the pretty low-nutrition processed over-processed white bread most Americans eat. So in terms of physical benefit, you’re probably getting more value OUT of the bread versus what you spend ON the bread over there. A McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and a 4-ounce ribeye are both “beef,” but that doesn’t mean they have the same qualities/characteristics.
Interesting!
I love how the U.S. paints itself as moral while trying to eliminate, non-military, civilian products. Petrochemicals are used for detergents, clothing, building materials, Pharmaceuticals …
Glory be to the United States, the empress of the world.
The U.S. and Israel in many opinions are and have been the biggest threats to world peace and not many nations buy into the U.S. having any moral ‘high ground’. Becoming more like the biblical ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’.
Russia grabbed Crimea,China genocided Tibet-those are OK.
You need history lessons pilgrim
If you speak to anyone living there, you will discover that Crimea reached out to Russia for protection. They should never have allowed Kyev to usurp their independence in the first place.
The US uses sanctions the way the papacy once used excommunications.
The closure of Strait of Hormuz could happen soon…!
No wonder nations want to get away from having to use the U.S. dollar as the U.S. has become ‘Sanction Nation’.
Pepe Escobar mentioned recently that “from now on 52 Iranian banks already using SEPAM, Iran’s interbank telecom system, are connecting with 106 banks using SPFS, Russia’s equivalent to the western banking messaging system SWIFT.”