Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has acknowledged that US sanctions on Iran have created a “real economic crisis” in Iran but haven’t changed the behavior of the government.
“Our sanctions on Iran have created real economic crisis in the country, and Iran is greatly suffering economically because of the sanctions … Has that forced a change in behavior? The answer is much less than we would ideally like,” Yellen said at a congressional hearing on Thursday.
History shows that sanctions do little to change the governments they target but always hurt ordinary people in the targeted country. For example, UN experts said last month that more Iranians are dying from thalassemia, a congenital blood disorder, due to Western sanctions that deprive them of specialized medicines and the ingredients to make them.
Despite the failed policy in Iran, Yellen said the US was looking for ways to strengthen the sanctions even more. The Biden administration has followed the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran and has imposed a large number of new sanctions.
Iran has found some relief by increasing oil sales to Asia, and the US has been trying to target those deals in some of its new sanctions. The US has also ramped up sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s growing military relationship with Moscow, which is a natural result of both countries facing similar Western pressure.
Yellen is trying to win the medal of incompetence held by Biden.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend…”
“The treasury secretary says the sanctions haven’t gotten Iran’s government to change its ‘behavior.'” I disagree. Have you seen their advances in drone technology? It’s like Scott Ritter described, they even created drones out of their “lawn mowers.” (Sarcasm alert)
The US attempts to destroy Iran’s economy but doesn’t really succeed as Iran is the largest economy in the ME. Iran is the US’s declared adversary/enemy.
The US has ensured the destruction of Pakistan’s economy via IMF financial colonization. Pakistan is an ally of the US and it’s economy is much worse than Iran’s.
Better to be the US’s enemy than ally.
Why are all decision makers in the US, particularly on foreign policy are the same ethnicity and mentality of Netanyahu?
At bottom all NAZIS are the same, regardless of race or gender.
“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has acknowledged that US sanctions on Iran have created a “real economic crisis” in Iran but haven’t changed the behavior of the government.”
And the only way to change the behavior of the government will result in something worse. As if any kind of peaceful protests will change the behavior of an oppressive government such as Iran’s. So, there would be widespread death and destruction that would make the economic crisis something people would look back at fondly. But, in the sick minds in Washington, and that old hag Yellen, that would mean the sanctions worked..
Hey, they can dig Madeline up and she can intone how much it was worth it 😉
Her saying it was “worth it” for 500,000 Iraqi children to die because of Clinton’s sanctions was one of the most evil remarks I have ever heard.
I didn’t even hear of it till years after she said it. The woman was just another PudNACker.
Boy, nothing gets by Bid-linken’s crack top echelon staff!
Like the hyphenated name. Similar to another noted terrorist. 😉
LOL. I didn’t even think of that, at least not consciously 😉
Sanctions have KILLED in Iran. Sanctions are forbidden unless authorized by the UNSC.
Yellen is just one more criminal serving at Biden’s court.
What a worthless bunch!
Sanctions are to be applied only, and I say ONLY, when there is a declared war against the party sanctioned. Therefore, all of our sanctions are illegal and flaunt the 4th and 5th Amendments of our Constitution.
Are you sure? What you say makes sense insofar as sanctions can be considered an act of war. Do you have any more info on that – some links?
Depends on what is meant by “sanctions.”
Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution gives Congress the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations.” So sanctions in the form of forbidding US companies to do business with Nation X would not require a declaration of war.
Yellen is another graduate from DC Lie School…!
You need to read her 1996 memo to Greenspan. The purpose of the FED is to keep workers insecure so as to work for low wages, so as to increase profits to corporations. That is the just of the memo.
F*ck Yellen.
We all know where Yellen’s loyalties really lie, don’t we?
Wouldn’t it be funny if Saudi Arabia decided to help Iran evade US sanctions by taking simple steps to launder oil or by trading in yuan?
Did any great empire fail because of profligate spending and debasement of the currency?
The latest Empire to Fail Might Just Be Ours Considering the Proposed $6.8 Trillion Budget!
In just two years from January of 2021 to January of 2023 inflation has diminished the value of the American Dollar by .17 cents. That’s right one dollar in 2021
is now only worth .87 Cents!
A country can have “Guns and Butter” and also pay for
a war in Ukraine along with the income and pensions of every Ukrainian. In addition, money can be found to save Social Security from insolvency and Medicare from failure: Maybe or Maybe Not!
When the current Democrat government came to poser in
January of 2021 inflation was running at 1.4%. Since then, due to several factors’ inflation has risen to a whopping 7.87% by December of last year.
What are the factors causing inflation?
1. 1. Deficit Spending as a primary cause. “Printing
Money” and spending far more than ever.
2. 2. High Energy Costs – These are passed on to the consumer as an additive to the price
of all products.
3. 3. Supply Dislocation – Causing a scarcity of raw materials, gods, and services with too
many dollars chasing too few good.
With the current budget proposal of $6.8 Trillion the
total deficit in the first three years of the Biden Administration will be $5.3 Trillion.
The Difference Between a Deficit and The National Debit!
What is the difference between deficit and debt?
Well boys and girls it’s simple accounting 101.
“What is the difference between the federal budget deficit and the national debt? The budget deficit is the
amount by which expenditures exceed revenues in a particular year, while the national debt is the cumulative effect of all past budget deficits and surpluses.”
So, the current governments 3-year deficit added to the National Debt is $5.3 Trillion. However, given the current
spending trends $17 Trillion is obligated by the US Government in mandatory spending over the 10 year period from Jan 2021 to Jan 2031.
A deficit of $17 Trillion over ten years bring the National Debt from $32 Trillion in Jan of 2021 to a whopping $50 Trillion by Jan of 2031!!!
Deficit Spending Inflation is Transitory?
The Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tells us that inflation is transitory because the current government is reducing the deficit. This is absolutely not truthful.
Here are the deficit numbers from 2022 to 2024:
11. 2022 $1.4 Trillion
2 2. 2023 $1.6 Trillion
3 3. 2024 $1.85 Trillion
Who Will Buy That Debt and At What Interest Rate?
Last year the Fed rate was and 0.33%.
What is the current Fed rate today?
Effective Federal Funds Rate is at 4.83%, compared to 4.58% the previous market day. This is higher than the long-term average of 4.60%. This is only one facet of our financial problems today.
As interest rates driven by inflation rise the value of US Treasury Bonds declines. This can cause bank failures. Oh, it already has caused several!
1. Silicon Valley Bank Santa Clara 2023
2. Signature Bank New York 2023
One of the largest purchasers of United States Treasury bonds are the Chinese. China has ben furiously
offloading American Treasury bonds recently.
By doing so they save 17% which they would have lost in the value of dollar denominated US Government Bonds.
Related to my discussion here is a most interesting graph. It is hard to finance national debt great than a countries GDP if other countries are not buying and holding that debt.
China continues to actively sell U.S. bonds. Their volume has fallen to its lowest level since the 2008 crisis. They know something.
As I stated in recent post the American government went bankrupt in 1971 and devalued the US Dollar by taking it of the Gold Standard. I have posted those comments at the end of this article.
One Key Program Impacted Social Security
Social Security may become insolvent between 2023 and 2025 unless funds are found to plus up this Roosevelt era social program.
Modern Economic Theory
In 2021 many in the US Congress were extolling the virtues of Modern Economic Theory. This is a real smoke
and mirrors idea that printing money and unbridled government debt is not a real problem for a country.
A country can have “Guns and Butter” and also pay for a war in Ukraine along with the income and pensions of every Ukrainian. In addition, money can be found
Well, the chickens are coming home to roost in the form of higher and higher inflation. At some magic point unemployment, social unrest, and a change of government are inevitable.
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/modern-monetary-theory
The Last Time America Went Bankrupt
Bretton Woods System
As the war was coming to a close America and the allied powers started looking toward a post war monetary system that would return the world to prosperity and keep America on top.
The Bretton Woods system set the paradigm for future economic systems with even Japan and Germany included as time went by.
“The Bretton Woods system of monetary management
established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton
Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order
intended to govern monetary relations among independent states. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars to within 1% of fixed parity rates, with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks
at US$35 per troy ounce of fine gold (or 0.88867 gram fine gold per dollar).”
This system functioned well until a few countries became nervous over Americas profligate spending on foreign adventures and domestic programs. From the 1960s on America was inventing money and liquidity like a drunken
sailor. Small military adventures in Central and South America along with Asia became normal. Spending on the Vietnam War, continuation of Franklin Roosevelt’s domestic programs along with Lydon Johnson’s Great Society domestic programs, budget busting expenditures on nuclear weapons, nuclear submarines, ICBM missiles and black budget programs, and John F Kennedy’s race to the moon all made other nations question America’s financial viability. They questioned the unbridled inflation American spending was creating.
Since the Bretton Woods agreement allowed other nations to exchange dollar currency held, they began to make a run on American gold reserves. President of France, General Charles de Gaulle, noting the experience of the French in
Indochina though America was digging a financial grave for itself in Vietnam.
Nixon Shock in 1971
“A negative balance of payments, growing public debt
incurred by the Vietnam War and Great Society programs, and monetary inflation by the Federal Reserve caused the dollar to become increasingly overvalued.[48]
The drain on U.S. gold reserves culminated with the London Gold Pool collapse in March 1968.[49]
By 1970, the U.S. had seen its gold coverage deteriorate from 55% to 22%. This, in the view of neoclassical
economists, represented the point where holders of the dollar had lost faith in the ability of the U.S. to cut budget and trade deficits.”
“In 1971 more and more dollars were being printed in Washington, then being pumped overseas, to pay for government expenditure on the military and social
programs. In the first six months of 1971, assets for $22 billion fled the U.S. In response, on 15 August 1971, Nixon issued Executive Order 11615 pursuant to the Economic
Stabilization Act of 1970, unilaterally imposing 90-day wage and price controls, a 10% import surcharge, and most importantly “closed the gold window”, making the dollar inconvertible to gold directly, except on the open market. Unusually, this decision was made without consulting members of the international monetary system or even his own State Department, and was soon dubbed the Nixon Shock.“
America Saved by Saudi Arabia
In a deal with Saudi Arabia America may have come off the Gold Standard, but the American dollar was subsequently backed by oil. The Petrodollar was the new thing which allowed America to increase liquidity and maintain hegemony over the world, Western Europe, UK, Japan, NATO, ASEAN, et al.
With shock and awe in the financial markets it took time for the American financial system to calm down. There was still the hangover from the American governments profligate spending in the 1960s and 1970 to deal
with. This was manifest in unbridled inflation eating up the value of the dollar.
So I will restate the issues: Spending on the Vietnam War, continuation of Franklin Roosevelt’s domestic programs along with Lydon Johnson’s Great Society domestic programs, budget busting expenditures on nuclear weapons, nuclear submarines, ICBM missiles and black budget programs, and John F Kennedy’s race to the moon all made other nations question America’s financial viability as hyperinflation caused by American liquidity creation and overspending ramped up.
Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker was tasked with fixing the problem cause by the American government’s overspending. Whip Inflation Now – WIN was his program and it involved raising the Prime Interest Rate.
What is the highest prime rate in US history?
“What was the highest prime rate? The highest prime rate was 21.5%, reached on December 19, 1980.”
Home mortgages: “As a result, lenders increased rates to keep up with unchecked inflation, leading to mortgage rate volatility for borrowers. Rates crossed into double-digit territory bumping up to 10.11% toward the end of 1978
and steadily rising to 12.90% by end of the 1970s”
As we all know interest rates came back down as the glut of US liquidity was eaten up and also helped along by historical factors.