As The Wall Street Journal reports,What could go wrong? These morons are dangerous.
As the administration prepares for a possible next round of sanctions against Russia, it is increasingly relying on an obscure unit inside the Treasury Department—a group of sanctions architects and financial sleuths in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence—to play a leading role in U.S. foreign policy.
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Founded to disrupt terrorist financing after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Treasury office now plays a central role in exerting pressure overseas as the American public has little appetite for military intervention.
"What we've done over the past 10 years is to create a new method of projecting U.S. power," Mr. Cohen said in an interview. "We do that in a way that is unique in the world."
His office includes an intelligence shop that scours bank reports and spy agencies' gleanings for financial patterns that could threaten U.S. security, making Treasury "the only finance ministry in the world with an in-house intelligence unit," Mr. Cohen said.
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"We have become proficient at reducing collateral damage," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in remarks to be delivered Monday at a conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that is looking at the office's work in its first decade. "But we cannot escape the fact that when we deploy these methods, there will be those who will unintentionally pay a price."
But it seems not everyone is so excited about the threat of this obscure war-mongering from the US Treasury...
Some of the resistance Treasury faces comes from U.S. businesses that worry about the fallout. Meddling with an economy as big as Russia's, for instance, could trigger significant losses for U.S. businesses if their work is affected by the sanctions, or if Moscow decided to retaliate.
Zero Hedge
Obama Administration Prepares To Unleash Weapons Of Mass Wealth Effect Destruction On Russia
Submitted by Tyler Durden
2 comments:
Fed QE2 unleashed weapons of mass financial destruction that triggered the Arab Spring uprising, so maybe they want to replay that strategy.
I don't think that Fed QE policy is intrinsically inflationary per se, but enough of the trading community perceived it to be inflationary and therefore traded accordingly. Lets connect the dots between Fed QE2, rising food prices and the Arab Spring uprising.
August 26, 2010 -- Jackson Hole Wyoming Fed confab, Bernanke hints that QE2 was in the pipeline.
Nov 11, 2010 Fed begins QE2
Jan 6, 2011 - Food riots break out in Algeria over the soaring cost of food as flour, cooking oil and sugar double in price.
Unrest spills over into Tunnisia resulting fall of government President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January 2011 as he was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia
Turmoil spreads to Libya and Egypt disrupting oil production and sending oil prices 20% higher. February 11, 2011 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigns as military takes over. Gaddafi government of Libya ousted on September 16, 2011
Feb 9, 2011 - Bernanke testified before Congress that Fed QE policy did not unleash the inflation that was running rampant at the time and ironically instead blamed rising prices on disruption in the oil market due to fighting in Libya.
The unrest spread to Syria which has been at civil war for more than three years with death toll now estimated at 150K.
Talk about financial weapons of mass destruction! All those governments toppled and maybe more on the way without the US even having to fire a shot, with the exception of course of Libya. Maybe the Fed should be part of the Defense Department?
If Putin had even the slightest clue about economics he would simply laugh at the idiotic sanctions imposed by Treasury. However, when you sell your oil for foreign exchange when that's not necessary and when you peg your currency to the dollar when that's also not necessary, you are vulnerable to dollar-based sanctions. So he deserves it.
And Putin is probably doing these idiotic things to preserve the wealth of the oligarchs (of which, he is one) so they can keep their houses in the French Riviera and all the ill-gotten assets that should have been the inheritance of the Russian people.
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