Sputnik — Economic Sanctions are Wall Street's 'Instruments of Destabilization

Big business in the US is manipulating world politics to make more profit, financial expert Ernst Wolff told Sputnik German. 

Economic sanctions are a political tool which benefits US big business, financial expert Ernst Wolff told Sputnik German. 

Following the 2008 financial crisis, the volume of trade between Germany and Russia increased to a record 80.5 billion euros ($89.2 billion) in 2012. However, since then, the amount of goods traded by the two countries has almost halved due to the imposition of sanctions in 2014; last year Germany exported 21.7 billion euros worth of goods to Russia, and Russia exported 29.7 billion euros worth to Germany.

Wolff, the author of "Pillaging the World: The History and Politics of the IMF," said that this situation affects, above all, small- and medium-size businesses, which face financial difficulties and are easily pushed out of the market by big business.…

Sanctions and counter-sanctions have resulted in a decrease in trade between Russia and other Eastern European countries, to the advantage of US firms seeking to weaken the EU, and institute the controversial TTIP trade agreements.…

"TTIP will be of tremendous benefit to US big business. If US employment law suddenly starts to dominate European companies, that is another step towards the world domination of the US. On the other hand, the Americans are in serious difficulties are the moment. They have the largest economy in the world, but this economy is in crisis."
Wolff said that US policy aims to weaken the relationship between the EU and Russia.

"The US is really worried that the EU will team up with Russia or possibly China. That is an apocalyptic scenario for the US, so it is always trying to isolate Russia and China as much as possible on the world market. Don't forget that Europe is dependent on Russian oil and gas to a large extent, and the US financial system doesn't like that."

"That's why they use instruments of destabilization, to weaken competitors on the world market. You have to look at sanctions in this context," Wolff concluded.

Sputnik
Economic Sanctions are Wall Street's 'Instruments of Destabilization