Posted on 08/20/2014 11:55:49 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
RUSSIA HAS responded to new sanctions from the U.S. and the EU with a weird, self-defeating retaliatory measure: It is banning for a year a variety of food imports from the offending parties, among them salmon from Norway, apples from Poland, cheeses from Denmark and the Netherlands, pears from Belgium and chicken from the U.S.
But ponder what Moscow just did: It has imposed a trade embargo on itself. Imagine the queasiness, if not outright opposition, that would have arisen had Washington and Brussels declared they were banning food exports to Russia, thereby putting a real crimp in Russian diets and raising the prices of foodstuffs produced inside Russia (with fewer imports, demand for Russian food will go up). Critics would have cried that we were punishing innocent people instead of targeting Vladimir Putin, his oligarchs and their crony banks and companies. Yet Russia has done this to itself. Already the government is readying decrees against “price gouging” and “hoarding.”
There hasn’t been anything like this since Pesident Thomas Jefferson imposed a similarly self-destructive blockade on U.S.
shipping. In 1807 our Chief Executive barred U.S. trade with Britain and France because these warring nations were seizing American vessels. Jefferson bizarrely reasoned that if he cut off trade with the two countries they would come to their senses and leave us unmolested. The result was a devastating economic contraction in New England and other trade-dependent parts of the U.S. as American ships were holed up in home ports, not because of enemy warships but because of a presidential decree.
So outraged was New England that a serious secession movement arose.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Kentucky Fried Chicken going out of business in Russia...
What does Putin care? He could say, “Let them eat cake.” Or better yet, “They drink vodka.”
It’s Russia.
Putin made a deal with some Russian food oligarchs.
And... China just banned our pork. That will hurt our pork producers. They eat a lot of pork in China.
Russia will spend this money elsewhere - in Brazil, Uruguay, Turkey, and many other countries lining up to export bonanza.
Today, Switzerland refused to dropship EU food to Russia. The Swiss don't want to lose their own lucrative export business to Russia. EU will be in the hole up to $12B. Compensation for exporters who lost business is paltry $400M. Adam Smith, indeed.
Polish truck fleet, among the biggest in EU will go bankrupt. No compensation whatsoever.
And so on.
Steve Forbes is joking with twits who read his advice.
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