New world order8/17/2023 In 1940, Roosevelt closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. The closest we’ve come in recent history was perhaps US President Franklin D Roosevelt’s attempts 80-odd years ago to curtail an expansionist Japanese Empire. It is unprecedented for a large power (and permanent member of the UN Security Council) to be subject to such sanctions. The EU has banned imports of Russian coal, refined oil products and oil by sea. And western Europe has frozen the assets of all Russian banks, blocked Russian firms from borrowing money, and placed limits on Russians deposits in European banks. Russia has been barred from making debt payments using foreign currency held in US banks. ![]() ![]() Major Russian banks have been removed from Swift, the international financial messaging system. In addition to targeting key individuals associated with the Putin regime, western nations are trying to limit Russia’s access to money. Vladimir Putin may have expected little resistance to his “special operation”, but the Ukrainian response has been intense and courageous.Īnd the West has shown surprising unity in agreeing a two-pronged strategy: providing advanced weapons systems to Ukraine while also imposing unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia. Back in 1979, few could have foreseen the immense change that lay ahead.īy contrast, the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year was impossible to ignore. The Berlin Wall came down, China pushed for greater trade with the West, and economic globalisation accelerated. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan took the top political jobs in the UK and US, unleashing four decades of falling interest rates, lower inflation, and rising financial asset prices. ![]() The appointment of Paul Volcker in 1979 to head up the US Federal Reserve ushered in a decade of transformation. Cormac Lucey explains whyĮnormous change sometimes occurs without us even noticing. The West is now at economic war with Russia and the consequences may well shape our lives for decades to come.
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