If Sanctions Work So Well, Why Is Europe Delivering the Ninth Package?

The EU Idiocracy Can’t Seem to Admit Sanctions Only Hurt Europeans. [The Rude Awakening] December 16, 2022 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( If Sanctions Work So Well, Why Is Europe Delivering the Ninth Package? - The EU has just delivered a ninth - ninth! - set of sanctions on Russia. - Europeans stand to lose even more of their wealth to inflation and scarcity. - Finally, Merkel admitted to lying to Putin about the Minsk Agreement. [Warning: Will “Bidenflation” Destroy Your Retirement?]( If you’re like most Americans, you’ve worked hard for decades to build your financial legacy. And now, as a result of Biden’s disastrous money printing policies, that’s all at risk. According to one top retirement expert, “Bidenflation” threatens to destroy your retirement and make your hard-earned savings worthless. That’s why you must take action right away to protect yourself… [Click here now to get the simple, step-by-step actions to survive “Bidenflation.”]( [Click Here To Learn More]( [Sean Ring] SEAN RING Happy Friday! We’ve made it. And thank heavens. I’m looking forward to frolicking in the snow more this weekend. Yesterday, I had to write about Chairman Pow and the Fed. That kind of stuff is critical. And before that, we talked about energy and capital flows. But news broke earlier in the week in the German press that has barely reached America’s shores. I think you ought to know about it. Also breaking is how the EU has just delivered a - count them up! - ninth package of sanctions on the Russians. How did Einstein define insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Well, I hereby declare the EU insane. What’s in the Sanctions Package? Let’s find out [straight from the horse’s mouth]( First, we are proposing to add almost 200 additional individuals and entities to our sanctions list. … Second, we propose to introduce sanctions against three additional Russian banks, including a full transaction ban on the Russian Regional Development Bank to further paralyze Putin's cash machines. Third, we also want to impose new export controls and restrictions, particularly for dual-use goods. This includes key chemicals, nerve agents, electronics, and IT components that could be used by the Russian war machine. Fourth, we will cut Russia's access to all sorts of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles. We propose to ban the direct exports of drone engines to Russia and the export to any third countries, such as Iran, which could supply drones to Russia. We will also target the Russian propaganda machine by taking four additional channels off the air and all other distribution platforms. And we propose further economic measures against the Russian energy and mining sector, including a ban on new mining investments in Russia. This package comes on top of the full EU import ban on Russian seaborne oil that came into force this week. As well as the global oil price cap agreed between the G7. The international cooperation against Russia's war has never been stronger. We stand united and firm. A couple of things come to mind. First, international cooperation isn’t strong, even within the EU. The EU isn’t united and firm. How do we know this? [Poland and Lithuania held up passage]( of this very package because six Western European countries had called for a clearer carveout to unblock shipments of fertilizer now stuck in port. The fertilizer shipments are there because of concerns among intermediaries that handling such cargoes would make them liable for violations. Western Europe won the battle, as usual. Eastern Europe was upset, and Ukraine was furious. But the elephant in the room is this: if sanctions work so well, why is the EU on the ninth package? And more importantly: what are the unforeseen consequences of this package for Europeans? I’m sure we’ll see soon enough. Well, what do you know? Here’s one already: [SJN] Credit: [@GoldTelegraph_]( But what really got my goat was the news leaked in Germany, which had a big hand in starting this mess. [Proof Biden is a Criminal?]( A former CIA advisor with connections to the White House has just released a bombshell… [A congressional document that Biden and his grifter family hope you never see](. And he just discussed all the details in a shocking interview that I’m certain will be censored everywhere. [Click here to see it before it’s censored](. [Click Here To Learn More]( Mutti Lied to Putin Here’s a tweet I came across from Max Blumenthal a few days ago: [SJN] Credit: [@MaxBlumenthal]( I can’t believe Merkel so brazenly admitted this to the German press, which is little more than a wholly owned subsidiary of the US military. That they printed it baffles me now. But perhaps you can now understand why Putin says he can’t trust the West. Maybe most in the West don’t care about that. Regardless, it makes peace impossible and trade improbable. What solution do these Russia haters have? Ignore Russia, its power, and its resources forever? That’s a preposterous idea. Unfortunately, it has traction. I’ll remind you that Russia is the sixth-largest economy in the world by GDP (PPP). For comparison, the UK is ninth. Russia also has 140 million people and covers 11 time zones. And besides all the oil and gas Russia has, I asked these questions in a previous [Rude]( What about palladium for catalytic converters? What about cobalt, of which Russia is the world's second-largest exporter? You need cobalt to make rechargeable batteries. It is also the world's second-largest supplier of vanadium, which is used in large-scale energy storage and in steelmaking. What about nickel for stainless steel and car batteries? Russia exports 10% of the world's supply of nickel. Good friend and wise Paradigm Editor Byron King had this to say when I posted the Blumenthal tweet on our editorial board: This is beyond outrageous --> it's war criminal-ish. Nuremberg Trial war criminal-ish. In essence, plotting a war against a neighboring country. Everybody knows Russia's "red lines." As in, no NATO on the borders (they restrain themselves regarding the Baltics.) No fast weapons (missiles, etc.) on the borders, just a few minutes' flight time to Moscow. Russia is not just another country, like Uruguay, Brunei, or Ivory Coast. It's a nuclear-armed, fully industrialized superpower. Impressive education system (better than ours in many ways.) Immense resources (more oil than the USA). Full spectrum military, with satellites, submarines, missiles, global reach. Why do good men like Byron, and I suspect you, get so enraged over the lies? Because that’s not how we do business. Trust: Why It’s Imperative People forget that the title of Sun-Tzu’s classic is The Art of War. It’s not The Art of Diplomacy. It’s the book to read about deceiving your enemy and fighting a war. The Art of War, in many ways, still dictates how the Chinese handle themselves. Cards close to the vest; no tells, no looks. But Francis Fukuyama, fool though he was to proclaim “the end of history,” got something spot on. What made the West great was trust. That’s how we do business. My copy of Trust, Fukuyama’s excellent book on the subject, is still in Cebu in my home library. (Thankfully, my in-laws are guarding it with their lives!) So, I’ll have to do this by memory and Google. Fukuyama defined high-trust societies as those that display a high degree of mutual trust not imposed by outside "contractual, legal or hierarchical regulation” but instead based on "prior moral consensus.” Dictum meum pactum “My word is my bond.” That’s the motto of the London Stock Exchange. A handshake sealed the deal. No lawyers or contracts. If you welched on the deal, you got the “cold shoulder.” People would hear of your treachery and never deal with you again. Trust is what greases the wheels of commerce. On the contrary, low-trust societies are typically kinship-based. They find it difficult to form and maintain corporate (non-family) structures. Mechanisms and institutions that are corrupted, dysfunctional, or absent in [low-trust societies]( include respect for private property rights, a trusted court system, democratic voting, and an acceptance of electoral outcomes. Maybe you think I just described Russia. And perhaps I have. But how can we claim the high ground when we’ve so nakedly lied during a critical diplomatic showdown? I’m usually with Ricky Gervais when he says, “Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.” But, my goodness, I find Merkel’s behavior offensive. Wrap Up And there you have it for this week. I hope you have a wonderful and restful weekend. As for the Old World, we’ll see how it goes. Pretty soon, I suspect I’ll be able to invite you to Northern Italy to enjoy the food, wine, and 14th-century hospitality. If we keep up this behavior, we’ll be partying like it’s 1399! All the best, [Sean Ring] Sean Ring Editor, Rude Awakening [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2022 Paradigm Press, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. 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