Jim Geraghty of National Review Online suggests the Trump administration might be striking a blow against Russia without even trying.
I’ve given the Trump administration a lot of deserved criticism for a slew of policy decisions that favor Vladimir Putin and Russia. But now, seemingly out of nowhere, the administration has unsheathed a metaphorical dagger and is poised to plunge it deep into the heart of the Russian economy that funds Putin’s war machine.
And the darnedest thing is that the Trump administration is probably doing it by accident.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on Meet the Press this weekend, emphasized that oil prices are going down: “The little publicized story this week, everyone wants to look at the stock market going down. You know what else went down? Oil prices went down almost 15 percent in two days which impacts working Americans much more than the stock market does.”
Indeed, when investors and institutions expect a recession, they think demand for things like gasoline and jet fuel will decline, so the price of oil goes down. You may recall that when the Covid-19 pandemic began, the price of a barrel of oil plunged; on April 21, 2020, Brent crude oil was just $9.12 per barrel, when it had started the year at $70per barrel. People weren’t driving nearly as much, and almost no one was taking flights, creating a glut of supply and drastically reduced demand.
The lifestyle consequences of this new trade war won’t be as severe as Covid, thankfully, but demand is still going to decline. A trade war against the rest of the world raises prices on all imported goods. That means there’s less money to spend on other things, which slows down the economy and reduces economic growth.
This trade war is going to generate an enormous amount of economic pain, all around the globe.
Hey, which countries’ economies are extremely dependent upon oil prices? Russia, among others. …
