No Sanctions Hitting Russian Aluminum
Bloomberg reports Biden Team Will Hold Off on Russia Sanctions Hitting Aluminum
The Biden administration is holding off for now on sanctions against Russia that could disrupt global aluminum supplies, according to people familiar with the matter, as the market grapples with already severe shortages of the metal.
Russian-supplied aluminum accounts for roughly 10% of total U.S. imports, highlighting the negative impact that sanctions could have for the U.S. and allies who rely on the metal for everything from iPhones to automobiles and fighter jets.
It seems to me Russia has an easy answer. Stop aluminum exports.
What About Fertilizer?
Q: Hmm. That too. Anything else?
A: Unfortunately, yes.
Semiconductors
Please note Russian invasion of Ukraine to further strain U.S. chip supply for auto, tech industries.
Key Points
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could further strain the supplies of semiconductor chips that have already caused global production disruptions for tech companies and automakers.
- Russia and Ukraine are critical suppliers of neon gas and palladium that are used to produce semiconductor chips.
- The White House earlier this month warned chip suppliers to diversify their supply chains in case Russia retaliates against threatened U.S. export curbs by blocking access to key materials.
- The price of neon shot up 600% the last time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.
What About Swift?
SWIFT is the international payment system. It would hurt Germany, a major trading partner of Russia.
Russia Stock Market Reaction to SWIFT
Stop Thinking Dictators Care
If the US wants to sanction everything that hurts Russia, then Russia has an equal if not stronger retaliation.
Putin undoubtedly thought this through in advance.
So expect severe shortages to get more severe.
And in case you missed it, please see What’s the Real Background Story Behind Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine?
This fiasco has it roots in Obama administration policy.
This post originated on MishTalk.Com.
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Mish
Looks like Putin plays everything close to the vest:
Hopefully by then the Allies will be better prepared.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin did not bother to speak with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, before launching his assault Thursday. But some observers see brutal similarities to Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia just before World War II.
“This is all truly dictated by our national interests and dictated by care for the future of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday after the Russian assault began.
Putin on Monday claimed pro-Russian residents of Ukraine faced “genocide.”
“The killing of civilians … the abuse of people, including children, women and the elderly, continues unabated,” he said. “There is no end in sight.”
“Neanderthal and aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism … have been elevated in Ukraine to the rank of national policy,” he said. “How much longer can one put up with this?”
He ordered Russian troops into the area on a “peacekeeping mission” and then began a full-scale attack Thursday morning, bombarding cities, towns and villages and advancing toward the capital, Kyiv, where air raid sirens were heard.
“The argument that Hitler made is very, very similar to the one Putin’s made,” said Dov S. Zakheim, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, and a former undersecretary of defense. Putin, he said, is claiming that the Ukrainian government is “mistreating these poor Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine,” who need Putin to come to their defense.
“So it’s the same playbook,” Zakheim said. “When [Hitler] bit off the Sudetenland, his argument was: ‘These people don’t want to be part of Czechoslovakia. They’re Germans.’ Putin’s saying the same thing about these people in Donetsk and Luhansk: ‘They don’t want to be part of Ukraine. They’re Russians.’ Same exact argument.”
With Thursday’s attack, “he’s expanding it,” Zakheim said. And the example of the late 1930s hints at how far that expansion could go.
“Hitler wanted to take over all of Europe,” Zakheim said. “Putin … wants to restore Czarist Russia, the Russian empire. It’s a threat in particular to Finland, which was part of the Russian empire, to the Baltic states, which were part of the Russian empire, and to Poland, which was part of the Russian empire.”
Stephen J. Blank, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, said Putin moved more quickly than Hitler: “We never had a Munich conference, so they rolled the tanks in.”
Although their actions are not exactly the same, “the resemblances are still there.” The Russians appear to believe that “they are the conquering people, and the Ukrainians are a bunch of softies and fascists,” Blank said.
Gold doesnt pay dividends like Apple stock
Gold doesnt innovate like Apple
Gold doesnt create anything but Apple does
Gold doesnt grow, split and grow again like Apple stock does
Gold looks pretty in jewelry but an iphone/ipad/imac can do 1 billion+ things gold cant do.
Every single one of those sanctions he mentioned are completely worthless. Everyone in the room knew it and Mr. Market knew it.
Russia isn’t going to be cut off from anything….China will happily provide them with whatever they need. If anything, this is going to drive Russia\China relations to an all time high.
Putin just got the green light to take all of Ukraine and nobody’s going to stop him.
Who is next? Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia? Probably all three.
Everyone knows Taiwan will eventually be attempted to be taken though no one knows when. I think the timeline may have just been pushed a bit higher.
China is 2x as strong today as it was 10 years ago and that is not expected to change direction. Eventually, the East can and will challenge the West.
It does not help matters that Russia and China share a very large border and can freely trade. Biden offered no comfort about China’s willingness to censure Russia, which was very telling.
If you look at my comment, you’ll see I specified major nations.
Broadcast live on television at 5.45am Moscow time, President Putin said: “Whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history.”
“All relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you hear me.”