Sanctions are now a central tool of governments’ foreign policy
The more they are used, however, the less effective they become
IN 2016 JACK LEW, America’s then treasury secretary, reflected on how his country had, over decades, “refined our capacity to apply sanctions effectively”. But he also gave a warning: overuse “could undermine our leadership position within the global economy, and the effectiveness of our sanctions themselves”.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Handle with care”
Finance & economics April 24th 2021
- Sanctions are now a central tool of governments’ foreign policy
- The pitfalls of trading geopolitical risk
- The woes of Huarong pose dilemmas for Beijing
- Isaiah Andrews wins the John Bates Clark Medal
- One emerging-market worry gives way to another
- Has Europe’s BlackRock outgrown its pond?
- How to think about vaccines and patents in a pandemic
Discover more
Could war in the Gulf push oil to $100 a barrel?
Missiles are flying over a region that supplies a third of the world’s crude
How bond investors soured on France
They now regard the euro zone’s second-largest economy as riskier than Spain
Can Andrea Orcel, Europe’s star banker, create a super-bank?
An interview with the boss of UniCredit
Why economic warfare nearly always misses its target
There is no such thing as a strategic commodity
A tonne of public debt is never made public
New research suggests governments routinely hide their borrowing
Xi Jinping’s belated stimulus has reset the mood in Chinese markets
But can the buying frenzy last?