Finance & economics | Handle with care

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”

India’s covid catatastrophe

From the April 24th 2021 edition

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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

FRANCE-TRADITION-LEISURE-TOURISM

How bond investors soured on France

They now regard the euro zone’s second-largest economy as riskier than Spain



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