End War Financing To End Putin’s War

President Putin “aims to topple the U.S. from its global position, break the post-Cold War world order, cripple the European Union and defeat NATO.” So writes Walter Russell Mead in a brilliant op-ed piece titled “A Rogue Russia Tries to Reset the World Order” that’s in today’s Wall Street Journal. I think this is very realistic thinking.Mr. Mead offers a seldom seen clarity on the Putin-Russia upheaval. My thought? The best way to slow down Mr. Putin or even stop him is to end his means of war financing. Historically, money plays a huge role with dictators.In Mr. Putin’s case, for example, there’s a correlation between high oil prices and bad Russian behavior. In March 2014, when WTI crude was at $99 a barrel and President Obama was in office, Mr. Putin reclaimed Crimea. During the next couple of years, though, as the U.S. fracking revolution developed beyond all expectations despite opposition from the Obama administration, a huge increase in oil supplies knocked down the price to as low as $27 in early 2016. Nobody heard from Mr. Putin.During the Trump years, as the frackers continued to drill, drill, drill and U.S. oil production moved toward 13 million bpd and the U.S. became the swing world oil player with energy independence and prices stayed low, around $60, we saw no risk of Putin-Russian invasions in Europe or elsewhere.So money matters to Mr. Putin. I suggest right now two simple strategies to stop Mr. Putin’s war financing. First: Drill, drill, drill. Open the oil and gas spigots to full throttle. Stop the illegal federal restrictions on leasing, drilling, pipelining, and liquefied natural gas export. Call the regulatory dogs off. Stop attacking the industry.President Biden’s attack on the industry yesterday was a huge mistake. Drill, drill, drill. Now more than ever. Bring us back to 13 million bpd and let the industry take us to 15 million bpd in the next 18 months. Encourage pipelines and LNG exports to help drive American costs down and to show Europe it can rely on us rather than Russia.According to Tippinsights, the radical-left Biden assault on fossil fuels caused the average oil price last year to go from $53 a barrel to $76 a barrel, a $23 increase in price that translated to nearly $84 billion in cash to Russia.So I say: Save America, Stop Putin’s Energy-Driven War Financing. This is not hard.Second point: Sanction the central bank of Russia. It’s their Fed. This, along with sanctioning all the Russian banks, will prevent Russian sales or purchases of anything. Especially the oil markets and the commodity markets, which are dollar-denominated.If the U.S. sanctions the Russian central bank, no dollar-related payments will be permitted. That would include secondary sanctions among other commercial banks around the world. America can do this on our own. We will actually stop payments.Now, the SWIFT system — the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication — is important but it is not a transactional payment system. It’s a communication system that payments have been made to so-and-so for such-and-such reasons.You could take Russia out of SWIFT, and I’d have no problem with that, but that still leaves payment systems available to Mr. Putin to finance his war. If you sanction the Russian central bank, then there will be no payments. And as I said, Russian exports are primarily energy and commodities, which are more than 90 percent denominated in dollars. So we will really stick it to them. Money matters. even to a megalomaniacal authoritarian with romanticized, ahistorical dreams of empire. To knock Mr. Putin out of play, we need to stop financing his wars and his dreams.Two simple ways. Drill, drill, drill, export, export, export, watch world oil prices come down, and then so will gasoline prices at the pump. Save America. Then cut off the central bank’s payment system. No more transactions. No more export sales. No cash coming in. Because all those payments run through the central bank. Yes, we should target all the Russian oligarchs. Yes, we should sanction Mr. Putin.Yes, we must prevent any investment capital from stock and bond markets from going into Russia. But just sanction the central bank. That will do the trick. Think of it. End Mr. Putin’s war financing.From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.

End War Financing To End Putin’s War

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