{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "This was a thorough, engaging and — at times — dry explanation of sanctions and modern US and western economic warfare. The author builds a compelling case for the use of economic weapons, but makes a compelling case that they need to be used cooperatively and timed appropriately. There are isolated cases where this isn't true, such as the US taking action to shut a bank facilitating money laundering off from the broader financial system in a targeted act of financial warfare against North Korea. But, broadly speaking, the weapons in question are at their most effective when properly coordinated with allies to help squeeze a given target and prevent end runs around sanctions or other workarounds to mitigate their impacts. Sometimes this cooperation was willing, in other cases it was coerced as when the US threatened any and all banks doing business with Iran in an effort to damage its economy. Fishman also lays out a detailed case explaining the use of sanctions and controls aimed at curbing China's influence by targeting both Huawei and ZTE. Trump engaged in quite a bit of unilateral economic action against China in his first term targeted specifically at their tech industry. He spent a lot of time ranting about trade deficits like the bellicose idiot he is, but the practical focus was on tech. The section on the effort to curtail Russia's military ambitions with respect to Ukraine is particularly detailed and compelling. In this case the US had time to prepare their choice of economic weapons as Russia had broadcast its ambitions well in advance via both intelligence failures and its theft of Crimea. So, where does one find leverage with a country as vast and powerful as Russia? The US elected to sanction its central bank while also cutting it off from SWIFT, severing it from international banking. From there, it carefully crafted measures to drive down Russia's oil and gas income, while trying not to disrupt the global economy. To do this, the US and its allies sanctioned companies supporting the sale of Russian oil and gas in cases where the price exceeded $60/barrel (specifically insurance and shipping providers). Has this stopped the war? No, not hardly, but it's certainly tamped down the financial muscle Russia can put behind it. Sadly, the book concludes before the return of the mad king and his wanton application of tariffs and related policy failures. Said failures are borne out of economic illiteracy and all of the lessons learned during a life spent failing upwards while slapping your stupid name on trash products. Tariffs on. Tariffs off. Tariffs on. Tariffs off. Turns out this time the target of the warfare is the voting public.",
  "path": "/reading/books/9780593712979/chokepoints",
  "publishedAt": "2025-09-02T00:00:00Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:sttgf52vkk46f6yuknvqxvgh/site.standard.publication/self",
  "tags": [
    "economics",
    "politics",
    "history",
    "nonfiction"
  ],
  "title": "Chokepoints"
}