Popular economic wisdom says central banks can counter harmful effects of inflation by raising interest rates. Unfortunately, such moves carry their own forms of misallocation of resources and capital.
Sanctions are promoted as a response to international aggression. Yet, sanctions themselves are a form of aggression that, like war, usually have unhappy endings.
For the past six months, the regime has repeatedly used whatever bogeyman could be blamed for inflation—so long as the central bank remains blameless. First it was "greed," then it was covid, and now it is "Mr. Putin."
By what yardstick would we threaten war for the independence of Taiwan but continue to tolerate 60 years of totalitarian repression in Cuba, 90 miles away?
