Biden’s Weaponizing the Dollar Against Russia Has Backfired
Commentary
In the full panoply of the Biden administration’s foreign policy errors aned gaffes, perhaps none was so stupid as its failed attempt to weaponize the dollar—the world’s reserve currency—against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
It’s telling that during World War II, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom—when the British pound sterling was the world’s reserve currency—ever considered weaponizing their currencies against Germany, Japan, or Italy. But wiser heads were running the allied nations then.
But President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, did exactly that. And they lost. In the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion, the ruble fell, as expected. But then for much of last year, the ruble actually gained strength relative to the dollar—stronger than it had been before the invasion! …