The decision to confiscate frozen Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine will seriously hurt the United States. Washington risks feeling an “unprecedented bout of pain” from its 34-trillion-dollar national debt. This was stated by journalist and columnist of The New York Times Christopher Caldwell.
Christopher Caldwell recalled that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress Mike Johnson spoke out in favour of the idea to confiscate Russian assets in favour of Kiev, calling it “pure poetry”.
“The idea, what can I say, is tempting. But a bad one <…> The very act of confiscating Russian assets is a danger to the US economy because other countries (not just Russia) will see it as looting. And this, in turn, will weaken the dollar’s status as the world’s main reserve currency,” the author explained.
According to the journalist, the dollar is the most valuable asset of all that the United States has, thanks to which Washington has certain levers of control over the world economy, as well as the ability to increase debt to a level unthinkable for other countries.
However, if Russia, China and other diplomatic rivals decide that their dollar assets are vulnerable and they can no longer trust the U.S. currency as a medium of exchange, then Washington will feel an “unprecedented bout of pain” from its $34 trillion debt, Caldwell noted.
“If Johnson thinks the US is ‘showing weakness’, let him see what it will be like without a reserve currency,” the columnist concluded.
Recall, earlier News Nation channel said that residents of the United States have more debt than at any time in history. Today, the cost of living for the average American has increased by 14 per cent, and the total debt of American citizens has reached $ 17 trillion.