As of June 2023, active U.S. sanctions programs cover the following countries and regions, or companies and individuals within listed countries:
Afghanistan
The Balkans
Belarus
Burma
Central African Republic
China
Cuba
Democratic Republic of Congo
Ethiopia
Hong Kong
Iran
Iraq
Lebanon
Libya
Mali
Nicaragua
North Korea
Russia
Somalia
Sudan
South Sudan
Syria
Ukraine
Venezuela
Yemen
Zimbabwe
Find the Brics members. Lol.
Turkey has been the latest country to request their gold as they pulled 220 tons of gold out of the US Federal Reserve system on April 19, 2018. The countries 220 tons of gold is valued at $25.3 billion. Turkey has followed countries such as:
Germany
Netherlands
Austria
Belgium
Russia
China
Azerbaijan
Thank you for adding something substantive. The notion of the US and the EC -- notice I did not say Europe, nor even the European Union, since there are opposition voices being consistently attacked from "above" -- playing a sanctions war is THE point.
When one believes one is the "champ," contenders arise. In sports as in business this is easily acknowledged as competition (of course you know that, but this is an "all" sort of comment).
From storytelling to real world history to sports to business, champs do not remain champs. Eventually new champions win.
I personally think the "neo-con" mentality -- which includes the Dems and RINOs in key positions -- though themselves to be king of the proverbial hill, which is a game after all. And no one remains king of a hill forever.
Contract law throughout the ages has been about trust. Sanctions, as we have been watching, is about breaking trust. The consequences are shaping up, and whatever the coming reality will be -- of course -- will be the reality.
The game since the awful Clintons forward (and the EC forward about the same time, 1995) has been one of thinking we're invincible. And we can break contracts, with the best of the world's contract breakers. The only contract we have not yet broken is "abrogation of debt," as a fine history collected from the IMF showed throughout the 20th century. Everybody did it somewhere along the line. National debt -- as a contract with counter-parties and all -- is the one contract we've tried to finesse away as the value of the dollar has dropped in purchasing power.
How about a peek at it for those unaware:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1032048/value-us-dollar-since-1640/
Yeah, that's us. Invincible. So we are told in the moment about 32,731 trillion times....
Break contracts? While breaking treaties -- they are contracts too -- is for others, we have been breaking contracts aplenty. I expect more. And in time I expect an abrogation of the national debt. Like many other nations have done.
Peter St. Onge from the Mises Institute and Heritage Foundation has suggested a method. One among a number of proposals from various voices.
It is interesting to contemplate tomorrow. Because it's just around the corner.