this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
165 points (98.2% liked)

World News

38969 readers
1959 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Absolute bullshit move. If we're going to help Ukraine, it shouldn't be by forcing them to take a loan when they're at their lowest, at their moment of highest need. They should just be given the Russian assets and be called a day.

In case anyone wants to argue we aren't "forcing them": if your only options are living amongst the rubble for years and selling your future, you are going to have to sell your future in order to be able to eat today.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

France, Germany and the ECB worry about Russian retaliation targeting European assets, and also the potential impact on financial stability and the euro’s status as a reserve currency. There’s concern that depositors from emerging economies may be encouraged to pull money out of western banks, fragmenting the global financial system.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen downplayed such risks in February, arguing that “there are not alternatives to the dollar, euro, yen.” She said that if the G-7 acted together then the group would be representing half of the global economy and all of the currencies that really have the capacity at this point to serve as reserve currencies.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-seizing-russian-assets-to-fund-ukraine-is-fraught/ar-BB1jHeKz

I agree with you, they should just be able to tap the assets directly. Basically some European countries are worried about the effects seizing assets could have on the Euro. Most of these assets are held in Europe as euros. The loan is actually an improvement over the original proposal though. Originally France Germany, etc were pushing only for the 3 billion in interest a year on the assets to be given to Ukraine. The loan solution was pushed by other countries who wanted to give them more cash from the Russian assets as a way to give $50 billion in cash immediately, with those yearly interest payments from Russian assets being used to pay off the loan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

That does sound less terrible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I do believe a loan is a sign of good faith. Like a "we're here for you. Don't turn on us later, you owe us. Don't forget that." kinda move, geopolitically. It's not like there exist international debt collectors that act on behalf of nation states.

Like socially, I agree with you. But the global stage isn't a highschool cafeteria. That "loan" isn't like a payday loan to a McDonald's employee trying to buy a car.