John T. Reed’s news blog

Sanctions on Russians prevent them or their foreign customers from getting routine insurance for political risk or trade credit. I think the latter is letters of credit. Those say that if you deliver the product that the customer in the other country  ordered and they do not pay for it, the bank that issued the letter of credit will pay for it. I initially forgot about the role of insurance in international trade. I believe the first insurance on earth was for cargoes in ocean going ships. And the insurers now are going beyond the literal wording of the sanctions...

NATO requires unanimity. Ukraine is not a member of NATO.One possibility: 1. Make them a member now. 2. If any NATO member refuses to approve that, let the rest terminate the vetoer’s membership. 3. What is stopping us from helping Ukraine against Belarus? They are not Russia.  4. NATO has used military force in Bosnia and Afghanistan, neither of whom were members. 5. Russians in Ukraine are trespassing. Seems there is a difference between attacking Russia and attacking Russians who have invaded a peaceful neighbor for the purpose of stealing that nation from its people.

We have had “history” months of one time to another in recent decades. I never paid much attention. None applied to any group I feel a part of. February was “Black History Month.” I have lived through 52 of them. I did not notice the first 51.  The problem this year was I like to watch various documentary channels when I am channel surfing. Last month, I often turned to a favorite channel only to find some sort of Critical Race Theory lite.  Most ethnic groups in the US can tell of some bad treatment in the past here. My...

I hold and recommend Canadian currency as a hedge against US inflation. Recently, inflation in the Canadian dollar hit 5%. I did not like that but I did not switch to Mexican pesos or some such in retaliation. Now we hear that the Bank of Canada —their Fed—was going to raise the national interest rate to .5% to knock down inflation. Good.  It sounds like they have also been buying government bonds, which is or ought to be prohibited. I believe it is prohibited in the EZ but they did it anyway..johnreed@johntreed.com

When Biden went off on his conspiracy theory about burning pits at military bases, Pelosi stood up behind him and “clapped” her knuckles together is some comic book evil villain manner. She reminded me of Mr. Burns, the nuclear power plant owner saying “Excellent” about some nefarious plan. https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet/1498862583574523907 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKUOB8MN4Kc My email is johnreed@johntreed.com.