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Despite lifted sanctions on Venezuelan energy, don't expect a boom in oil exports

Oct 25, 2023
While demand for crude oil is high, greater investment and management would be needed to boost oil exports from Venezuela.
An oil pump in Caracas, Venezuela.
Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images

The Saudis are buying up Russian diesel — and selling more of the stuff they produce themselves

May 30, 2023
The kingdom's actions are not a violation of sanctions.
Saudi Arabia is now buying roughly180,000 barrels of Russian diesel every day. Above, a refinery in Moscow.
Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images

Has Europe’s highest court made it harder to sanction the assets of Russian oligarchs?

Mar 10, 2023
Anti-money-laundering campaigners say that a recent decision by the European Court of Justice is a blow against financial transparency.
The European Court of Justice, seen above in Luxembourg, recently ruled against a series of registers of true ownership, which are designed to prevent wealthy individuals from hiding their assets.
John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

Yellen: "Progress on inflation is not going to be a straight line"

The Treasury secretary says "people don't need to lose their jobs" to cool down the labor market.
"There's a great sense of community but an enormous amount of trauma that everyone in Ukraine is experiencing," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says. Above, Yellen at a school in Kyiv earlier this week.
Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

Is European resolve against Russia’s war beginning to soften?

May 31, 2022
The EU has just unveiled a punitive ban on oil imports from Russia — but the Ukrainian government is unimpressed.
The Ukrainian flag at the European Parliament building in Brussels. The European Union's ban on the majority of oil imports from Russia is too weak to satisfy Ukraine and some EU member nations.
François Walschaerts/AFP via Getty Images

Floating liabilities: Western authorities grapple with the cost of seizing oligarchs’ superyachts

May 19, 2022
Detaining luxury vessels worth hundreds of millions of dollars was the easy bit. Maintenance runs about 10% of the yachts' value.
Above, a superyacht with suspected links to a Russian oligarch is docked in the Dominican Republic. For governments, seizing the pricey vessels comes with outrageous maintenance costs.
Ethan Swope/Getty Images

Global economic growth will be almost cut in half this year — or will it?

Apr 19, 2022
The IMF forecasts a slowdown in growth from 6.1% in 2021 to 3.6% in 2022. But the pandemic and the war could change its outlook.
The uncertainties of the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war make it especially difficult to predict future economic conditions. Above, inside the New York Stock Exchange.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Russian sanctions result in a shortage of prized vacuum-tube guitar amps

Apr 13, 2022
Few factories make the tubes, valued for the sound quality they bring to amplifiers. A run on the market is driving up prices.
Todd Sharp holds a vacuum tube — what he says is key to high-quality sound from an amp.
Paige Pfleger/WPLN News

For Europe, quitting Russian coal will be easier than quitting Russian natural gas

Apr 5, 2022
Russia supplies more of the EU's oil and gas than it does coal.
A storage site for a coal-fired power plant in Duisburg, Germany, on April 5. The European Union recently banned imports of Russian coal.
Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images

The ruble recovers, at least on paper

Apr 5, 2022
At one point, a ruble was worth a fraction of a penny. Demand for energy exports has helped, but Russia's economy is still in recession.
The ruble has bounced back from its sanctions-induced fall, but even with a stable currency, the Russian economy faces recession.
AFP via Getty Images