Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is offering her strongest public support yet for the idea of liquidating roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets and using them for Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction.
Right so the argument is that back at the start of the invasion, Russia had not done a lot of damage (monetarily speaking) but now it has done so much damage that the frozen assets don't even pay the whole bill, so taking it is akin to taking the assets of someone with a lot of debt.
I guess it kinda makes sense. Still think they should've taken it right at the start though. This war shouldn't have gone on for so long like this.
Wait, did the US claim Iraq or Afghanistan their territory?
The US did give lots of assets to those countries to rebuild. Not nearly enough and I would support other countries freezing US assets and giving them to those countries to help rebuild.
Property rights are kinda a big deal in The West. Plus capital from less savory regimes brings in much needed liquidity in western markets. Ceasing this capital will make it less likely that The West is seen as a safe haven for investment from those kinds of countries. On the long term this might even cause a parallel financial system to arise, which would be very bad news for the US and it’s reserve currency.