Money, Oil, Gold and the Russians

The uncertainty brought by the Russian military actions in Ukraine is expanding into corporate boardrooms and Government offices. Western countries sanctions for Russia and Russian entities have the potential to affect large corporations with operations in Ukraine and Russia and to lead to a steep increase in prices for the commodities coming from the conflict areas. The exclusion of selected Russian banks from SWIFT while hurting Russia by blocking its imports and exports is also hurting some European banks. In the longer term these measures may lead to increased inflation and decreasing economic growth.