This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, December 22nd, 2014.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Contrary to popular opinion sanctions placed by the United States and international groups on other countries aren't meant

to wreck those economies, and instead exert specific pressure on specific groups of people.

Emma Ashford, a visiting research fellow at the Cato Institute,

evaluates the case of sanctions on Russia that have helped crash the Rubel.

We have seen just a dramatic drop in the value of the Rubel compared to other currencies, the dollar in the euro.

The ripple has been slowly declining over the course of this year, partly sanctions mostly

due to the drop in the price of oil but the last 40 hours have

been particularly exciting as the ripple has dropped more than 10% of its value

against the dollar we've seen lines and shops in Moscow with people trying

to buy products, people trying to exchange their currency as fast as they can and the

Rubel has pretty much plummeted. So some people are saying

that this is the result of sanctions and that we should be celebrating that

Russia's economy is now crashing.

What's wrong with that?

I mean, that seems to be what a lot of people argue, this is why we engage in sanctions

to put pressure on leaders to change certain policies that seems to be part

and parcel with why we have sanctions. Yeah and it does it seems logical right

sanctions they're designed to punish an economy. That's not actually accurate.

Sanctions are supposed to punish leaders in another country

to make them change their behavior.

...