Blunt sanctions talk; blurrier means of measuring success

By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has spent most of her life working to nurture economic growth. Now her department is tasked with finding ways to choke off parts of Russia’s economic development in response to President Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. One key question for the administration is how to measure the success of such an endeavor. With inflation already at record highs, a global pandemic that keeps businesses struggling to reopen and a energy shortage throughout Europe, the mathematics on punishing one of the world’s biggest economies are complex.