Looking forward to Ukraine’s renewed independence when the next Republican is voted in as president. Until then the US will sit back and shoot ourselves in the foot just like Europe.
The US President doesn't decide what Russia's military does. President Biden provided excellent pressure on Russia. He pointed out possible Russian tactics like false flag operations, which Putin then could no longer use under the spotlight. President Biden predicted war could break out in days, and he was right.
You claim this is a Republican/Democrat issue - so what action to you expect from a Republican President? If the US military directly fights the Russian military, that greatly increases the chance of nuclear war. Isn't that an irresponsible decision? Yet short of that, Russia won't be deterred. (And with war... would China attack the US on Russia's side? Would all of NATO get sucked in to a world war?)
Sanctions aren't going to stop an invasion, they're only going to impose a cost. Russia has very low levels of foreign debt, and is better prepared for sanctions than in previous attacks on neighbors.
Now I’m considering selling my energy stocks in taxable accounts (previously sold my energy stocks in non-taxable accounts). My reasoning is to put the money into index funds because the overall market has been beaten down more than energy stocks.
Energy stocks fell because the US will not disrupt Russia's oil sales. The market expected more disruption to the oil markets, and now that appears unlikely. That is why you're seeing oil prices and oil stocks both fall.
When individual stocks fell more than -50% in 2020, I considered those stocks "beaten down". But VTI is down just -8.3% year to date, which I would call a small loss.
https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/arcx/vti/performance
