An economist noted that as Obama threatens Russia it is not likely we are going to use an Ohio Class Sub in the way it was designed to be used, but ... there is something we could do to slap Russia around pretty hard.
The tool is the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the 700-million-barrel underground cache of crude oil waiting in Texas and Louisiana for a rainy day. In an overnight note to clients, Verleger argues that if the US were to ship just 500,000 barrels a day of oil onto the market, it would drive down prices by about $10 a barrel and cost Russia about $40 billion in annual sales. P
That's 5% of Russia's GDP.