Steve Hanke
Steve H. Hanke is a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, specializing in currencies, hyperinflation, and monetary reform, and has advised on the design of currency boards and dollarization programs in numerous countries. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a longtime commentator on exchange rates, sanctions, and money-supply growth. He is a recurring guest on Dialogue Works, where he argues that Washington's sanctions and dollar-weaponization campaigns consistently fail and tend to backfire.
Where they stand
A short read of where Steve Hanke lands on each front we follow, drawn from their recent appearances and refreshed whenever they turn up in a debrief.
Iran
Sanctions have failed to break Iran; the population rallies around the flag under attack, leaving the government more popular than before the war. Washington has exhausted direct sanctions and is moving to secondary ones, a losers game that will only harden BRICS cohesion. Now says the Iranians have effectively routed the United States militarily in the region, that the Houthis are locking down the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint uncontested, and that the GCC states and Iran meeting in Oman will cut Saudi oil through the strait to a trickle.
as of 2026-09-12
Ukraine & Russia
Russia is winning decisively in Ukraine, contrary to Western media narratives, while Ukraine's economy survives only on EU life support.
as of 2026-09-05
Israel
Netanyahu is repeating a failed regime-change strategy against Iran, with Israel dragging the US into fighting on its behalf.
as of 2026-09-05
East Asia
China rebuffed the Treasury’s sanctions threat outright, is winning the global image contest through free-trade diplomacy, and deterred the "economic D-Day" threat with a credible rare-earths retaliation.
as of 2026-08-29
American power
The SCO joint statement, signed even by India, is further evidence of a pivot away from the United States; Europe's weak, unpopular leaders and unelected institutions leave a vacuum that drives the pivot toward China. Now points to the BRICS New Delhi declaration branding unilateral and secondary sanctions illegal as fundamental evidence the bloc is genuinely pivoting away from the US, with the G7 having gone over the sunset.
as of 2026-09-12
The global economy
The dollar remains structurally dominant, but sanctions are bad economics that almost never achieve their objective and inflict heavy collateral damage on the sanctioner; secondary sanctions on Iran's trading partners are a losers game. Reaffirms flatly that these things always backfire, never work as intended, and are extremely costly, now with the BRICS New Delhi declaration giving trading partners a legal basis to defy them.
as of 2026-09-12
Recent appearances
Prof. Steve Hanke: BRICS declares unilateral sanctions illegal; the New Delhi declaration
Dialogue Works (host: Nima Alkhorshid) · 2026-09-12