While OPEC+ has made a weapon of energy, the U.S. and its European allies have made a weapon of finance, both being fundamental to most countries’ economies.The weapons of energy and finance have met head-on in Ukraine, as Russia seeks to exploit its leverage over Europe through the Continent’s dependence on Russia’s oil and gas and as the U.S. seeks to stall and end Russia’ s attack on Ukraine by cutting Moscow’s financial capabilities. Both approaches have affected markets worldwide, with oil prices rising and the global financial system becoming volatile. The new weapon of finance includes sanctions, which are not themselves new but which now include seizing foreign sovereign reserves held in trust and cutting foreign central banks and governments off from the international messaging system for all transactions, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system. The result is a new financial environment that can undermine much of the trust necessary to keep the global system stable.