By preparing economic sanctions against Russia the U.S. government is essentially putting a gun to its own head and telling the world that it intends to pull the trigger.

With India, Russia and China quietly drawing closer you have the R, I, and C of the BRICS economic block and a third of the world's population. In nominal terms their combined GDP is a little over 12 trillion, which is smaller than that of the United States, which weighs in at 16 trillion, but if you look at these numbers in the context of national debt a very different picture emerges. Russia's, India's and China's national debts combined ring in a just over 4 trillion dollars, while the U.S. is sitting on a gargantuan 17 trillion dollars of debt. It also just so happens that China owns 1.3 trillion of that debt (8%). The U.S. economy may be bigger in raw numbers, but it's also far more vulnerable.

There are only two ways this game of chicken can end: either in an utter disaster of unthinkable proportions, or as another diplomatic embarrassment for the Obama administration. Let's hope for the latter.