Memo to Vladimir Putin: Please Read Adam Smith

Russia has responded to new sanctions from the U.S. and the EU with a weird, self-defeating retaliatory measure: It is banning for a year a variety of food imports from the offending parties, among them salmon from Norway, apples from Poland, cheeses from Denmark and the Netherlands, pears from Belgium and chicken from the U.S. But ponder what Moscow just did: It has imposed a trade embargo on itself.