Economists Justin Wolfers and Peter Schiff raised concerns about the effectiveness and broader risks of the Donald Trump administration’s economic pressure campaign against Iran on Aug. 24, 2026. Wolfers called Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s effort an "economic D-Day" and compared it with the U.S. approach to Cuba during the 1960s, arguing that broad sanctions can hurt ordinary citizens while allowing authoritarian governments to blame foreign adversaries and strengthen nationalist sentiment. Schiff questioned whether Washington’s warning that it does not want to "blow up the global financial system" by immediately imposing the harshest secondary sanctions could make the threat less credible. Economist Mohamed El-Erian said secondary sanctions (penalties targeting third parties that do business with a sanctioned country) are central to the pressure campaign, which targets nearly 60 Iran-linked entities across shipping, aviation, technology, gold and digital assets. The debate centers on whether escalating financial pressure can achieve the administration’s political objectives without causing wider economic damage.