The situation in Europe is going from bad to worse.
Inflation is still rising in almost every EU country, with Estonia now logging a rate of 22%. In Russia, meanwhile, inflation fell by 1 percentage point in the month of June. And Russians are used to rising prices; inflation there is the highest since 2015. Inflation in Germany, by contrast, is the highest since the 1970s.
This morning, the Euro reached parity with the dollar, having declined by 12% since the start of the year. But that’s not the only exchange rate shifting against Europe’s interests. As the chart below indicates, the Euro is also way down against the rouble. Before Russia’s invasion, one Euro was worth 85 roubles. It’s now worth less than 60.
And the price of natural gas continues to climb, heaping pressure on consumers and businesses alike. It’s worth putting the recent spike into context to show just how high prices are, relative to what Europeans are used to. The chart below plots the benchmark EU gas price over the last ten years – it’s currently 900% higher than in the mid-2010s.
In case you thought we’d seen the worst of it, there’s more bad news. According to Javier Blas (Bloomberg’s energy man) Europe’s natural gas crisis is “worse than it looks”. He argues that just before the winter “Moscow will completely turn off the tap” – an outcome the market “hasn’t priced yet”. Indeed, the head of the IEA has warned, “This winter in Europe will be very, very difficult.”
As I’ve noted before, energy prices were rising even before the war in Ukraine – thanks to supply chain disruption during the pandemic, and the shuttering of too many oil refineries. Yet sanctions against Russia have undoubtedly exacerbated the problem.
At present, Europe is in the odd position of having sanctioned one major Russian commodity (oil), while it continues to buy large quantities of another (gas). In fact, it’s stranger than that: as EU leaders ramp up sanctions on Russian oil, they denounce Russia for “weaponizing” natural gas. They seem to be saying: ‘It’s unconscionable for us to buy oil from Russia; but it’s also unconscionable for Russia not to sell us gas’.
Needless to say, this doesn’t make any sense. Given the prospect of a major recession if Europe doesn’t put a lid on energy prices, you might ask: why on earth are we persisting with these sanctions? And the answer is: if you look closely, we’re not.
I mentioned previously that Europe is still buying large amounts of Russian oil via India. Basically, India imports crude oil from Russia; refines it; and then sells it on to Europe at a profit. Meanwhile, Europe gets to feel good that we’re not buying directly from Russia, or something.
That’s not all. A recent article in The Times reports that Britain is still importing oil directly from Russia. It’s just that the Russian oil is mixed with Kazakh oil during transit, which allows importers to issue a ‘certificate of origin’ stating that the oil comes from Kazakhstan. This is basically ‘Covid theatre’ for geopolitics.
Likewise, Canada recently confirmed it would return a Russian turbine to Germany that was needed for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, thereby violating Western sanctions. Russia had previously said it would increase gas supplies to Europe if the turbine was returned – which is what Germany desperately wanted.
Why is Europe flouting its own sanctions? Because it has to.
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I mean, you can see where the Great Reset conspiracy proponents are coming from – these sanctions look like self-inflicted wounds. I keep coming back in my mind to that video the WEF put out some years ago, predicting that the unipolar world would come to an end by 2030. Perhaps, the financial volcano dwellers could see the writing on the wall a long time ago and after the covid caper, these sanctions are simply the coup-de-grâce needed to push the West off a cliff and grease the skids for the multipolar world order?
The Nazis looked incredibly well organised, great strategists and basically unstoppable, right up to the point where their delusional fantasies collided with reality and were crushed into a heap of ruble.
If there are some crazies out there with a masterplan to reorganise the world (and I don’t dare say there aren’t) I expect them to be overwhelmed by the task.
In the past, those with ambitions for world domination have had to resort to and rapidly escalate their use of force which eventually pisses too many people off.
But I don’t doubt their ability to create an immense amount of misery in the process of trying. That much has been proven time and again throughout history. What a shame we’re going to have to live through one of those periods.
The Nazis looked incredibly well organised, great strategists and basically unstoppable, right up to the point where their delusional fantasies collided with reality and were crushed into a heap of ruble.
What’s that supposed to refer to? During the reign of the Nazis, the German army conquered almost all of Europe and it took a year long war effort by three major world powers who were vastly superior in both numbers and materiel to crush Germany into the heap of rubble it ended as in 1945.
Yep, that’s pretty much what I’m saying.
Eventually delusional fantasies of world domination are crushed when they collide with reality and a greater force but not without causing enormous misery.
The global oligarchy is determined to subjugate us under the yolks of climate control tyranny, health control tyranny, financial tyranny and any other tyranny they care to impose on us but will at some point fail. But many lives will be wrecked in the process.
Yep, that’s pretty much what I’m saying.
Eventually delusional fantasies of world domination are crushed when they collide with reality and a greater force but not without causing enormous misery.
I’m not aware of any fantasies about world domination during this period. Insofar the NSDAP had any foreign policy goals, these were the restoration of a unified Germany as European great power with various other European Germanic states attached as satellites and conquering enough territory in Eastern Europe to settle the German population surplus there (this preferably being amicably tolerated by Great Britain or even actively supported). One could argue that the idea of winning a Blitzkrieg against Russia was as delusional as Napoleon’s earlier effort to conquer it with infantry an cavalary due to the enormous expanse of basically empty countryside. Hitler, with his western front experiences, was no more able to imagine that than his equally unsuccessful predecessor. But I don’t think that’s what you meant.
But considering what actually happened, the Nazis were incredibly well organised, great tactitians and basically unstoppable that’s why it took a coalition of three great powers (Great Britain, USA, Russia) to stop them which only succeeded after they had maneuvered themselves into a pretty hopeless strategical situation.
I will never forget a Times article by, I think AA Gil, which started like so:
“Forget today’s Germans, the Nazis were a far more impressive lot.”
I didn’t expect his assessment to be confirmed that soon.
The Nazis came from one country and just had a few like-minded allies. We’re now facing what is effectively Fascism from a Global Elite, with deep-rooted tentacles spread throughout the Western world.
The difference this time is Information Technology – the most effective mechanism for control Fascists have ever developed. Which is why they are desperate for their Social Credit System and Digital Currency.
I’ve just googled ‘Ukraine frontline combat footage’ there is nothing to be seen that is more recent than May 2022.
Surely if this were a genuine crisis one would expect to see daily news of the ongoing war.
The Ukraine conflict strikes me as a ruse to convince the gullible western taxpayer into accepting inflation, economic ruination and fuel poverty because ‘Russian man bad’.
Shooting frontline combat footage might be considered by experienced war correspondents to be unwise in urban areas being reduced, grid square by grid square, to a smoking ruin by intensive and indiscriminate artillery bombardment?
Does nobody own phones in Ukraine?
I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that the Ukrainian government introduced a ban on filming any war footage with a phone. And someone (in Latvia maybe?) was imprisoned for circulating footage.
The easiest explanation is that the war is not going the way it was anticipated to. On the DT now I have to scroll through quite a few sections to get to a couple of articles about the Ukraine war. Which given the feeding frenzy it was at the beginning seems a bit unfair on the poor Ukrainians living through it.
You can be sure that if Ukraine were pushing the Russian’s back and beating them, we’d see plenty of footage.
It’s against the law in this country to film whilst driving but plenty of people do it. This does not explain the complete absence of recent war footage.
There was good recent footage of the Russian missile strike on the supermarket but standing around during an Artillery barrage on the front line filming it with your mobile phone?
Maybe a member of Bunter’s cabinet might think that was a good idea.
And, no doubt, the entire country would encourage them……
Monro, there is a very good reason to film things from the ground, and it’s called journalism. Some journalists see it as their mission in life – safety be damned. I am with Uncle Monty on this one.
And not just because Withnail and I was such a brilliant film…
Granted, it is possible the footage is there, but being censored. However, there are plenty of platforms which do not censor anything, and their numbers have only been growing recently.
But what I cannot accept is your assertion, that nobody is filming anything because they think they would be breaking some rules and/or because they believe it would be too dangerous! That’s BS – if my home, livelihood, neighbours, friends, family were being destroyed, I would make damn sure I was at least recording it in some way. And then publicising it at the earliest possible opp.
Possibly the areas are just without grid electricity…
Yes they do…..but they don’t stand around filming artillery barrages on their mobile phones.
And that is all the fighting that has been taking place.
I can’t find much recent mobile phone footage of fighting in Yemen or Syria either.
But, hey, let’s all have another cookie conspiracy theory.
I’m blaming the NHS pill culture…..
Yes but the videos they make are in Ukrainian. So basically useless to journalists.
/sarc
Loving the humour.
There you go, telling facts and stuff. Bad habit, mate.
Google searches are highly censored & filtered so you won’t find anything which is not part of the proscribed narrative.
Independent journalists working in Ukraine are the only source of information which is outside of the MSM narrative. Eva Bartlett is a Canadian who is on a kill list, so she must be doing something right if they wish to silence her. Graham Phillips is a UK one, Patrick Lancaster from the US who does go to the frontline to film the battles, & there are others who have sadly been silenced. All of the above are on Telegram. Youtube only has pro-narrative videos or ones which don’t counter the narrative, anything else is just removed. Odysee or Rumble are the places to go to seek out war footage.
Eva has her own website as Telegram is being censored, although only lightly so far…
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/about-me/
The Ukrainian conflict is the USA fighting Russia to obliterate the Euro as a global currency & Europe as an economic & political force. The aim is to fight to the last Ukrainian & devastate Europe. All in hope of bringing down Russia…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JxdHm2dmvKE
Saudi Arabia & Venezuela are turning to BRICS.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/biden-factor-saudi-arabia-discussions-join-brics-coalition-china-russia-move-away-us-potentially-explosive-consequences/
America has no need to reduce Europe as a political and economic power.
As we have seen, Europe has very little political and economic power as it is.
That, amongst other things, is why we left.
When it comes to a good old crisis, it’s not really Europe though, is it.
It’s every man for himself.
One of so many different reasons why we left.
Governments, bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers, doctors (well, “health experts”), bankers – all over you when you don’t need them, absent when you do (need them to fix the crap they caused).
Too many people telling everyone how to do stupid things, and too few people doing useful things.
I couldn’t agree more that the ridiculous, We won’t buy your oil, but how dare you not sell us gas…is utterly ludicrous….and is obviously utterly immoral….no doubt it’s one of the new, much parroted….’rule based orders’ that benefit the West and no one else…..
Spain’s energy minister, Teresa Ribera has urged energy firms to reduce gas use this week as Russia became their second biggest supplier…only beaten by the US.
German ‘leftists’ in the Bundestag want to stop sanctions altogether, and open Nordstream 2….although the Government don’t agree..yet. But now that Nordstream 1 is ‘closed for repairs’ we shall have to wait and see what happens.
There are protests throughout Europe, including in Poland because of fuel prices….it remains to be seen how much longer people are willing to go without for a war that they don’t want, no matter how much sympathy they have…..and what effect that will have on Governments who will have to decide on their own countries needs, and how to best please the people who put them into power.
These so-called sanctions generally don’t make any sense. They’re imposed by the USA as political theatre because the USA won’t be negatively affected by them. And copycat introduced by the European satellites of the USA despite the populations of these countries will be negatively impacted. One can also suspect that certain European politicians are not entirely unhappy about the situation. After all, net zero requires drastically higher energy prices and this would seem like a good opportunity for introducing them.
Germany has also now officially declared itself to be a Banana Republic:
The 2 CSU politicians who cashed in millions for arranging mask deals have been found not guilty by the High Court and may keep their stolen millions.
I prefer the more honest and transparent African way of doing business and politics by exchanging suitcases of cash now.