Recently released figures on the state of British public finances make for grim reading. In December of 2022, the Government borrowed more money than it had in any other December since records began in 1993.
The West used to see its economic influence in countries like Russia as a show of Western power. This was always the correct view. Now our leaders see the exclusion of Western products from foreign markets as a victory.
In a historic essay, Chancellor Scholz states that Germany will expand its partnerships with "new centers of power" in the "multipolar world", suggesting it won't follow America into a new Cold War with China.
Why do journalists keep putting a positive spin on the downsides of our Russia sanctions? We all know what is going on here. Since the war started in February, many have seen their role as cheerleaders.
The economic turmoil of recent days was triggered by a budget announcement. But the root cause is high energy prices and now that the Nordstream pipelines have been sabotaged, there's no way out.
Sanctions are crushing Europe's economy. Either mainstream parties will roll them back, or they’ll get voted out and populist parties will tear them up. Whatever happens, sanctions could break the Western alliance.
Europeans must hold their noses and open the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, argues Philip Pilkington. Doing so would give Russia an enormous political victory, but the alternative is the collapse of Europe's economy.
Western countries are planning to impose a price cap on Russian oil. But this is deeply unserious idea. If such ‘magic beans’ tactics worked, they would have been used by oil consumers against OPEC long ago.
First Russia said they couldn't supply gas without a turbine from Canada. Now they're saying they can't do so because they need parts from the West. Russia is forcing Europe to undermine its own sanctions.
The US has said it will force Russia into 'default', but this is more like a confiscation of investors' assets than a true default and will backfire as investors in China and elsewhere will not be affected.
The people who push for energy sanctions against Russia tend to view the economy as they view the theatre of battle: as a simple conflict. They hit us, we hit them. But this is not how the economy works.
