Furthermore we are seeing major euro chemical corps taking preservation measures that may be a signal for a death spiral for the competitiveness of European capital. We also see leaders like Macron pissed that the US is in such a good spot relatively speaking. All of this is only getting harder to watch. The US truly is cannabalizing the west.
I can easily see it getting to 20% within a few months. Once they burn through the stored up gas supplies shit is gonna deteriorate fast.
The question is - how are they going to go about resolving this? The current governments may not want to even try, but the people will eventually demand action.
Most probably austerity and hoping people wont revolt. Also combined with usurious loans to subisidize essentials and fuck it, après moi le déluge as is the motto of every capitalist. In Poland it’s surely gonna be like this and people most likely won’t revolt.
That’s what worries me
Well that’s the rub, there is no plan here. The underlying problem is that Europe lost access to cheap and reliable energy from Russia. Unless that gets fixed there is no way out of the hole Europe dug itself into. And of course resuming dialog with Russia is politically impossible for ruling class.
I really think we may see genuine revolutions happening in Europe come spring. Once people realize their governments betrayed them and they have nothing left to lose then things will get very ugly. This was a really good discussion about it incidentally.
Well they could also attempt to solve the problem the old fashioned way - by starting a war. Either with Russia or with other countries.
A war needs an industrial base and energy to run, and Europe is in a short supply of both right now. Meanwhile, I don’t think US is dedicated enough to fully commit to a war with Russia. Once Ukraine burns out, they’re likely to refocus on China.