REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Alas, poor Europe. I knew it well, Horatio.

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Saturday, June 8, 2024 11:29
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Tuesday, September 6, 2022 11:35 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The price of natural gas in the US and Europe

Author Kevin Drum Published on September 6, 2022 – 7:30 pm



Until February, the US and European prices of natural gas were generally within a few dollars of each other. Today, the US price is $9 and the average price in Europe is about $70.

Much of this is because Europe is trying to replace Russian gas with LNG from other countries. However, Europe doesn't have enough capacity at its LNG ports to come even close to making up the loss from Russia. This supply constraint has produced bidding wars with Japan and South Korea that have caused natural gas prices to skyrocket around the world. In the US, by contrast, we have plenty of domestic supply and prices are low and fairly stable.

This is why Europe is way more panicked about energy prices this winter than we are.

https://jabberwocking.com/raw-data-the-price-of-natural-gas-in-the-us-
and-europe/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, September 6, 2022 11:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The price of natural gas in the US and Europe

Author Kevin Drum Published on September 6, 2022 – 7:30 pm

Until February, the US and European prices of natural gas were generally within a few dollars of each other. Today, the US price is $9 and the average price in Europe is about $70.

Much of this is because Europe is trying to replace Russian gas with LNG from other countries. However, Europe doesn't have enough capacity at its LNG ports to come even close to making up the loss from Russia. This supply constraint has produced bidding wars with Japan and South Korea that have caused natural gas prices to skyrocket around the world. In the US, by contrast, we have plenty of domestic supply and prices are low and fairly stable.

This is why Europe is way more panicked about energy prices this winter than we are.

https://jabberwocking.com/raw-data-the-price-of-natural-gas-in-the-us-
and-europe/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Uh huh.

We'll see what happens this winter, Kevin.

It's really nice for you that you get to work at an outfit that allows you to be wrong in every one of your predictions and opinions and still maintain employment.

You make the weathermen jealous.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Wednesday, September 7, 2022 6:11 AM

JAYNEZTOWN


They wanted to punish Russia a lot, Russia got some economic punishments while European Hating and Gasoline prices now go through the roof.

USA, Europe, Japan, Aus, NZ are part of the blockade sanctions, not everyone has joined, the rest of the world trades.

I don't really listen to The Duran. Alex Christoforou, Mercouris that much anymore, maybe its something culturally off with them the culture of people, like they never recovered from that schism between Rome and the Eastern Byzantine Empire or Orthodox influence, a rift going back even thousands of years. Even if Russia does not totally win, it has left cities wrecked, shells and bombs on both sides will wreck regions, the house of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky destroyed and 2,000 art objects are estimated to have been looted, and special squads exist to track down and expropriate antiquities such as Scythian artifacts from archaeological digs, some to relocate back to a museum in Russia, lost in some box and museums closed with looming recessions. Some might make a few buck from gun running and Looting ancient treasure.

There will be no true winners in this invasion of Ukraine, only losers, people who lose a lot and people who loose a whole lot more and pay more blood and treasure.

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Wednesday, September 7, 2022 7:07 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Uh huh.

We'll see what happens this winter, Kevin.

It's really nice for you that you get to work at an outfit that allows you to be wrong in every one of your predictions and opinions and still maintain employment.

You make the weathermen jealous.
It is worth saying that natural gas production companies who were making a profit in Europe at $7 per million BTU will be making a huge killing at $70. Be happy for the gas production companies, 6ix. Celebrate their windfall profits, all thanks to Putin.

The cost to the production companies to get the gas out of the ground does NOT increase just because Putin restricts sales of Russian gas, but the price the production companies can gouge their customers goes as high as the amount of money the customers have. That is the most beautiful part of Capitalism.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, September 7, 2022 10:12 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Uh huh.

We'll see what happens this winter, Kevin.

It's really nice for you that you get to work at an outfit that allows you to be wrong in every one of your predictions and opinions and still maintain employment.

You make the weathermen jealous.
It is worth saying that natural gas production companies who were making a profit in Europe at $7 per million BTU will be making a huge killing at $70. Be happy for the gas production companies, 6ix. Celebrate their windfall profits, all thanks to Putin.


At least we're not blaming Trump today.

Get fucked, idiot. You've got a five year old's grasp of the economy. You aren't worth the time.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Friday, September 9, 2022 5:31 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

At least we're not blaming Trump today.

Get fucked, idiot. You've got a five year old's grasp of the economy. You aren't worth the time.
Wartime Economics Comes to Europe

Sometimes rationing and price controls are unavoidable.

The West isn’t exactly at war with Russia. However, it isn’t exactly not at war, either. Western weapons have helped Ukraine to stall Russia’s invasion and even to counterattack, while Western economic sanctions have clearly created serious problems for Russian industry.

Russia has retaliated with a de facto embargo on exports of natural gas to Europe. This shows how Vladimir Putin actually thinks the war is going. After all, this will have huge long-run costs: Nobody will ever again consider Russia a reliable trading partner. But Putin appears willing to bear those costs in an attempt to bully the West into reducing its support for Ukraine — which he wouldn’t do if he were confident about the military situation.

In any case, the embargo has raised the economic stakes. Six months ago, there was a lot of discussion about whether Europe could or should stop importing energy from Russia. Well, Russia has in effect made that decision on Europe’s behalf.

. . . On Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, issued a statement on energy calling for “a mandatory target for reducing electricity use” (i.e., rationing), a “cap on the revenues” of low-cost energy producers (i.e., price controls) and a “solidarity contribution” for fossil fuel producers (i.e., excess profits taxes). It’s important to note that von der Leyen isn’t a head of government and has very little direct power. But her proposed measures probably give a pretty good idea of where Europe is heading.

Will it work? The details will, of course, be crucial. One hopeful sign is that Europe clearly isn’t going to pull a Nixon and try to suppress inflation with controls even while juicing up the economy. On the contrary, these sorts of wartime controls will come at the same time the European Central Bank is sharply tightening monetary policy, at considerable risk of causing a recession.

We’ll see how it plays out. But we’re getting a real-time lesson in the realities of economic policy. You can’t — indeed, shouldn’t — always let markets rip. It would be a bad thing if the emergency controls Europe appears about to impose were to become permanent. But right now protecting families and preserving a sense of fairness have to take priority over textbook market efficiency.

More at https://web.archive.org/web/20220909011733/https://www.nytimes.com/202
2/09/08/opinion/europe-russia-energy.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, September 11, 2022 3:42 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.



No Choice But Intervention': Belgium PM Fears "Severe Risk Of Social Unrest"

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/no-choice-intervention-belgium-
pm-fears-severe-risk-social-unrest

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Thursday, September 15, 2022 8:38 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.



Germany’s energy suicide: an autopsy
29925 Views September 08, 2022 62 Comments

by Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and widely cross-posted

When Green fanatic Robert Habeck, posing as Germany’s Economy Minister, said earlier this week “we should expect the worst” in terms of energy security, he conveniently forgot to spell out how the whole farce is a Made in Germany cum Made in Brussels crisis.

Flickers of intelligence at least still glow in rare Western latitudes, as indispensable strategic analyst William Engdahl, author of A Century of Oil, released a sharp, concise summary revealing the skeletons in the glamour closet.

Everyone with a brain following the ghastly Eurocrat machinations in Brussels was aware of the main plot – yet hardly anyone among average EU citizens. Habeck, Chancellor “Liver Sausage” Scholz, the European Commission (EC) Green Energy VP Timmermans, EC dominatrix Ursula von der Leyen, they are all involved.

In a nutshell: as Engdahl describes it, this is about “the EU plan to de-industrialize one of the most energy-efficient industrial concentrations on the planet.”

That’s a practical translation of the UN Green Agenda 2030 – which happens to be metastasized into crypto Bond villain Klaus Schwab’s Great Reset – now renamed “Great Narrative”.

The whole scam started way back in the early 2000s: I remember it vividly, as Brussels used to be my European base in the early “war on terror” years.

At the time, the talk of the town was the “European energy policy”. The dirty secret of such policy is that the EC, “ advised” by JP MorganChase as well as the usual mega speculative hedge funds, went all out into what Engdahl describes as “a complete deregulation of the European market for natural gas.”

That was sold to the Lugenpresse (“lying media”) as “liberalization”. In practice, that’s savage, unregulated casino capitalism, with the “free” market fixing prices while dumping long-term contracts – such as the ones struck with Gazprom.

How to decarbonize and destabilize

The process was turbo-charged in 2016, when the last gasp of the Obama administration encouraged massive export of LNG out of the US’s huge shale gas production.

For that one needs to build LNG terminals. Each terminal takes as much as 5 years to build. Within the EU, Poland and Holland went for it from the start.

As much as Wall Street in the past invented a “ paper oil” speculative market, this time they went for a speculative “paper gas” market.

Engdahl details how “the EU Commission and their Green Deal agenda to ‘decarbonize’ the economy by 2050, eliminating oil, gas and coal fuels, provided the ideal trap that has led to the explosive spike in EU gas prices since 2021.”

The creation of this “single” market control implied forcing illegal rule changes on Gazprom. In practice, Big Finance and Big Energy – which totally control anything that passes for “EU policy” in Brussels – invented a new pricing system parallel to the long-term, stable prices of Russian pipeline gas.

By 2019, an avalanche of Eurocrat energy “ directives” by the EC – the only thing these people do – had established a totally deregulated gas market trading, setting the prices for natural gas in the EU even as Gazprom remained the largest supplier.

As lots of virtual trading hubs in gas futures contracts started popping up across the EU, enter the Dutch TTF (Title Transfer Facility). By 2020 the TTF was established as the real EU gas benchmark.

As Engdahl points out, “TTF is a virtual platform of trades in futures gas contracts between banks and other financial investors. Outside, of course, of any regulated exchange.

So LNG prices soon started to be set by futures trades in the TTF hub, which crucially happens to be owned by the Dutch government – “the same government destroying its farms for a fraudulent nitrogen pollution claim.”

By any means necessary Big Finance had to get rid of Gazprom as a reliable source to allow powerful financial interests behind the Green Deal racket to dominate the LNG market.

Engdahl evokes a case very few know about across Europe: “On May 12, 2022 although Gazprom deliveries to the Soyuz gas pipeline through Ukraine were uninterrupted for almost three months of conflict, despite Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, the NATO-controlled Zelensky regime in Kiev closed a major Russian pipeline through Lugansk, that was bringing Russian gas both to his Ukraine as well as EU states, declaring it would remain closed until Kiev gets full control of its pipeline system that runs through the two Donbass republics. That section of the Ukraine Soyuz line cut one-third of gas via Soyuz to the EU. It certainly did not help the EU economy at a time Kiev was begging for more weapons from those same NATO countries. Soyuz opened in 1980 under the Soviet Union bringing gas from the Orenburg gas field.”

Hybrid War, the energy chapter

On the interminable soap opera involving the Nord Stream 1 turbine, the crucial fact is that Canada deliberately refused to deliver the repaired turbine to Gazprom – its owner – but instead sent it to Siemens Germany, where it is now. Siemens Germany is essentially under American control. Both the German and Canadian governments refuse to grant a legally binding sanction exemption for the transfer to Russia.

That was the straw that broke the (Gazprom) camel’s back. Gazprom and the Kremlin concluded that if sabotage was the name of the game, they couldn’t care less whether Germany received zero gas via Nord Stream 1 (with brand new Nord Stream 2, ready to go, blocked by strictly political reasons).

Kremlin spokesman Dmity Peskov took pains to stress

“problems in [gas] deliveries arose due to sanctions that have been imposed on our country and a number of companies by Western countries (…) There are no other reasons behind supply issues.”

Peskov had to remind anyone with a brain that it’s not Gazprom’s fault if “the Europeans (…) make a decision to refuse to service their equipment” which they are contractually obligated to do. The fact is the whole Nord Stream 1 operation hinges on “one piece of equipment that needs serious maintenance.”

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who knows one or two things about the energy business, cleared up the technicalities:

“The entire problem lies precisely on [the EU’s] side, because all the conditions of the repair contract have been completely violated, along with the terms of shipping of the equipment.”

All that is inscribed into what Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov describes as “a total war declared against us”, which is “being waged in hybrid forms, in all areas”, with “the degree of animosity of our opponents – of our enemies” being “enormous, extraordinary.”

So none of this has anything to do with “Putin weaponizing energy”. It was Berlin and Brussels – mere messengers of Big Finance – which weaponized the supply of European energy on behalf of a financial racket, and against the interests of European industry and consumers.

Beware of the toxic trio

Engdahl has summarized how, “by systematically sanctioning or closing gas deliveries from long-term, low cost pipelines to the EU, gas speculators via the Dutch TTP have been able to use every hiccup or energy shock in the world, whether a record drought in China or the conflict in Ukraine, to export restrictions in the USA, to bid the EU wholesale gas prices through all bounds.”

Translation: casino capitalism at its finest.

And it gets worse, when it comes to electricity. There is a so-called EU Electricity Market Reform in progress. According to it, producers of electricity – from solar or wind – automatically receive “the same price for their ‘renewable’ electricity they sell to the power companies for the grid as the highest cost, i.e. natural gas.” No wonder the cost of electricity in Germany for 2022 increased by 860% – and rising.

Baerbock incessantly parrots that German energy independence cannot be secured until the country is “liberated from fossil fuels.”

According to Green fanaticism, to build the Green Agenda it’s imperative to completely eliminate gas, oil and nuclear power, which happen to be the only reliable energy sources as it stands.

And it’s here that we see the toxic trio Habeck/Baerbock/von der Leyen ready for their close up. They pose as saviors of Europe preaching that the only way out is to invest fortunes in – unreliable – wind and solar power: the “answer” from Providence to a gas price debacle manufactured by none other than Big Finance, Green fanaticism and Eurocrat “leadership”.

Now tell that to struggling pan-European households whose bills will surge to a whopping, collective $2 trillion as General Winter knocks on the door.



-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Friday, September 16, 2022 5:29 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


What a terribly written article - so trashy

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Friday, September 16, 2022 10:24 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
What a terribly written article - so trashy


We know. You prefer fairy tales.

Where's Greta Thunberg hiding out? You're never going to see her face again.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Saturday, September 17, 2022 1:42 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Angry Customers Demand Explanation As German Energy Bills Soar


https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Angry-Customers-Dem
and-Explanation-As-German-Energy-Bills-Soar.html

You mean they only want an explanation NOW??? Where have they been hiding for the last 6 months?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Saturday, September 17, 2022 1:43 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
What a terribly written article - so trashy
Really? I thought it was exceptionally well written, which is why I posted it.

What do you find fault with?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Monday, September 26, 2022 1:01 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Meloni's Right-Wing Alliance Wins Clear Majority In Italian Elections

Monday, Sep 26, 2022 - 09:44 AM

First Sweden, now Italy.
Let's not forget Hungary and Poland, both of which are following nationalist policies.

Quote:
Europe's unelected authoritarian ruler, Ursula von der Leyen, is not going to be happy: according to early exit polls out of Italy's national election, the right-wing bloc of Giorgia Meloni - which the ultra-left wing press just can't stop comparing to Mussolini - is set for a historic, if largely expected, victory and a clear majority (if, however, not a super-majority) which will propel Meloni to the top of the Italian government as the country's next prime minister, ushering in a historic right-wing shift for a country that - like Sweden until two weeks ago - has traditionally been very left-wing.

Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, which won just 4% of the vote during the last national election in 2018, won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary elections with around 22.5%-26.5% of the vote according to an exit poll released by Italian national broadcaster Rai. She is now set to become prime minister but would require approval from junior partners in her coalition to assume the role.

* Italy election exit poll: right-wing block (Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia + Lega + Forza Italia) on track for clear majority in both upper and lower houses of Italian parliament. https://t.co/3ha7oz6tgX
— Jeremy Cliffe (@JeremyCliffe) September 25, 2022

According to an exit poll from Rai, Meloni's alliance which includes Salvini's League and Berlusconi's Forza Italia will win around 43% of the vote. The Center-Left alliance will have just 25.5%-29.5% of the vote, while the 5 Star movement has 13.5%-17.5% of the final vote.

Italy’s electoral system, which strongly favors parties that run as part of a coalition, is expected to help the right to an ample majority in both houses of Parliament: with 228 votes in the Lower House and 115 seats in the Senate (according to SkyTG24), Meloni will have a majority as just 104 votes are required.

As the WSJ notes, the Italian election is "the first big test of the European Union’s political cohesion as it confronts Russia’s attempt to redraw the continent’s post-Cold War order. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s restriction of natural-gas deliveries has sparked an energy-price crunch that, combined with other inflationary pressures, is expected to push much of Europe into a recession this winter."

Meloni replaces former Goldman Sachs partner and ECB technocrat and globalist, Mario Draghi, and will be the country’s first female prime minister.

The likely right-wing government will face difficult decisions over how to protect Italian households and businesses from sky-high prices for natural gas and electricity. While Italy’s parlous public finances allow limited scope for fiscal largess, if the UK is any example - and it is - Italy will engage in a similar strategy of targeted and debt-funded fiscal stimulus which will lead to a blowout in Italian debt, a further plunge in the euro and much chaos everywhere.

Italy's massive debt of roughly 150% of GDP, combined with Italy’s weak long-term growth record, makes the country vulnerable to bond-market selloffs if investors lose confidence in the soundness of Rome’s fiscal policies, and dependent on the European Central Bank to keep its bond yields stable. ECB support has typically been conditional on Rome following cautious budget policies and enacting economic overhauls aimed at improving growth. In other words, the Berlusconi example of 2011 is still vivid - if Meloni's policies displease the ECB, Christine Lagarde will simply refuse (or forget) to buy Italian bonds, sparking Europe's next sovereign debt crisis at the worst possible moment.
This is very much like the Greek debt crisis under Tsipras, which had EUCouncil of Ministers and the Troika literally discussi Greece leaving the Euro and going back to the drachma. IMHO that would have been the better choice for Greece, but Tsipras was paid off to accept a bailout and austerity instead.
https://www.thebalancemoney.com/what-is-the-greece-debt-crisis-3305525
Quote:
During the election campaign, Meloni tried to reassure voters and investors that she will keep Italy’s mammoth debt under control and won’t question the country’s foreign alliances or support for Ukraine. Expect all of that to change tomorrow.

* History is written! Despite Ursula von der Leyen's unworthy and dirty threats, Italians vote en masse for the far right. Giorgia Meloni first female premier in the history of Italy. pic.twitter.com/azjKug2xVm
— RadioGenova (@RadioGenova) September 25, 2022

Looking ahead, Europe's crumbling and unelected oligarchy will be terribly vexed by the result...

* If the exit poll is right and Meloni becomes PM in Italy, what 'tools' will the awful @vonderleyen use? Thank god we have left. https://t.co/OEPeMLyAhA
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) September 25, 2022

... as for markets, the spin will be that the lack of a super-majority is actually bullish for for the EUR and BTPs, while focus will quickly turn to coalition stability and who Italy's next finmin will be.


Unless Meloni plans to leave the Euro currency, the only difference she might make in Italy's national policy is a hardening against migrants. (That is what Sweden's new government ran on.)

The only nations that have an easy path to leaving the EU are those that retained their own currencies. Britain, having stayed with the pound, was the first.
The EU's leverage over it's "member states" is primarily financial, and they use it to force compliance with sanctions, energy "sharing", foreign, green, and "woke" policies, and immigration policies.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Tuesday, September 27, 2022 10:03 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Looks like Greens may have committed an act of terror/ sabotage

Quote:
Blasts Detected Near Nord Stream As Images Reveal "Huge Leak"

Remember what President Biden said weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine:
*"If Russia invades...then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it."





Europe can say goodbye to its gas supply this winter. (Of course, they'll blame Russia.)

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Tuesday, September 27, 2022 9:41 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Looks like Greens may have committed an act of terror/ sabotage

Quote:
Blasts Detected Near Nord Stream As Images Reveal "Huge Leak"

Remember what President Biden said weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine:
*"If Russia invades...then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it."





Europe can say goodbye to its gas supply this winter. (Of course, they'll blame Russia.)
The most complicated sabotage the Greens have ever achieved is driving steel spikes into trees in order to break band-saws at lumber mills. Those technological morons of the Green Party (a plan with more than 5 steps puts the dizzy Greens into a tizzy) could NOT place explosives on a pipeline that is 100 feet underwater. It was a nation, Russia, that blew up those pipelines.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/27/nord-stream-1-2-pipel
ines-leak-baltic-sabotage-fears

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, October 1, 2022 4:49 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
What a terribly written article - so trashy
How is the weather in Nilbog?

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Monday, October 3, 2022 9:47 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


How Liz Truss (new UK Prime Minister) Did So Much Damage in So Few Days
Oct. 3, 2022

Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor of the Exchequer, justified their moves with the much discredited claim that reducing top tax rates would provide a huge boost to economic growth. This raised doubts about their competence and, indeed, their connection to reality; it’s never good when economists at major banks declare that a country’s ruling party has become a doomsday cult.

Questions about Truss’s judgment were reinforced by the cluelessness of her timing. Right now ordinary Europeans, including Britons, are facing hard times, largely as an indirect consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainians, incredibly, seem to be winning the war; it doesn’t detract from their valor to say that Western weapons have played an important role in their success. So Vladimir Putin has tried to place pressure on the West by cutting off natural gas flows.

This is a huge adverse economic shock to Europe, probably bigger than the oil shocks of the 1970s. Governments are trying to limit the pain caused by soaring energy bills. But all of Europe — again, including Britain — is facing something like the economic equivalent of war. (America is much less affected, although natural gas prices have risen here too.) And as in wartime, government policies need to promote a sense that people are all in this together.

At such a time, slashing taxes for the rich, who are already less affected by higher energy prices than people with lower incomes are, instead sends the message that only the little people will face hardship. This message is especially toxic given that the British public is already in an uproar over cuts to public services, especially health care, and wants to see taxes go up, not down, to pay for more. And it’s hard to govern effectively when you’ve angered most of your nation.

There was one more factor in the market turmoil created by the Truss proposals, which amplified the effects of lost credibility. It turns out that British pension funds, which own a lot of British government bonds, have tried to reduce risks with complex financial strategies that require that they put up extra cash when interest rates rise and bond prices fall. When interest rates suddenly jumped, pension funds couldn’t raise enough cash on short notice — and this threatened to force fire sales of bonds that would have pushed rates even higher. Emergency intervention by the Bank of England limited the damage, but the episode added even more anxiety.

And yes, with interest rates rising almost everywhere, one has to wonder whether there are other financial crises waiting to happen. The British bond meltdown was probably exceptional, but nobody who remembers 2008 can avoid feeling some anxiety.

But back to the Truss debacle. As I said, the savage market reaction to the new prime minister’s plans was about more than money. In tough times, leaders need to be perceived as being both realistic and fair. What Britain got instead was a leader who seems to live in a fantasy world and is oblivious to concerns about social solidarity. And it’s going to be very hard to make up for the damage she did in just a few days.

https://web.archive.org/web/20221004000323/https://www.nytimes.com/202
2/10/03/opinion/truss-britain-bonds-taxes.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, October 3, 2022 9:51 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
How Liz Truss (new UK Prime Minister) Did So Much Damage in So Few Days


If Second agrees this statement is a fact, you can be assured that it is not a fact.

Thank you for being so constantly wrong about everything, buddy. You're a great barometer for all of us.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Monday, October 3, 2022 10:27 PM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

The end of the "age of abundance", where abundance means hot showers, street lights at night, eating meat, warmth in the winter...

Multiple EU "leaders" tell their people to suck it up.



It's the Russian people who have to suck it up comrade.

T


"The Pressure On Putin Grows," As Ukrainian Fighters Push Deeper Into Russian-Controlled Areas



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Monday, October 3, 2022 10:32 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

The end of the "age of abundance", where abundance means hot showers, street lights at night, eating meat, warmth in the winter...

Multiple EU "leaders" tell their people to suck it up.



It's the Russian people who have to suck it up comrade.

T


"The Pressure On Putin Grows," As Ukrainian Fighters Push Deeper Into Russian-Controlled Areas





Meanwhile... In Russia.




But! But! He isn't even cooking anything!!!

Yup. Keep telling us about how Russia is losing.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Tuesday, October 4, 2022 6:27 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The dread spreading across Germany over inflation — which hit a 71-year high of 10% this month — and energy shortages have not gone unnoticed in Washington, where there are concerns about whether Europe’s largest economy could become a weak link in the chain taking a firm line on sanctions against Russia.

The unmistakable German trepidation has also been followed closely in Moscow, where Putin — the erstwhile KGB agent in East Germany and still a fluent speaker of the language — is reported to be an avid consumer of German media.

Putin is likely aware of opinion polls showing Germans to be more wary than others about the war and haunted about inflation, energy scarcity and warfare spreading to their peace-obsessed land.

Exacerbating Germans' anxiety of a dark, cold and possibly even hunger-filled winter ahead have been the ominous saber-rattling from Russian President Vladimir Putin about possibly turning to nuclear weapons against Ukraine and the West. The mystery-shrouded explosions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, damaging natural gas pipelines that had not long ago delivered nearly half of Germany’s supplies, have unsettled the country even more.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i-ve-given-up-on-all-my-dreams-dr
ead-in-germany-deepens-over-war-in-ukraine/ar-AA12x1VX

I foresee $200 billion in windfall profits for the energy business: On Thursday, the German government announced a $200-billion relief package designed to help Germans pay heating and electricity bills that for many have already doubled or, in some cases, tripled.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, October 4, 2022 9:14 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


In other words, fuck Ukraine.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022 7:26 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Germany’s economy minister accused the U.S. and other “friendly” gas supplier states of astronomical prices for their supplies, suggesting they were profiting from the fallout of the war in Ukraine.

“Some countries, including friendly ones, sometimes achieve astronomical prices [for their gas]. Of course, that brings with it problems that we have to talk about,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck told regional German paper NOZ in an interview published Wednesday which was translated by NBC News. He called for more solidarity from the U.S. when it comes to assisting its energy-pressed allies in Europe.

“The United States contacted us when oil prices shot up, and the national oil reserves in Europe were tapped as a result. I think such solidarity would also be good for curbing gas prices,” he said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/05/german-minister-criticizes-us-over-ast
ronomical-natural-gas-prices.html

When old-style Capitalists see weakness, they raise prices until buyers can pay no more. To make the process of taking all the buyer's money seem bloodless and merely a technicality, it is called maximizing profit.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022 9:21 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yup. It wasn't enough that Biden* made it a first day priority to shot down the Keystone XL pipeline, but now he blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.

Energy prices were just fine while Trump was in office.


Gas prices by me are up $0.50 a gallon in the last two weeks. Heating your house is going to cost even more than it did last year when it doubled from the previous year.

As an aside... Elon is buying Twitter by the end of the week. Just in time for midterms.

Democrats are toast.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022 10:25 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion and anti-Putin regime campaigner, has given an interview to the German news magazine Spiegel in which he says that “every Russian who is living in Russia now is part of the war machine” and demands that those who want to stand on the right side of history should leave.

Kasparov tells the magazine that he has spent 20 years fighting against Vladimir Putin. “I always said that his regime would unavoidably become a fascist threat – not only for Russia, not only for its neighbours, but for the entire world. It would have been nice if a few more people would have taken this warning to heart.”

Asked by Spiegel if being abroad – he has lived in political exile since 2013 – he wasn’t in too comfortable a position to be making such demands of those who have yet to leave Russia, he said: “This is war. Either you’re on one side of the front or the other. Every Russian citizen, including me, carries collective responsibility for this war, even if not a personal responsibility. Today Russia is a fascistic dictatorship, which, while we’re speaking here, is carrying out crimes against humanity. And everyone who is still living in Russia now, is a part of this war machinery, whether he wants to be or not.”

Kasparov said Russians who want to be given asylum elsewhere should first have to sign a three-point declaration in which they would “declare the war to be criminal, the Putin regime illegitimate and Ukraine indivisible”, Kasparov said. By signing it, the individual would be liable for prosecution in Russia on three counts according to laws Putin has put in place, he added.

The 59-year old chess grandmaster makes the interesting claim that Putin “never played chess, but poker, and he was good at geopolitical poker. He often played with bad cards and won, because his opponents fell for his bluff.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/oct/05/russia-ukraine-war-
live-dozens-of-towns-recaptured-in-east-and-south-says-zelenskiy?page=with:block-633d6eab8f08cd903079a659#block-633d6eab8f08cd903079a659

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022 9:45 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yup. It wasn't enough that Biden* made it a first day priority to shot down the Keystone XL pipeline, but now he blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.

Energy prices were just fine while Trump was in office.


Gas prices by me are up $0.50 a gallon in the last two weeks. Heating your house is going to cost even more than it did last year when it doubled from the previous year.

As an aside... Elon is buying Twitter by the end of the week. Just in time for midterms.

Democrats are toast.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus



Gas prices just shot up another $0.35 by me in one day.

Now it's $0.85 more than it was a week ago.

Good. Election day is a month away.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022 10:24 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Gas prices just shot up another $0.35 by me in one day.

Now it's $0.85 more than it was a week ago.

Good. Election day is a month away.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
Exxon depends on people believing the U.S. President sets gasoline prices because if the people knew it was Exxon the corporate headquarters would be burned down and the CEO hanged. For example, see:

ExxonMobil Makes Godlike Profits
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/exxonmobil-quarterly-profit
s-challenges/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022 10:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Gas prices just shot up another $0.35 by me in one day.

Now it's $0.85 more than it was a week ago.

Good. Election day is a month away.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
Exxon depends on people believing the U.S. President sets gasoline prices because if the people knew it was Exxon the corporate headquarters would be burned down and the CEO hanged. For example, see:


How many times are you going to repeat this stupid line, dipshit?

Joe fucking Biden* didn't directly set the gas prices. NOBODY IS SAYING HE DID.

But two years of bad policy created the clusterfuck we're all living through now. Not just the gas prices. EVERYTHING.

DEMOCRATS ARE FUCKING DONE.

DONE.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Thursday, October 6, 2022 6:32 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

How many times are you going to repeat this stupid line, dipshit?

Joe fucking Biden* didn't directly set the gas prices. NOBODY IS SAYING HE DID.

But two years of bad policy created the clusterfuck we're all living through now. Not just the gas prices. EVERYTHING.

DEMOCRATS ARE FUCKING DONE.

DONE.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
It is NOT two years. It is two centuries that companies like Exxon have been able to set prices as high as the buyers have money in their wallets and take the maximum profit. There are inflation adjustments going back 200 years and we are paying 200 times more today than way-back when. That isn't the way America would run, except if Exxon and like companies had complete control of America and were squeezing all the money they can from Americans.

CPI Inflation Calculator
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, October 6, 2022 6:35 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two



In Ukraine, Europeans will have to put their money where their mouth is | October 3, 2022

Jeremy Shapiro writes:

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas enthusiastically joined the general outrage when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He took to Twitter immediately to condemn the attack as “the greatest breach of peace in Europe in nearly 80 years”. He went on a trip to Germany and the Polish-Ukrainian border in March to visit US troops and observe the humanitarian operations there. On his return, the Republican senator implored President Joe Biden to “get them the damn weapons”, while praising the contributions of Poland and Germany to the Ukrainian war effort as “heroic” and “ground-shaking”.

But just a few weeks later, his outrage had apparently faded. He was one of 11 senators to vote against the Biden administration’s proposed $40 billion aid package to Ukraine. In explaining his vote, Marshall noted that “our NATO allies’ contributions have dropped off significantly, turning this essentially into a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia.” In the House, Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee wondered why the United States would send “$40 billion to Ukraine, and we can’t get baby formula? It’s time for Europe to step up.” A growing chorus of leading figures began to ask: if the rich Europeans are not going to adequately fund a war on the European continent, why should America do it?

The bill still passed and – for now – only a minority of Republicans are taking this view. But, in private, administration officials doubt they will be able to pass big aid packages for Ukraine after the midterm elections. In their view, Congress has grown wary of the enormous sums required to sustain the Ukraine war, particularly given the various domestic priorities and the looming threat of China. President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation of reservists means that the war will not end quickly. Administration officials expect budget-conscious Republicans to increasingly demand that Europe step up – and to point to Europeans’ inaction as a failure of Biden administration diplomacy. Even some anti-interventionist Democrats may join them.

One can see their point. The US has already pledged $44 billion in bilateral aid to Ukraine and the administration just asked Congress to approve another $13.7 billion. These are large figures even by Washington standards. Meanwhile, the combined contributions of the United Kingdom, the EU, and all 27 EU member states totals only $33 billion. In the key area of military aid, the gap is even wider: the US has pledged $24 billion, the Europeans only $12 billion. The actual difference may be greater, as key European donors have reportedly been slow to deliver on their pledges.

All this means that the current trickle of “blame Europe” arguments may turn into a torrent if the Republicans take control of Congress in November. The advantage of such claims is that they would allow newly empowered Congressional critics to oppose Biden’s policy without having to appear soft on Russia.

More at https://ecfr.eu/article/the-coming-transatlantic-rift-over-ukraine/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, October 6, 2022 9:03 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

How many times are you going to repeat this stupid line, dipshit?

Joe fucking Biden* didn't directly set the gas prices. NOBODY IS SAYING HE DID.

But two years of bad policy created the clusterfuck we're all living through now. Not just the gas prices. EVERYTHING.

DEMOCRATS ARE FUCKING DONE.

DONE.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
It is NOT two years. It is two centuries that companies like Exxon have been able to set prices as high as the buyers have money in their wallets and take the maximum profit. There are inflation adjustments going back 200 years and we are paying 200 times more today than way-back when. That isn't the way America would run, except if Exxon and like companies had complete control of America and were squeezing all the money they can from Americans.

CPI Inflation Calculator
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Tell that to the poor people.

SPOILER ALERT 1: They don't care.

SPOILER ALERT 2: Most of them are former Democrats.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Thursday, October 6, 2022 10:13 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

How many times are you going to repeat this stupid line, dipshit?

Joe fucking Biden* didn't directly set the gas prices. NOBODY IS SAYING HE DID.

But two years of bad policy created the clusterfuck we're all living through now. Not just the gas prices. EVERYTHING.

DEMOCRATS ARE FUCKING DONE.

DONE.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
It is NOT two years. It is two centuries that companies like Exxon have been able to set prices as high as the buyers have money in their wallets and take the maximum profit. There are inflation adjustments going back 200 years and we are paying 200 times more today than way-back when. That isn't the way America would run, except if Exxon and like companies had complete control of America and were squeezing all the money they can from Americans.

CPI Inflation Calculator
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Tell that to the poor people.

SPOILER ALERT 1: They don't care.

SPOILER ALERT 2: Most of them are former Democrats.



--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
I know plenty of poor people. But unlike Signym, who has declared poor people were made poor by rich people, I know for certain that poor people in America are self-taught ignoramuses about money, inflation, business, everything about American industry.

Both sides of my family, father and mother, are from East Texas and they were poor before I was born. About 60 years ago, when I was 10 years old, a woman by the name of Mrs. Kesseler converted my parents to being Jehovah's Witnesses. My parents moved to Pasadena Texas to get away from their angry poor white trash relatives, who were not at all Christian, although my white trash relatives believe they are the true Christians. I am not sure how people who don't follow the Bible can convince themselves they are followers of Jesus, but my relatives have proved it is possible. Along with not being Christians, despite claiming they are, my relatives are all Trumptards and their actual religion is that their problems: financial/work/family/health insurance/Social Security/Medicare hardships are caused by Democrats.

This belief that you know something you do not also includes the knowledge of how money, finance, and investment work. My mother and father worked at Burger King, my father as a manager. When my mother died, she was a multi-millionaire. Actually following the Bible will make you rich. My poor white trash relatives? They are still poor and still in East Texas. All my East Texas relatives, who think they were so much smarter than my parents, have gone through mortgage foreclosures, auto repossessions, bankruptcies, convictions for embezzlement, divorces, health problems caused by their non-Christian and out-of-control lifestyles, etc.

My parents understood how money works, and my relatives have never understood, although they think they do and will loudly declare that the Republicans know how to run the country. How many times has Trump gone bankrupt? But he knows how to run a country. Just ask my Trumptard relatives.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, October 6, 2022 5:45 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
I know plenty of poor people.


You're one of them. Get fucked.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Friday, October 7, 2022 8:39 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
I know plenty of poor people.


You're one of them. Get fucked.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
The Russians are poor compared to Finns. How did that happen? Two countries, side by side, and yet one has a GDP per capita that four time larger than the other. How do things like that happen? On a more personal level, how did my parents leaving their relatives (all Trumptards) behind cause their East Texas relatives to have net-worth only 25% (or less) of my parents?

There are many comparisons between Finland and Russia. Russia looks inferior in all of them, except for quantities of nukes. In belligerency, Russia exceeds Finland. How much better does war make the typical Russian compared to a Finn? Trumptards, especially East Texas angry poor white trash, rank very high in belligerence but that has not worked any better for them than Russia's belligerency has worked for Russians.

Compare GDP Finland Russia
https://www.google.com/search?q=compare+gdp+finland+russia

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 7, 2022 9:02 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
I know plenty of poor people.


You're one of them. Get fucked.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
The Russians are poor compared to Finns. How did that happen?


I don't see what your point is. A) There could be a million reasons why one country does better than another, even though your pea brain can only focus on two or three. B) You seem to think I give a shit about Russia.

I don't. Fuck Ukraine. Fuck Russia. Fuck Finland.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Friday, October 7, 2022 10:02 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

I don't see what your point is.
Russians have always bitched about Europe not treating Russia with the respect Russians demand. Meanwhile, Finns never had the over-inflated sense of self-worth that the Russians have, which is why Finns went about their daily jobs improving their lives while Russians have schemed to get respect from Europeans. All that scheming and H-bomb building and controlling the Warsaw Pact countries has done the Russians no good, whatsoever. Neither will controlling Ukraine do Russians any good. On the other side of the border, Finland never had Russian delusions of grandeur, and avoided all the emotional energy Russians have wasted on tomfoolery and nonsense. The results? Finns are richer and happier than Russians. To explain the difference in prosperity, Russians think the Finns cheated somehow. I guess Russians cannot understand what they have done wrong, no more than my East Texas relatives can understand what they are doing wrong and how their prosperity is harmed by how wastefully they spend their lives.

Warsaw Pact
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 7, 2022 10:14 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

I don't see what your point is.
Russians have always bitched about Europe not treating Russia with the respect Russians demand. Meanwhile, Finns never had the over-inflated sense of self-worth that the Russians have, which is why Finns went about their daily jobs improving their lives while Russians have schemed to get respect from Europeans. All that scheming and H-bomb building and controlling the Warsaw Pact countries has done the Russians no good, whatsoever. Neither will controlling Ukraine do Russians any good. On the other side of the border, Finland never had Russian delusions of grandeur, and avoided all the emotional energy Russians have wasted on tomfoolery and nonsense. The results? Finns are richer and happier than Russians. To explain the difference in prosperity, Russians think the Finns cheated somehow. I guess Russians cannot understand what they have done wrong, no more than my East Texas relatives can understand what they are doing wrong and how their prosperity is harmed by how wastefully they spend their lives.


And how the fuck do you know any of this?

Don't bother answering that question. It's rhetorical.

You don't know shit.


You want to see over-inflated self worth. You don't have to go far. Even poor people have mirrors in their bathroom.

Get fucked, worm.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Friday, October 7, 2022 12:43 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

And how the fuck do you know any of this?

Don't bother answering that question. It's rhetorical.

You don't know shit.


You want to see over-inflated self worth. You don't have to go far. Even poor people have mirrors in their bathroom.

Get fucked, worm.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
Take two countries living side-by-side: North and South Korea. One spent all their time and money building H-bombs, rockets and threatening war. The other did not. Which one is richer? By the way, North Korea exists because Russia set that country up. Funny how both Russia and North Korea have to issue at least once per week a new threat to nuke the world. It is almost like successful people think alike - Putin and Kim are super successful people in charge of countries that are widely admired for being wealthy, healthy, peaceful, and wise.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 7, 2022 2:59 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND:
I know plenty of poor people. But unlike Signym, who has declared poor people were made poor by rich people, I know for certain that poor people in America are self-taught ignoramuses about money, inflation, business, everything about American industry.

Both sides of my family, father and mother, are from East Texas and they were poor before I was born. About 60 years ago, when I was 10 years old, a woman by the name of Mrs. Kesseler converted my parents to being Jehovah's Witnesses. My parents moved to Pasadena Texas to get away from their angry poor white trash relatives, who were not at all Christian, although my white trash relatives believe they are the true Christians. I am not sure how people who don't follow the Bible can convince themselves they are followers of Jesus, but my relatives have proved it is possible. Along with not being Christians, despite claiming they are, my relatives are all Trumptards and their actual religion is that their problems: financial/work/family/health insurance/Social Security/Medicare hardships are caused by Democrats.

This belief that you know something you do not also includes the knowledge of how money, finance, and investment work. My mother and father worked at Burger King, my father as a manager. When my mother died, she was a multi-millionaire. Actually following the Bible will make you rich.
Which part of the Bible is that? The part tht says

Quote:
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

https://www.biblehub.com/matthew/19-24.htm

Or maybe the part that says

Quote:
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[a] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021:12-13&ve
rsion=NIV







-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Friday, October 7, 2022 3:19 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Or maybe the part that says . . .
See the "Parable of the talents or minas"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_talents_or_minas#Interpre
tations

The angry poor white trash living in East Texas (Trumptards) have little understanding of the biblical laws forbidding adultery, stealing, giving false witness, coveting their neighbor's possessions, drunkenness, gluttony, etc. As Trumptards go through life, they think following rules is an abridgement of their Constitutional freedoms, but breaking those biblical laws, even one time, can throw a Trumptard into poverty. That never stopped the Trumptards I'm familiar with from breaking all the laws all the time. They handle the inconsistency between what the bible says and what the Trumptard does by lying about what the Trumptards have done. That strategy doesn't work well in real life for Trumptards or for Russians torturing prisoners.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 7, 2022 5:21 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Or what about "Behold the lillies of the field"?

Any quote you come up with, I can counter with another.

The problem with the bible is you can take just about ANYTHING you want from it.

Sacrifice your firstborn son? Check!
Stone prostitutes? Check!
The tribulations of Job? (ie faith doesn't necessarily make you rich) Check!
The world will end with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Check!

Even the tennet that there is only one god...

"I am the lord THY God, thou shall not have strange gods before me"
Notice that there's no statement saying "God" is the only god. This was just Yahweh being PO'd that some Jews were beginning to worship Ba'al.

Trying to justify anything by referring to the Bible is about as useful as trying to nail Jello to a wall.



-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Friday, October 7, 2022 7:23 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Or maybe the part that says . . .
See the "Parable of the talents or minas"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_talents_or_minas#Interpre
tations

The angry poor white trash living in East Texas (Trumptards) have little understanding of the biblical laws forbidding adultery, stealing, giving false witness,
AKA libel. You wouldn't know about that either, would you?
Quote:
coveting their neighbor's possessions, drunkenness, gluttony, etc. As Trumptards go through life, they think following rules is an abridgement of their Constitutional freedoms, but breaking those biblical laws, even one time, can throw a Trumptard into poverty. That never stopped the Trumptards I'm familiar with from breaking all the laws all the time. They handle the inconsistency between what the bible says and what the Trumptard does by lying about what the Trumptards have done. That strategy doesn't work well in real life for Trumptards or for Russians torturing prisoners.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Also, you- in your righteousness- are ok with being cruel and vindictive to people who disagree with you. But, as the Bible says
" 'Vengeance is mine' says the Lord' ". It's not up to you to "punish" people for the "sin" of disagreeing with you.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Friday, October 7, 2022 8:12 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK




--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Friday, October 7, 2022 8:20 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize Winner: “What We Need Today Is Weapons”

The Intercept spoke with Oleksandra Matviichuk, who heads the Center for Civil Liberties. She talked about her group’s effort documenting human rights abuses that began long before Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, how the international community’s failure to hold Russia accountable for earlier crimes led to the invasion, and why countries that want to support Ukraine should provide military assistance. As she put it: “What we need today is weapons, and maybe it’s weird to hear that from a human rights lawyer, but I’ll be very honest with you: I have spent 20 years defending human rights, and now I have no legal instrument which has worked in this situation.”

https://theintercept.com/2022/10/07/nobel-peace-prize-ukraine-war-crim
es/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 7, 2022 9:01 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Also, you- in your righteousness- are ok with being cruel and vindictive to people who disagree with you. But, as the Bible says
" 'Vengeance is mine' says the Lord' ". It's not up to you to "punish" people for the "sin" of disagreeing with you.
I thought you knew that I am not a Christian. I am Atheist, which horrifies the Jehovah's Witnesses in the family, so I don't mention that fact. By the way, my two sisters, who worked at Burger King along with me, same as my parents, are both members of https://www.jw.org/en/ . One is a nurse and a multi-millionaire. The other is a school teacher for the blind and she is also a multi-millionaire. Then there is me, the engineer and the merciless barbarian in the family.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, October 7, 2022 9:21 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Also, you- in your righteousness- are ok with being cruel and vindictive to people who disagree with you. But, as the Bible says
" 'Vengeance is mine' says the Lord' ". It's not up to you to "punish" people for the "sin" of disagreeing with you.
I thought you knew that I am not a Christian. I am Atheist, which horrifies the Jehovah's Witnesses in the family, so I don't mention that fact. By the way, my two sisters, who worked at Burger King along with me, same as my parents, are both members of https://www.jw.org/en/ . One is a nurse and a multi-millionaire. The other is a school teacher for the blind and she is also a multi-millionaire. Then there is me, the engineer and the merciless barbarian in the family.

The Joss
Then WTF are you even referring to the Bible, and saying that following the Bible will make you rich? You may as well be quoting the Boy Scout motto.

You're splattering the board with your usual self-contradictory BS. Time to put you on"ignore", again.


-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake


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Friday, October 7, 2022 10:36 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Also, you- in your righteousness- are ok with being cruel and vindictive to people who disagree with you. But, as the Bible says
" 'Vengeance is mine' says the Lord' ". It's not up to you to "punish" people for the "sin" of disagreeing with you.
I thought you knew that I am not a Christian. I am Atheist, which horrifies the Jehovah's Witnesses in the family, so I don't mention that fact. By the way, my two sisters, who worked at Burger King along with me, same as my parents, are both members of https://www.jw.org/en/ . One is a nurse and a multi-millionaire. The other is a school teacher for the blind and she is also a multi-millionaire. Then there is me, the engineer and the merciless barbarian in the family.

The Joss
Then WTF are you even referring to the Bible, and saying that following the Bible will make you rich? You may as well be quoting the Boy Scout motto.

You're splattering the board with your usual self-contradictory BS. Time to put you on"ignore", again.


-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake




Yeah. Second is always quoting the bible. Incorrectly too.

Second is a fuckin' idiot and his opinion on any topic is isn't worth the bandwidth he used to dispense it.

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Saturday, October 8, 2022 7:13 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Then WTF are you even referring to the Bible, and saying that following the Bible will make you rich? You may as well be quoting the Boy Scout motto.

You're splattering the board with your usual self-contradictory BS. Time to put you on"ignore", again.
I'll quote the PM of Finland, although I am not Finnish: "The way out of the conflict is for Russia to leave Ukraine. That's the way out of the conflict," Sanna Marin said.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/finland-sanna-marin-ukraine-russ
ia-war-us-joe-biden-2282410-2022-10-08

By the way, Signym, I'm not Indian but I got that quote from India Today. Are you completely confused about "self-contradictory BS" because I would quote people and sources that are not native to my home state of Texas?

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, October 8, 2022 8:14 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


More wasted bandwidth...

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Wednesday, October 12, 2022 10:30 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
More wasted bandwidth...

--------------------------------------------------

Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
Europe should look at hard rationing and price controls for natural gas

This is it boys, this is war

Matthew Yglesias
4 hr ago https://www.slowboring.com/p/europe-should-look-at-hard-rationing

Europe has a problem this fall and winter as the temperature drops — now that supplies from Russia have been largely cut off, there is a shortfall of natural gas.

This is really a threefold problem because gas is used in three major ways. On the one hand, it’s an important source of home heating fuel. On the other hand, it’s an important source of electricity generation. And on the third hand, it’s used for direct applications in industry, especially related to chemical manufacturing. The electricity itself is then split into household and industrial use, with something like the competitiveness of European metallurgical companies closely linked to the price of electricity.

Last but by no means least, it’s worth recalling that the growth of renewable electricity does not really offer an exit from gas’s relevance in this sphere. When people calculate the levelized cost of an offshore wind facility, what they are doing is taking what it costs to build the thing and then dividing that by the amount of electricity it generates over the cost of its useful life. But the way an electricity grid works is that you need to generate enough power to meet all the demand or else the grid breaks. So if wind is meeting 90 percent of your needs on average (more than that on the windiest days, less on the days when wind is light), gas is still the source of your marginal megawatt. The price of electricity in an unregulated spot market is going to be the price that matches the marginal supply of gas to the marginal demand for electricity. So a sudden shortage of gas is going to create very high prices as long as you are relying on gas to balance your grid. Switching at the margin to more renewables creates less pollution and sends less revenue to gas-producing countries among other benefits — but it doesn’t escape that bind.

In response to this crisis, lots of European governments are breaking out the subsidies. That’s been part of the fiscal crisis in the U.K., but we also see the German government moving to roll out extensive subsidies. Then there are concerns that German subsidization is only going to push prices even higher in other European countries that are less able to afford it. By the same token, much of the gas that’s no longer flowing to Europe via pipeline can’t get out of Russia through any other means of egress either. Europe is replacing as much of it as they can with imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) which is pushing up prices throughout the global LNG marketplace. In the case of New England, that’s a problem. But in the case of poorer countries, it’s going to be a disaster. As with the food crisis of the past spring, Russia is trying to hurt its antagonists with this commodity warfare but the sharpest pain is being felt in non-aligned states.

But this all points to the fact that in my view, Europe really needs a different approach to energy this coming winter — one that relies less on a mix of market mechanisms and subsidies, and more on explicit rationing and price controls.

A bad idea whose time has come

Back in May, when Elizabeth Warren and others were blaming inflation on “corporate greed” and pushing legislation that would empower the FTC to ban excessive price increases, I wrote a post arguing that “Greedflation is Fake.” I also made the case that Warren’s effort to back us into an economy driven by price controls would necessitate creating a big rationing system, and responding to a rise in grocery prices by creating a system of rationing and price controls would be destructive overkill:

Warren is correct that it’s not a law of physics that a surge in demand needs to lead to a surge in prices.

When Ben & Jerry’s holds a free ice cream cone day, they get a surge in demand. They could respond to that surge by raising prices to a non-zero level to improve profit margins, but that would kind of wreck the marketing gimmick. You just get a situation where the line is very long and you need to wait a while for your ice cream. As a once a year promotion, that’s kind of fun. But in general, an economy where you need to spend tons of time standing in line waiting for things is kind of a bummer. Time wasted in queues is a real loss.

At times, it probably is appropriate to respond to economic problems with a mixture of rationing and price controls. During World War II one of my grandfathers was a radioman on Navy planes, and as a kid I loved to hear his stories about combat in the Mediterranean Theater. My other grandfather was an economist in the Office of Price Administration working specifically on footwear, which when I was a kid seemed awfully boring. The military needed tons of boots for the troops and rubber for tires. But civilians also needed shoes; in particular, people in certain critical industries needed work boots. So there was a whole system of shoe-rationing and price controls to try to make sure that the country’s footwear-production capacity was mostly turned toward military uses. Now that I’m a grownup, I find this aspect of the war more fascinating in a lot of ways.

Today we seem to be moving toward a system of soft rationing and price controls to address shortages of baby formula. That seems appropriate for that specific sector given the emergency. But note that the formula shortages are in fact caused by a negative shock to supply — one of Abbott’s big factories was shut down for health reasons, and ultimately the only real solution here is to get the factory back running.

You certainly could apply this kind of logic broadly to today’s economy. Meatpackers’ profit margins soared recently, and you could have had regulators prevent them from raising prices. But what happens when demand soars and you don’t raise prices? Well, you sell out of stuff. And if people started regularly going to the store and finding that all kinds of things were sold out, they’d start panic buying whatever wasn’t sold out in order to stockpile (the prices would be low after all). And the panic buying would just lead to more shortages. Then to fix things, you’d need a real government rationing system — so much bacon per week, so many eggs, etc. And then you’d have illicit trade in ration coupons, a black market, the whole deal. And for what? To address a temporary baby formula crisis induced by the shutdown of a plant, it makes sense. To defeat the Nazis, you do drastic stuff.

Putin is not Hitler and contemporary Russia is not Nazi Germany.

But Europe is in basically a “wartime” situation. Russia invaded Ukraine, and Europe has been a willing participant in a western-led response whose key modes are (a) denying Russia access to crucial imports it needs to sustain its military-industrial complex, and (b) provisioning Ukraine with a quality and quantity of military hardware that it could not possibly afford on its own. Russia is retaliating as best it can by attempting to wreck Europe’s economy.

And Europe ought to respond to this geopolitically induced crisis in a collective, strategic way — with economic consequences rather than a purely economic catastrophe that should be addressed with market tools.

You can’t leave it up to the market

Of course, one thing you could do is say, “well this shock is nasty, but the best course of action is just to leave things up to the free market which will make the optimal adjustment.”

In a lot of contexts pure market solutions are underrated, but not in this one. The big issue is that people die if they can’t get their homes warm enough in the wintertime, but also normal people prefer to keep their homes at a temperature that is much, much, much warmer than what is needed for survival. And people put a very high value on that kind of comfort. An affluent person is going to respond to an energy price shock by drawing down savings while continuing to heat his home to 20 degrees, or maybe budge just a bit down to 19.2 And a person who's seriously pinched by energy costs is going to cut back on non-energy luxuries before turning down the heat. That relatively inelastic demand on the part of the more affluent segments of society means that people with lesser means can find themselves pushed below subsistence heating levels to the point where their health is in serious danger. This is part of a broader set of phenomena where background conditions of inequality make pure market allocations inefficient from a welfare perspective, and it’s why — as far as I can tell — every government is trying to find ways to shield the poorest from the full impact of the gas crunch.

But the other issue is that gas is both a household consumption item and also an input to industry.

If the input costs of industrial production go up, so will the prices. To an extent, those higher prices will be passed on to consumers. But those industrial outputs are also traded globally. So European industrialists will have only a limited ability to pass costs on to consumers who will instead switch to foreign products. Now of course the world as a whole has only limited production capacity, so a newly high-cost European industry won’t totally vanish. But it will shrink considerably if market forces are allowed to play out. That’s going to mean lots of workers losing their jobs and then needing extra support from the welfare state.

To the extent that we think higher prices are a new normal that the whole continent needs to adapt to, that’s fine, and a combination of flexible markets with a generous welfare state is the best option. But to the extent that we think higher prices are a wartime emergency that will fade away as Europe responds with more non-gas energy sources and more LNG terminals, then it’s very inefficient to incur all these costs of layoffs on the back-end through the welfare state. What you ought to do is spend money to keep the factories running and keep people employed.

So you end up with strong cases for subsidizing both industry and the poor.

You can only subsidize so much

Unfortunately, there are multiple problems with a subsidy-centric approach.

One is that, as seen in the United Kingdom, there are simply limits to how much the public treasury can bear. The U.K. is physically disconnected from the European gas pipeline network and now entirely outside of the European Union economic architecture, so they are free to spend as much as they want to in order to maintain 100 percent of pre-war gas usage. But that necessarily comes at the expense of some mix of currency decline (which raises the price of everything that isn’t gas) or higher interest rates. The effort by Liz Truss’s government to guarantee a fixed price of energy and achieve it through subsidy rather than price controls has essentially recreated the problems of a currency pegged to gold.

Eurozone members don’t have that fiscal and monetary flexibility, and in many cases are simply not going to have the funds needed to subsidize their way through the winter.

Germany maybe will since they are relatively rich and also ran tight fiscal policy for the previous 20 years. And since German politicians have insane views on fiscal policy, they will probably say that the current experience actually validates their prior two decades of excessively tight fiscal policy. In reality, the current situation mostly shows that Germany wasted an opportunity to take advantage of a prolonged period of negative interest rates to create a national high-speed rail network and to make massive investments in home insulation. They also really screwed up with their post-Fukushima turn against nuclear power, but that's another story. But the key issue is that beyond the specifics of the German situation, everyone on the main European gas grid is fighting over a quantity of LNG that is limited by the throughput of the existing terminal infrastructure. So if European Country A spends money to get more gas for its citizens, that means less gas to go around for European Country B. Having all the fiscally stronger European countries bid against each other like this is not going to accomplish anything productive.

In some cases, you would say “well this soaring spending is the signal we need to spur investment.” But Europe is already building new LNG terminals as fast as they can, and other relevant supply-side issues like trying to turn back on the shuttered nuclear plants or legalizing fracking are regulatory issues. There isn’t some price point at which the plants turn back on; the government would need to decide it wants to turn them on (and they should).

What has to happen is that someone needs to use less gas. And while most countries seem to be trying to design tiered subsidy schemes that will somewhat encourage that, any plan that relies heavily on subsidization will necessarily mute the demand response.

Wartime energy policy

If you think back to World War II and the limited oil supply situation, the government articulated some clear priorities.

They needed oil to actually prosecute the war — to keep tanks and planes and ships going. They also needed oil for war production, including both direct use in factories but also the whole long supply chain that benefits from trucks and tractors. Last and very much least, they wanted civilians to be able to have an okay quality of life.

More at https://www.slowboring.com/p/europe-should-look-at-hard-rationing

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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