Friday, October 8, 2021

Full of Gas — Paul Robinson

 Paul Robinson calls BS on blaming Putin for the gas crisis in Europe.

Irrussianality
Full of Gas
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

1 comment:

Ahmed Fares said...

Tom Luongo has an article out saying the same thing:

European Energy Crisis — And is That Gas You Think You’re Burning?

The goal here is to highlight just how moronic the EU’s stance on energy has become, to finally to break up the logjam.

He’s happy to see Gazprom (and possibly Rosneft if need be) sell all Europeans as much gas as it can supply and they demand, but only on terms that benefit everyone, supplier and demander. As I’ve talked about in previous blog posts, the EU thinks they have a monopsony on Russian gas and because of this can dictate terms to them.

This is patently untrue, and Gazprom shifting around supplies for a few days here and there proves that point dramatically. Like Jay Powell draining the world of eurodollars with just five basis points, Putin and Gazprom can expose the the extent of Eurocrat mendacity with just a few days of slowing gas exports.

That’s why this brinksmanship over gas supplies and electricity prices isn’t aimed at the Russians, who clearly have other customers for their gas, but with the people of Europe themselves and the capital markets structured around one-sigma price volatility. They are now extremely vulnerable even if things begin to return to normal.

The Russian Bogey Man is simply the cover story for what is a much deeper and, frankly, much more disturbing game.