Civilization hangs by just a few threads, and one of these threads is energy. Another is food, which also being affected.
Zero Hedge
German Chemical Giant Warns Of "Total Collapse" If Russian Gas Supply Cut
Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
German Chemical Giant Warns Of "Total Collapse" If Russian Gas Supply Cut
Tyler Durden
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/basf-ceo-warns-germany-total-collapse-if-russian-gas-supply-cut
32 comments:
When you pay your bills, you save civilization.
It’s the Trump curse again:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-were-un-diplomats-laughing-at-trump/
“ Even as he took a swipe at them, German diplomats were seen laughing in the audience.”
Fuck Germany…. US firms can increase exports to EU… its bullish…
But in 2015 Germany imported 35% of its gas from Russia. About the same amount, 34%, came from Norway. 29% came from The Netherlands.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davekeating/2018/07/19/how-dependent-is-germany-on-russian-gas/?sh=7307d8903b48
They can just get more from other suppliers…
BASF was 49% partner with Gasprom on the Nordstream 2 now they are whining because their partners boss went psycho….
We know who went psycho.
You ate not allowed to rewrite history in your favour just yet.
Gas is still flowing. Empty threat by Russia?
Gas was always going to flow Mike.
Just a way for Russia to strengthen the ruble imo.
I would have just turned the taps off. Other important commodities if I had been attacked the way Russia has.
Stop fighting turn to a defensive strategy in Ukraine. Make the war last as long as possible.
Sit back get the popcorn out and watch Europe turn on itself. They are not as United as the mainstream media makes out.
A deal would be signed in no time giving Russia everything it wants.
This is why the EU was set up the way it was. One voice used to control numerous countries.
If I was Putin. I would have put that to the test. Make other countries seriously think about leaving the EU. Make countries really think what NATO membership means.
He's missed a HUGE oppertunity if you ask me.
But I suppose he has his own leisure class with capital to deal with.
10- 15 years from now.
When they come banging on his borders to asset strip the place again.
He won't have that leverage. That tool of switching off the taps will no longer exist.
Nukes will be all he has.
It’s never the culture..,
If not for the oil &gas “inflation!” caused by Covid shutdowns Putin would have never done any of this…
He had to see his export materials at a higher price in USD and EUR terms first..,
I would have turned the taps off too.
These psychos banging on Putins borders to asset strip the place are the same bunch of psychos who have asset stripped America over the last 50 years.
Putin should know over the last month what the end game is.
He should have taken the economic gloves off. When he had the leverage. Instead of always trying to appease his haters.
These psycho asset strippers won't stop. Ever!
If you think this is bad just wait until China is the target.
Some of the right in America are backing Putin because of all the things I talked about yesterday describing Bannon. Putin is right wing religious himself. So is Russian culture. Just look at Sakers blog and the books he has published for details.
When it comes to China they have no friends in America.
It is going to be brutal. Make this look like a picnic.
A lot of the very serious academic geopolitical analysis out there in Universities.
Says the US and EU have been trying for 20 years to get Russia on side so they can destroy China.
That would in part explain why the EU was set up as a right wing, gold standard economic model.
A lot of the things they did was to appeal to Russia and try to enforce regime change. Russian culture is closest to the far right in the US. Anybody non white is a wog, shoot every gay person in the street. Deny climate change with a passion. Very religious. Abortion rights.
It aligns with the Right in Germany and other parts of Europe. Merkel and Orban and Turkey and France and in the UK with Farage.
Why the West worked so easily with the far right of Islam in the Middle East and Ukraine . The Taliban in Afghanistan.
It didn't work. $ trillions spent over a 20 year period.
So they've went all out for regime change in Ukraine the likes we have never seen before. Still hasn't worked.
Because both China and Russia know if one of them falls the other one is next.
The West simply can't be trusted. Due to their actions ever since the fall of the Berlin wall. They lied and betrayed Russia for decades.
Here we are.....
That the taps stayed on is important from an MMT perspective. What it shows is that removing interest payments to foreigners won't stop them sending you stuff.
And that's due to micro considerations. Putin doesn't have his hands on the gas taps. It's the gas firms that do, and they don't care about the other side of the national balance sheet. They just want to ship gas, get foreign currency and then hand it over to the central bank/sovereign wealth fund for a relatively large amount of local currency.
As far as I can gather Gazprombank is now the new Russian central bank as far as the Eurozone is concerned - holding TARGET2 promises on behalf of the Bank of Russia, who will either have an actual EUR account at Gazprombank, or Gazprombank will be holding EUR 'in trust' for the Bank of Russia. The Bank of Russia then issues rubles onto the MITEX exchange as it always has done - which keeps the Rouble *down*.
Here's Farage in the EU parliament .
7 years ago.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9uNsXEu8ljM
Full translated text of the decree
I'll factor those 'K' accounts into the model when I get a moment.
Neil,
That would make sense as do they not run an export led economic policy and a strong ruble kills your exports ?
As the ruble would gain strength against all currencies ?
This is why they have probably done it this way compared to your original post ?
But why fucking bother at all ?
When they are clearly at war with the West ?
It's a complete " cave in "
I bet a small wager. That if he wanted the gas shut off the gas would be shut off. To the point of nationalizing them if it really came down to it.
They are out to destroy him and he is pussy footing around. Did he not get the clear message over the last month ?
Or scared to death of losing political leverage in Russia ?
“But why fucking bother at all ? When they are clearly at war with the West ?”
Because fortunately for them not everyone there is a psycho…,
So he takes everything that has been thrown at him Matt.
Smiles and points at the Nukes.
That's the foreign policy ?
"That the taps stayed on is important from an MMT perspective. What it shows is that removing interest payments to foreigners won't stop them sending you stuff"
I would have thought a break up of the EU and NATO would be more important from a MMT perspective.
If nothing changes ....
There is 0 chance MMT will be implemented.
It sounds like once Ukraine surrenders it will be business as usual. I would be absolutely gutted if that happens.
I saw this as real opportunity for MMT.
:(
It's the hope that kills you.
I'm away to lie down in a darkened room for 6 months.
Get MMT out of my system once and for all.
Every time there is a ray of hope it is crushed to pulp.
" What it shows is that removing interest payments to foreigners won't stop them sending you stuff. "
With EU and NATO in its current form. Small nations don't get that choice. Nobody gets that choice unless you are one of the big 3. They decide what happens.
:(
Absolutely gutted .......
I'm done put a fork in me. I'm all out of hope.
Knowledge is welcome, hope is not. OTOH, ignorance is bliss.
Huge changes needed in the academe Footsoldier…
Knowledge of the self has nothing to do with MMT.
Hope is for cowards.
Yes, there are MMTers who wish to forget the knowledge, to lose the insight. I have never felt that way. To not know is to return to the old narrative of "they're printin' money!". How is that better?
Shall I avoid learning about CBDCs, digital IDs and UBI?
Unlike MMT, they are on the political agenda.
jrbarch,
Your comments are always insightful and appreciated. Please keep posting. In the same vein of what you've described as being the only thing that matters, this from Rumi:
Someone said: “There is something I have forgotten.
”Rumi replied: There is one thing in this world that must never be forgotten. If you were to forget all else, but did not forget that, then you would have no reason to worry. But if you performed and remembered everything else, yet forgot that one thing, then you would have done nothing whatsoever.
It is just as if a king sent you to the country to carry out a specific task. If you go and accomplish a hundred other tasks, but do not perform that particular task, then it is as though you performed nothing at all. So, everyone comes into this world for a particular task, and that is their purpose. If they do not perform it, then they will have done nothing.
You say, “Look at all the work I do accomplish, even if I do not perform that task.” You weren’t created for those other tasks! It is just as if you were given a sword of priceless Indian steel, such as can only be found in the treasuries of kings, and you were to treat it as a butcher’s knife for cutting up putrid meat, saying, “I am not letting this sword stand idle, I am using it in so many useful ways.” Or it is like taking a solid gold bowl to cook turnips in, when a single grain of that gold could buy a hundred pots. Or it is as if you took a Damascene dagger of the finest temper to hang a broken gourd from, saying, “I am making good use of it. I am hanging a gourd on it. I am not letting this dagger go to waste.” How foolish that would be! The gourd can hang perfectly well from a wooden or iron nail whose value is a mere farthing, so why use a dagger valued at a hundred pounds?
Still you offer another excuse, saying, “But I apply myself to lofty tasks. I study law, philosophy, logic, astronomy, medicine and the rest. ”Well, for whose sake but your own do you study these? If it is law, it is so nobody can steal a loaf from you, strip you of your clothes, or kill you—in short, it is for your own security. If it is astronomy, the phases of the spheres and their influence upon the earth, whether they are light or heavy, portending tranquility or danger, all these things are concerned with your own situation, serving your own ends. If it is medicine, it is related to your own health and also serves you. When you consider this matter well, the root of all your studies is yourself. All these lofty tasks are but branches of you.
For Soul there is other food besides this food of sleeping and eating, but you have forgotten that other food. Night and day you nourish only your body. Now, this body is like a horse, and this lower world is its stable. The food the horse eats is not the food of the rider. You are the rider and have your own sleeping and eating, your own enjoyment. But since the animal has the upper hand, you lag behind in the horse’s stable. You cannot be found among the ranks of kings and princes in the eternal world. Your heart is there, but since your body has the upper hand, you are subject to its rule and remain its prisoner. —Discourses of Rumi
jrbarch,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)
Comparing knowledge of MMT with a real life emergency is disingenuous. Hope is not for situations you are invested in, or for life and death issues - courage is. Acceptance is.
Footsoldier is not being courageous by reading articles on MMT or the war in Ukraine. I'm not being courageous by spending time on my hobby, which is politics. At the end of the day, regardless of what happens, I'll be moving on with my life. This is just an intellectual exercise. I'm an observer, not a participant.
Hope is a platitude you offer up, or a platitude to yourself. When hope turns to despair, that is a coward's reward.
Hope belongs in Pandora's box - where all troublesome things belong.
Moreover, concepts are a human hobby. Toys to be put away. In the end, we are animals, with a commensurate level of self-awareness. We are not nearly as special as we are fond of telling ourselves.
The plan for MMT activists was to make it common knowledge, so that an informed electorate would hold politicians to account. So the plan failed... time to move on. We are outgunned and outclassed by mainstream propagandists. We live in a culture where a majority do not want to think for themselves.
Current economic developments are another signal that MMT may eventually be rendered irrelevant. Time to learn about what the future may hold, if that is something you are interested in.
Your problem jrbarch, is you stopped asking questions. An old man going on 12.
Don't tell someone they will get out of prison when there is no chance of that.
Tell them the truth.
They will arrive a crossroad, and make a decision.
Courage is a willingness to act when there is no chance of succeeding.
Cowardice is an unwillingness to accept the truth of something.
:(
Absolutely gutted .......
I'm done put a fork in me. I'm all out of hope.
It hurts, but such is the price of freedom from hopium. Redirect your energy, choose another path, pick another battle, and "hope for MMT" will become visible as the baggage that it was. An energy sapping, time devouring distraction.
@jrbarch
The term you are searching for is redemption, or opportunity. This criminal may be seeking redemption, absolution, or forgiveness. She may seek to acquire an education, write books or poetry, or create art, etc...
In this context, hope isn't saying anything specific. Hope can be an excuse to remain passive, which is what many people do in most circumstances.
Characters like Prem can use all sorts of words and phrases. Such as:
If you believe in yourself, if you work hard, if you grasp that you are truly exceptional, you can have anything you want.
Another approach may be more blunt:
You can expect to live another 40 years. Use the time to make something of yourself. Being in prison is no excuse.
This sort of thing (life coaches, gurus, therapy, psychiatry) is common in western culture. Some of these people are professionals; all of them make a living from it. There is some good material; and there is much bullshit. Buyer beware.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world will go and listen to Prem – because of the Presence of what is manifest in Prem.
And millions listen to Oprah Winfrey, because... she's entertaining?
You want a hope talker, listen to Oprah.
No one will listen to jrbarch – but at least I can be a little signpost on the road.
No one will listen to someone who does not offer a piece of themselves. Let Prem do his own advertising. You're selling yourself short by being a signpost.
Besides, we are not meant to know what effects our words and actions have on others. Only rarely do we receive feedback.
This is off-topic from what we were discussing, so I'll reiterate using your example:
The lady was not being told she would get out of prison (duh)!
So don't tell Footsolider that MMT has a chance of being adopted (duh)!
You do not know the effects of the ‘Peace Education Program’ conducted in the prisons, that have helped so many people; and has the highest rate of non-return-to-prison through re-offending. There are many psychologists et al studying the program and taking part in it themselves.
I have read Chris Hedges' testimony to his work with prison inmates. His words speak for themselves, although they are a drop in an ocean. That ocean is the furthest thing from peace.
Psychology can help people... which is why we spend trillions on weapons systems.
Seeing one side of the same coin is not disagreement.
A seemingly never-ending example of the absurdity of hope:
Would Some Doomer Please Slam That Damn Rapidly Closing Window of Opportunity Once and For All?
Post a Comment