…about at least one thing!
Remember back in 2018 when then President Trump went to the NATO summit and peed in the punchbowl for having the audacity to ask questions about Western Europe’s reliance on Russian gas? Nearly every media outlet besides Fox and nearly every foreign policy think tank pilloried him for being rude to and bullying our closest allies and best buddies in Europe. At a tense meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg Trump stated.
“It's very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia where you’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions a year to Russia.”
When Stoltenberg countered that things are better when we are together, whatever the heck that meant, Trump responded,
“But how can you be together when a country is getting its energy from the person you want protection against or from the group you want protection against?”
After the meeting German officials denied that the Nordstream 2 pipeline will allow Russia to exert undo influence over their country.
Oops.
Well, now we are all together in a world of hurt, especially Europe. Over the weekend The Wall Street Journal did a great job chronicling how Europe leaned into the heavy industry fueled with cheap Russian gas model. The model is now kaput with Russia no longer providing the cheap gas. From the WSJ
European industry thrived for decades on a steady supply of cheap Russian gas, which flowed uninterrupted throughout the Cold War and other times of tension between Moscow and the West.
Since invading Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin has weaponized the country’s vast stores of energy to undermine support for Kyiv. He turned off the taps to the biggest natural-gas pipeline, Nord Stream completely this month.
The impact has pushed Europe to the brink of recession and threatens to inflict lasting harm on its manufacturing businesses. Unlike the U.S., Europe leaned on manufacturing and heavy industry to keep its economy chugging in recent decades. A bigger chunk of its economy comes from the likes of steelmakers, chemicals producers and car makers.
I honestly did not know just how heavy, heavy industry is, (or perhaps now we should say was) in Europe. For instance, I didn’t know that zinc is smelted in Europe until last month when global commodity giant Trafigura took its Budel Netherlands smelter offline “for maintenance” and zinc prices surged over 7% in a couple of days as the rise in energy prices made smelting unprofitable in Europe, and that was BEFORE Vlad turned the spigot off. There’s similar stories for other industrial metals like copper, steel and aluminum. This of course hits the whole manufacturing supply chain which eventually hits the global pocketbook.
On the food-supply front European ammonia producers such as Yara International have cut production by 65%. Sugar production is also getting hit hard just in time for Christmas. Turns out Germany produces a lot of sugar. I guess the only “good” thing about this whole supply chain and now energy crisis is we learn where and how everything gets produced and where it goes.
This energy crisis is going to be devastating for thousands of companies all along the supply chain in Europe which means lots of lost jobs at a time wages are not even a bit close to inflation, especially energy inflation. Soon there might be inflation and no wages. Europe may have to take the “R” word (recession) and start thinking about the D word. Europe in a severe recession or perhaps depression is a real possibility and equity and other risk assets (like high-yield corporate bonds and loans, emerging market debt and equities to name a few) have not priced this scenario in at all. If I am wrong about this, please let me know.
That is all.
Doomberg is a good follow for how the heavy industry / supply chains are affected. If you're OK with green chickens, DBerg is for you.
Trump was right about a lot of things, yet to this day hasn’t called out the WEF Great Reset, BlackRock/Vanguard/StateStreet, Schwab, Soros, Bright, Fauci, Collins, Bill Gates, Gergen, Pharma, USAID, Event 201, Bloomberg’s role, the role of the Pentagon, DARPA, Eco-Health, Baric and US role in funding and creating COVID, likely in the US.He hasn’t called out Biden’s entire cabinet of BlackRock/Carlyle/StateStreet/China/McKinsey/ Rockefeller, Tides, Getty,Carnegie, Gates Foundations, Atlantic Council, Brookings Foundation, Media Matters and WEF “ Young Global Leaders”, Iran Lobby, Qatar Lobby, Muslim Brotherhood and the globalist Great Reset Central Government happening at “ Warp Speed” all over the world and the role of the Pandemic pretext and his fucking mandates and vaccines.Biden calls it “ Build Back Better”, but Schwab coined the name.
Note that nary a single seated Republican, Democrat or RNC/DNC “ official”, past or present has said a goddamned thing but for DeSantis, the true medical heroes and cancelled former icons left and right who put aside personal ideology for integrity.
Among them, Lara Logan, Russell Brand, Kim Iversen,Glenn Beck, Glenn Greenwald, Neil Oliver, Bret Weinstein,Posobiec, Jeffrey Tucker, Sharyl Atkisson.Mark Steyn, Ami Horowitz, David Horowitz,Savage, Rogan, Megyn Kelly,Lee Smith, Naomi Wolf, Jimmy Dore, Ian Miles Cheong, Majid Nawaaz, Aaron Mate, Drs. Harvey Risch, Malone, Oswui, Hatfill, Battacharaya, Shiva, Zelenko, Mullis, Montangnier, Duesberg,Hemmati,McCullough , Zelenko, Ionnides, Mikovits, Ladapo, Levitt,Alexander, Mercola, Atlas,Yeadon, Urso, activists RFK Jr, Charles Ortleb, Peter Pye, whistleblowers Binney, Kallstrom, Flynn, Richard Epstein, Aaron Rogers, Kyrie Irvin, Bobalinski, Assange, Oliver Stone,Adm Lyons,O’Keefe, Judicial Watch, Giuliani, Musk, Rohrabacher, etc. and are they ever paying. a price. Many with their lives.
But Trump is only talking about himself. Another enormous story is the truth about Ukraine and how many political players across the spectrum involved.
Biden, Kerry, Pelosi, Bolton, Killery, Bush, Cofer Black, Fiona Hill, Bernie, Ted DeVine, Mueller, Nuland, Kent, Fauci, Collins, Baric, Daszak, Rick Gates, Soros, Rick Davis, Lanny Davis, Sid Blumenthal, Cheney, Klobuchar, Markey, Vindman, McStain, Lindsey, Sid Blumenthal, Menendez, Warner, Richard Blumenthal, David Kramer, Henry Kerner, Glenn Simpson, Issakoff, BleahBit, Crowdstrike, Chris Murphy, Comey, Schiff, Jerrfrey Epstein, Comey, Ivanovich, Leahy,Derispaska, Volker, Doug Schoen, Jake Sullivan, Pienka, Rhodes, Susan Rice, Avril Haines, James Baker, Brennan , Haspel, Murcasel, Alexandra Chalupa, Evelyn Farkas,Daniel Cohen, Farluzzi, George Conway… BTW, The Atlantic Council is Burissma’s lobbyist