Today was TUC, next week RMT and in the coming weeks it will be education and NHS

 

Today, it was the TUC. Next week it will be RMT and in the coming weeks it will be education and NHS. All started with sanctions against the Russian Federation and following actions that led not only to higher energy prices, but also to suspension of supplies that are turning Europe into a battlefield. This is not just about Ukraine. This is about Europe and about how Europe can withstand the stupidity of the United States of America under a pretty incompetent President Biden that keeps falling and falling and not just in political terms. A sudden physical fall could put an end to his presidency and this opens a whole new can of worms.

In Germany, the survival of the ruling coalition is being questioned as Chancellor Olaf Sholz finds against between a rock and a hard place. In Britain, the ruling Conservative Party is struggling to keep some kind of composture. In the following days several by-elections will put the Conservative Party once again to the test after a series of devious sexual behaviour that led to resignations surrounded by scandals including a conviction of a Member of Parliament accused of molesting a minor.

The Bank of England, once again, raised the basic interest rate as a reflection of what has just happened in the USA where the Federal Reserve put up the basic interest rate to curb inflation that the Federal Reseve itself contributed to create by printing vast amounts of currency. The British Treasury is exhausted and with every 'adjustment' British public debt and British private debt keep rising and rising.

The Summer of Discontent could be followed by the Winter of Discontent when the impact of energy prices will be hitting the country a lot harder. Just accross the Channel, Germany is preparing a list of 'priorities' and big companies likes Bayer and ThyssenKrupp are talking louder and louder. The German economy is a castle built with dominoes and heads of industry are talking about 'castrophic consequences with inflation levels never seen before'. We know exactly what this means. With Europe's biggest economies faltering, political consequences will follow.

Gemany's Day X is here to stay

Germany's Day X is here to stay

Everybody was making contingency plans for Day X, the day when gas supplies coming from the Russian Federation were going to cut off and such day arrived when the Russian Federation responding to those who were threatening the Russian Federation with the suspension of gas imports decided to do the deed itself and leave Germany and other countries without gas and this was bound to happen.

Western Germany - we continue talking about Western Germany because the hopes brought by the Fall of the Berlin Wall in terms of economic leveling of East Germany with West Germany were quickly wiped out - is suffering the consequences. More than ever before, Germany will have to rely on coal thus defeating plans presumably designed to protect the environment and CO2 levels. But there is more than that because one German company in particular was using Russian gas to produce battery cases for electric cars and even making train clutch systems. Of course the company representative chose to remain anonymous because he did not want to be seen as supporting the Russian Federation. Having said that, the prospect for the said Germany company is closure leading to unemployment. Let us remember than 55% per cent of the gas used in Germany was coming from the Russian Federation. The damage done to the Germany economy and the erosion of German political stability might not be a price worth paying.

What is coming is a chain reaction in a country in which companies big and small are interlinked. This is the domino effect. Bayer, Basf and Thyssenkrupp are vulnerable and practically every area of industrial activity will be damaged including construction material, pesticides, synthetics, packaging, disinfectants, the producion of drugs for medical use such as antibiotics, vaccines and cancer drugs. Nickel and aluminium come to a great extent from the Russian Federation.

And what happens to hospitals, emergency services and medical manufacturers despite the fact that they will be treated as priorities. Companies are being forced to demonstrate that they deserve to be treated as priorities and those involved in glass manufacturing are an example of what could happen. If production comes to a halt, the nature of the production process will mean that machines could be terminally damaged when liquids settle inside the machines.

If supply chains collapse, already affected by the paralysis generated by lockdown measures during the Covid pandemic, the outcome will be bankruptcies and mass unemployment. Some talk about a recession that will be worse than any of the recessions Germany has faced until now. Do you know what this means?