Gas Follies? War-mongering galore? Climate Emergency? Not so fast: here's what I think high energy prices imply

the U.S. appears to be outcompeting, widely understood, its peer competitor (China) while devouring its subservient vassals (Europe)

I’m a bit short on time today, hence this will have to do.

Ever asked yourself what, on the meta-meta level, might be driving the current increase in energy prices? Would it be demand or supply, the quagmire in Ukraine, or is there something else?

Well, courtesy of Reuters (of all places), here’s an informative chart:

To me, it looks like the U.S. is in the process of trying to further hamstring its one economic peer competitor (China) while, at the same time, the morons who pretend to be in charge in ‘Europe’ are destroying their societies via sky-high energy prices (which will snowball into high food and housing costs).

This will, and inevitably so, destroy the abilities of most households—by now it’s about 1/3, with a sharply rising tendency—to have discretionary spending abilities, i.e., consumption possibilities.

Western ‘advanced’ (ahem) economies are about 3/4 of ‘services’ and consumption, hence no discretionary spending abilities is tantamount to saying: demand destruction, or: recession/depression.

It’s not a natural law, but the consequences are clearly visible.

So, the question is: what do you do, dear readers, to prepare for the coming winter?

Personally, we bought a small farm in rural Scandinavia, are stocking up on firewood, and trying to cut back the reliance on outside supplies. Our garden, while small this year (we moved in late June, hence there was little time yet), will grow over time. Furthermore, while we can heat with electricity, we also have an oven and own a little over two hectares of forests, which will allow us to keep heating costs down.

How do you, dear readers, prepare for the coming months?