Germany inflation hits 30-year high at 7.3%, growth outlook dims

And on which side of wrong will 99% of the people be?

 

I work in nuclear energy. We have enough fuel for our plants for the next 100+ years already and can share to Germany quite easily. You actually think that Germany shutting down its nukes and relying on Russian fossil fuel has no impact? ROFL! This is hilarious.

 

We still have immense deposits of uranium-bearing ore in the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere, but, will the government allow nuclear plants to expand? Please note: I've never been a big fan of conventional nuclear power, but France has shown the world that nuclear power can be safe, efficient, and relatively affordable.

Yeah, I know, I'd rather have some kind of futuristic, 'science-fiction' hydrogen fusion power plant instead, but we're still DECADES away from that. It took me a long time to acknowledge that, but, unfortunately, it's true. *Sigh!*

 

Well, admittedly, I didn't major in business or economics, but it's interesting to observe the behavior of a man who has a Ph.D. in Economics, and who leads a major world power -- Vladimir Putin. Before you jump all over me for 'adoring' Putin, please be advised that for what he has caused in Ukraine, I think he should be brought up on war-crime charges (but, it'll never happen). OK, so what have both Russia and China done in recent years to prepare for whatever it is they're in the process of unleashing on the world's economies? They've been stacking up the gold bullion!

The only thing I'm completely certain of about gold (and silver) is that the prices of both of them and other precious metals have been rigorously suppressed by all central banks in 'the West' ever since the so-called 'Great Recession' of 2008. Why? Because they slavishly dote on these grotesquely overvalued stock markets, to the exclusion of everyone and everything else.

Crypto? Sorry, I wouldn't touch it with a one hundred foot pole.... What backs up even the supposed value of crypto currency?! To my knowledge, absolutely NOTHING does.... The U. S. Dollar is bad enough, and you can bet Russia and China are well-aware of that... but crypto? If there ever was the pure epitome of 'Ponzi Scheme', surely crypto is it!

 

For the sake of my German friends, I hope you're right, but a far-Left coalition as I believe Scholz is leading now (with Greens and the FDP raising hell all the time -- even about wind turbines!) will have to nearly commit suicide in order to keep even the few remaining German nuclear power plants going. It is truly amazing to see how differently the French and the Germans view nuclear power!

 

Where do you get these assumptions? They ARE talking about NOT shutting them down.

 

It's not the mining capacity, it is the processing capacity, i.e. the enrichment of Uranium. It doesn't help you if you have the Uranium ore, if you can't enrich 235U, which is needed for reactors. Currently, Russia has 40% of the world's enrichment capacity, Europe 33%, the US only 7%. 19% of the US Uranium comes from Russia. It is safe to say that a disruption of Uranium enrichment by Russia will have a huge impact on world Uranium prices.

 

You can blame the inflation on whatever the hell you want. The voters will weigh in with their opinion in November. After that neutering, we will have two years of blessed gridlock and revenge impeachments/witch hunts against Democrats. It should be lots of fun.

 

Yeah, as you were explaining this in your post, I was remembering the Clintons' slimebag deal with Russia and "Uranium One"
Link: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ur...cow-paid-millions-in-bid-to-influence-clinton

It's starting to look like Putin is, sadly, a war criminal after all, but he ain't stupid -- actually, all along, he may have just been 'dumb-like-a-FOX'....

 

I don't know, throwing his own country into an economic depression, while at the same time revealing to the world that Russia is a paper tiger, looks stupid to me. And for what? To satisfy his ego?

 

And yet Putin is polling 83% positive among Russians, according to the Levada Center, an independent, internationally respected polling org. that has been operating in Russia for many years. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/europe/putin-approval-rating-russia.html

 

The US dollar is the world reserve currency....this is 100% on Biden.

 

Let the two communist countries trade back an forth, the crap does not work.
Crypto is almost instant. Gold has to be shipped. Good luck.

The value of ANYTHING will be represented in Crypto. Crypto holds the value of work done.

 

Covid was a world-wide pandemic, but the Dems claimed Trump did it. So what can be said other than we learned from you? What goes around comes around. lol

That being said, I have posted 3, maybe 4 times on this forum a link to the warning Larry Summers gave Biden almost a year ago concerning Biden's monetary policies resulting in inflation. Not going to look this up and post again.

 

Sorry for bumping my own post, but thought it was worth mentioning that the Russian government has considered the Levada Center to be a "foreign agent" since 2016, so it's not like they're in bed with Putin....

 

Well it does all come down to supply and demand -- something that applies to the supply of money as well as the demand for goods and services. So yes. Injecting free money into the economy causes inflation.

 

What, or who, GUARANTEES the value of crypto and its convertibility into real money? That's what I want to know....

 

I don't think it would be limited. The price of gold would simply go up, so there would not need to be as much of it.

What it would do is prevent a currency from being backed with debt, and thus hopefully help persuade countries from getting into debt or using inflation to pay for things.

 

What Is Cryptocurrency? Here’s What Investors Should Know
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/cryptocurrency

Hopefully no one. Unfortunately, most likely it will be Insurance companies, and other government regulated industries.

 

Thank you very much for this link. I have only just scanned over it lightly, but it appears to be fact-based, informative, and not at all "cheerleading". I remember ten years or so ago people were buying AMD Radeon video cards because, somehow, it was thought that having these in one's computer made it able to mine bitcoins much faster. I never quite understood that, although I do know how video cards 'work'... but a lot of people were really enthused about it. Really, back then, it was just more like a hobby.

 

What do those two items have to do with one another?

 

That is a theory.
There is nothing preventing you from only accepting gold backed units as currency for your work.
History has shown us the limitations.

From the cowrie shell, tools, gold, to cigarettes in jail, to what ever it is. Currency represents work done. How ever you accept that is only up to you.

 

All analysis of the deals have provided no such cut(this isn't the first time Democrats have made this claim, they also made it regarding the Bush tax cuts). In the Democratic world view, the federal government is the ultimate supplier, and any monies not given to the organization called the government strip it of its supply.(Which of course raises the very valid question of what kind of supplier is it, if it requires the supplies of the citizenry. Not much of one.)

In essence, Democratic policy has simply failed domestically. It failed during the Obama years, and it's failing now in the Biden years(of course, 'progressive' politics as we know it, started with the New Students Demonstration of the 60's) So we've had half a decade of modern Democratic rule, and there isn't a single 'eureka' moment of the era that even modern democrats can point to, for even the slightest success.

We know this, because every election cycle they hype up the same failed policies and offer as an elixir that it's those mean Republicans faults. Even though it's been half a generation, even though that generation had a House from 1954-1992(and it's been split ever since.) The splitting of the House mirrors the split of Senate control(which was still solidly Democratic for much of the 80's)

From 18-45(but largely those of us in the 20's-30's(and early 40's), we have had ample time to analyze the generation. The excuse that one four year term(Trump) cannot, and does not hold water. The failure of government, at its highest levels comes from a misconception of foreign and domestic policy that finally out in the open must be talked about, and we must move from the ideas that have not worked for a generation.

 

That's nothing compared to what's coming.

Putin shuts off Germany's gas -- and economy.

Trump warned Germany 5 years ago that they were making a terrible mistake, but in their hubris and self-righteousness they assured each other than they need not listen to the Orange Man with the unusually large brain.

​

He warned her clearly and plainly.

He warned her quietly and tenderly:

​

"GAZPROM HAS STOPPED DELIVERIES OF RUSSIAN GAS TO GERMANY VIA YAMAL-EUROPE PIPELINE"

"Now that Putin is turning up the pressure, the European nations have a difficult choice ahead: either they can play ball and demonstrate to the world that their efforts to wean themselves off of their dependence on Russian energy have been mostly in vain. Or they can face a "catastrophic" economic crisis as energy prices soar, leading to rationing, blackouts and other measures that will make the 1970s oil crisis in the US look like child's play."

The pipeline flow is now reversed, flowing back to Russia.

A month ago virtue signalling was fun. "BASF donates €1 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine. There is a war going on in Ukraine! The suffering for the civilian population in the country is immense. We want to help these people and therefore quickly decided to provide this emergency aid. Its sales in 2021 were €78.6 billion -- or nearly 80,000 times its donation to the cause."

"55% of Germany's natural gas comes from Russia."

The BASF CEO said, "To put it bluntly: This could bring the German economy into its worst crisis since the end of the Second World War and destroy our prosperity. For many small and medium-sized companies in particular, it could mean the end. We can’t risk that!"

"Um, ace. You just did that. You risked bringing down Germany's chemical industry just to signal how virtuous your company is."

The chemical industry is 10% of the German economy (GDP).

Brudenmuller seemed alarmed: "A delivery stop for a short time would perhaps open the eyes of many – on both sides. It would make clear the magnitude of the consequences. But if we don’t get any more Russian gas for a long time, then we really have a problem here in Germany. At BASF, we would have to scale back or completely shut down production at our largest site in Ludwigshafen if the supply fell significantly and permanently below 50 percent of our maximum natural gas requirement. Minister Habeck has already activated the early warning level of the gas emergency plan."

"Robert Habeck is Germany's Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. 40,000 BASF workers could be laid off if Putin cuts off Germany."

And now Putin has cut them off.

"Ironically, Brudenmuller said, "Many have misconceptions. I notice that in many of the conversations I have. People often make no connection at all between a boycott and their own job. As if our economy and our prosperity were set in stone."

They aren't. Prosperity is the result of disciple and hard work, its not an entitlement.

"Once upon a time, companies kept their eye on the ball and avoided politics. The old men who ran things back in the day may not have been woke but they knew to stay out of politics. Today's" Woke "CEOs are bound and determined to learn that lesson the hard way."

They aren't the guys that built these companies, they were passed to them and they do not have the internal controls that were necessary to build them and now it appears that they are not even sufficient to maintain them.

So, the inflation rate and growth predictions in the OP may prove to be wildly optimistic.

 

This is why my 'far-right' Nationalism is necessary. 7%? Just that? Pray tell, where's the money in Washington going? How long will we the people continue to accept low hanging fruit from our government? We should be the richest uranium producer, we should have the lowest unemployed and the highest net skill workers in the country. We should be the best, but we're not.