Reflectii

The German government is eerily calm as an energy crisis threatens to wreck its economy, allies loudly question its intentions, and war rages on in Ukraine. There’s a palpable sense in Berlin that when it comes to the Zeitenwende—the historic turning point in foreign policy championed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz—Germany has time. After all, according to Wolfgang Schmidt, Scholz’s chief of staff, Germany is still a “teenager” when it comes to its leadership role in Europe and beyond. The world can’t expect Germany to complete a 180-degree shift on foreign and defense policy in a matter of months. But rest assured, its officials maintain, Germany is well on its way to mending its ways—at its own pace.

Among all the conflicts that divide humanity –historically and now when humans should be working together racing against time to save the biosphere—including conflicts of Israelis vs. Palestinians, gays vs. homophobes, pro-life people vs. pro-choice people, Catholics vs. protestants, Muslims vs. Hindus, conflicts among nations seeking power in an “anarchic” world system, blacks vs. racists, Turks vs. Armenians, and others—surely some of the most divisive conflicts, in terms of lives lost, in terms of prisoners tortured, in terms of resources wasted and assets destroyed , in terms of terror, and in terms of truth itself disappearing in endless mazes of lies, have been and continue to be conflicts of socialism vs. capitalism. Could this be a case where one of the major causes of pointless suffering has been and continues to be, conceptual confusion? Yes, it could.

What’s new? The post-9/11 U.S. “war on terror” expanded under three presidents, with Congress asserting little oversight after enacting a broad 2001 authorisation. The Biden administration has dialled back operations somewhat. Yet the conflict’s legal underpinnings remain in place, while congressional efforts to reassert control over the use of force have stalled.

All Economics Is Local

For most of the last 40 years, U.S. policymakers acted as if the world were flat. Steeped in the dominant strain of neoliberal economic thinking, they assumed that capital, goods, and people would go wherever they would be the most productive for everyone. If companies created jobs overseas, where it was cheapest to do so, domestic employment losses would be outweighed by consumer benefits. And if governments lowered trade barriers and deregulated capital markets, money would flow where it was needed most. Policymakers didn’t have to take geography into account, since the invisible hand was at work everywhere. Place, in other words, didn’t matter.

A multifaceted response from Europe has so far prevented its energy woes from creating widespread social and economic destabilization. But with winter approaching, the crisis is far from over and risks are getting worse.

While European energy prices have eased slightly in recent months, stress continues to build across a continent that has long been dependent on access to cheap Russian energy.

Within days of each other, revealing portraits of the United States and China have been unveiled. In Washington, the Biden administration released its national security strategy. It says much about American psychology at a critical juncture. And Beijing witnessed the opening of the 20th Party Congress on 16 October that will see Xi Jinping confirmed as president for a record third term.

While whispers of the current emerging market debt crisis, the result of the rapidly strengthening dollar, could be heard throughout the summer, virtually no one predicted the blow the dollar’s rise would deal to some other developed economies. But with the dollar reaching levels not seen in a generation, a battering is precisely what several are being unexpectedly dealt.

Six men accused of helping a gunman who carried out Austria’s first deadly jihadist attack go on trial in a Vienna court on Tuesday.

On November 2, 2020, convicted Islamic State sympathiser Kujtim Fejzulai went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four and wounding 23 others before police shot him dead.

An energy policy that bans investment in some technologies based on ideological views and ignores security of supply is doomed to a strepitous failure.

The energy crisis in the European Union was not created by market failures or lack of alternatives. It was created by political nudging and imposition.