Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
I'm suggesting that energy prices can fluctuate without causing an apocalypse.
IIRC our European members including Arragonis, Euromodder, etc., put most of the blame on deficit spending including spending of dubious nature.
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Correct.
Deficit spending forces inflation of currency. Currency is directly tied to energy pricing, especially when much of your energy is imported from an area that uses a different currency. That's like a double-fail.
The energy has to be bought from someone who does not value your currency as much as you do. They want "real" value, as in gold. The loss of your gold further forces inflation of your currency.
Just because we are not at a point of total failure now, both the indicators, and the future plans on the table lead us down the road to a clear point of failure, and that is not exactly an apocalyptic type of assessment. No, it's not the end of the world as we know it, but it's a place we'd rather not be economically. Europe is trying to warn us in the U.S.. They are saying "for God's sake, do something other than what we did". They may very well be correct.
Even with a best case scenario, a weakened economy leaves us more vulnerable to aggression around the world (think militarily), and that is unlikely to be good for anyone. Europeans remember the lessons of WWII better than we do.
I'm not catastrophizing with this. There is a proven pattern of happenings in the world, and some situations are clearly more desirable than others. It is prudent to consider such possibilities. It's not the equivalent of "chicken little".