Financial Times (September 5)
“The euro dropped on Monday to a new 20-year low after Russia’s decision to shut a major gas pipeline to Europe intensified the energy crisis that has dealt a heavy blow to the region’s economy.” The currency blew past parity, going as low as $0.988 in London. Stocks fell and energy prices surged while “European capitals struggle to contain growing concerns over Russia’s ‘weaponisation’ of gas supplies.”
Tags: $0.988, 20-year low, Blow, Currency, Economy, Energy crisis, Energy prices, euro, Europe, Gas, London, Parity, Pipeline, Russia, Shut, Stocks, Surged, Weaponisation
Foreign Affairs (September 2)
“Europe’s supposed commitment to seeing Russia held to account for its actions in Ukraine seems to be trumped by its undeniable energy needs.” An overfocus on symptoms and quick fixes obscures “the path toward energy security.” Absent “coordinated foreign policy—not fragmented individual national responses…. EU member states will find themselves constantly threading the needle between upholding their values and meeting the basic needs of their citizens, a precarious exercise that will hurt the European project itself.”
Tags: Basic needs, Citizens, Commitment, Energy needs, Energy security, EU, Europe, Foreign policy, Fragmented, National, Responses, Russia, Symptoms, Ukraine, Values
Forbes (August 24)
“Europe’s worst drought and heatwave in half a millennium is also a disaster in the realm of energy.” Though unspeakable suffering has followed in its wake, “it is the drought, especially the drying of European rivers, which should worry everyone the most…. Rivers are Europe’s economic and transportation backbone, and their drying will drive up energy and commodity prices” and stifle logistics and energy production. “Rivers form an invisible but vital infrastructure to every part of the European economy, and energy is no exception.”
Tags: Backbone, Commodity prices, Disaster, Drought, Drying, Energy, Europe, Heatwave, Logistics, Millennium, Rivers, Suffering, Transportation, Worst
Washington Post (June 20)
“A punishing early-season heat wave… tormented large swaths of Europe over the weekend,” setting hundreds of record highs. “Temperatures between 104 and 110 degrees (40 to 43 Celsius) were common from Spain to Germany,” but France was hit hardest by extreme temperatures that peaked on Saturday “when more than a dozen all-time records were set.”
Tags: Early, Europe, Extreme, France, Germany, Heat wave, Punishing, Record highs, Spain, Temperatures, Tormented
New York Times (June 1)
“While the United States of America seems to be coming apart, the United States of Europe — the 27 members of the European Union — have stunned everyone, and most of all themselves, by coming together to make a fist, along with a number of other European nations and NATO, to stymie Putin’s invasion.”
Wall Street Journal (April 26)
“Worries about the war in Ukraine, China’s Covid-19 outbreak, a U.S. or European recession and surging global inflation are making a long-spurned asset increasingly popular with Wall Street’s top money managers these days: cash.” Increasingly asset managers “are looking to move funds into low-risk, cash-like assets. That marks a shift from recent years, when steadily climbing equity indexes trained investors to buy every dip and not miss out on gains by holding cash.”
Tags: Asset, Asset managers, Cash, China, COVID-19, Dip, Europe, Inflation, Investors, Low-risk, Money managers, Recession, Shift, Spurned, Surging, U.S., Ukraine, Wall Street, War, Worries
Wall Street Journal (March 31)
“China’s support for Russia is the most serious but far from only reason Europe is losing patience. Beijing has launched an economic war on EU member Lithuania over its upgraded ties to Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party’s human-rights record remains abysmal. Bullying behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic and stonewalling of the origins investigation hurt China’s credibility. The question is what Europe will do beyond condemnations, token sanctions and the occasional lawsuit.”
Tags: CCP, China, Condemnations, COVID-19, Credibility, Economic war, EU, Europe, Human rights, Lawsuits, Lithuania, Russia, Stonewalling, Taiwan, Token sanctions
The Atlantic (March 10)
“Russia’s economic blackout will change the world. Like all novel experiments, the group punishment of Russia is a leap into the unknown.” In mere days, “the United States, Europe, and others have excommunicated Russia from the world stage, isolating the 11th-largest economy financially, commercially, and culturally.” The measures are largely unprecedented and, taken collectively, “amount to a radical worldwide experiment in moral retribution.”
Tags: Commercially, Culturally, Economic blackout, Europe, Excommunicated, Experiments, Financially, Leap, Punishment, Radical, Russia, U.S., Unknown, Unprecedented, World stage
Wall Street Journal (March 7)
“Oil and gas revenue makes up about half of the Kremlin’s budget and is critical to financing Vladimir Putin’s bloody war on Ukraine.” The trouble is “sanctions on Russian energy could also harm the world economy and especially Europe,” which depends on Russia for a quarter of its oil and 40% of its natural gas. “Unless the West is willing to grasp this nettle, the world will continue to finance the Putin war machine.”
Tags: Budget, Critical, Economy, Energy, Europe, Financing, Kremlin, Natural gas, Oil, Putin, Revenue, Sanctions, Ukraine, War
Wall Street Journal (March 3)
“How in the world did Europe leave itself so vulnerable to Vladimir Putin’s energy extortion?” Less than two decades ago, EU nations “produced more gas than Russia exported. Yet European production has plunged by more than half over the last decade” while Russia “happily filled the supply gap.”
Tags: Energy extortion, EU, Europe, Export, Gas, Plunged, Production, Putin, Russia, Supply gap, Vulnerable
