bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com BY BAYOURE NAISSANCE MAN
The news that natural gas costs in Europe are already ten times higher than a year ago, and likely to go higher this winter, has sparked near-panic in European governments. Electricity generation is directly affected, so overall energy prices are likely to reflect a similar increase. The average consumer in Europe simply can’t afford that. Factories and businesses are likely to close at a much higher rate than before, throwing more and more people out of work, and affecting the quantity and quality of food and consumer goods available to residents across the continent.
All those factors have sparked widespread alarm about inflation possibly turning into hyperinflation. Those fears are not far-fetched; and they apply as readily to the USA as they do to Europe. Trouble is, far too many people still reject any such possibility. They breeze along from day to day, complaining about rising prices, but refusing to accept that the rise may accelerate so fast as to render their very existence a matter of day-to-day survival. Sadly, there are literally millions of people over the past century who could assure them that the danger is real. Weimar Germany, Zimbabwe and Venezuela are three well-known examples, but they’re not alone. We could fall off that fiscal cliff too.
On two previous occasions in these Saturday Snippets we’ve read excerpts from Adam Fergusson’s masterly book, “When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany“.
