Germany Feeling The Lack Of Heat
South Africa is facing blackouts as we've never had before, nothing new for people who live in 3rd world banana republics, we've become used to it, we work around it. We get annoyed but somehow we limp on, it's been 15 years since we started having regular blackouts, I don't even want to use the term load shedding, it makes it sound less awful than it is, it's a widespread blackout.
Since our blackouts have gradually scaled up, the country has had a chance to adjust production according to the lack of access to energy and the cost involved. But for a first-world country that runs at all cylinders and people don't have to learn to ration, having an abrupt reduction in access to energy is a real sucker punch and the Germans are finding out the hard way.
Germany taking L's in the energy market
Last year, Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its natural gas imports, it needs this to fund its manufacturing base, Germany has shut off nuclear and coal and used the Russians as their carbon footprint offset, and it's coming back to bite them.
Germany has since been able to reduce that number to 35%, as it boots up coal plants once again but with winter coming around and Russia seemingly prepared to further cut gas shipments to Europe, German officials are having to make some difficult choices.
Germans have been asked to use air conditioning as sparingly as possible, avoid heating in homes whenever weather permits, and switch light bulbs to more energy-efficient LEDs where possible. A story many South Africans will tell you doesn't help, it's a bunch of bullshit, if there's no supply no rationing is going to help. You rationing energy only means someone else won't bother to ration and it eventually is just a futile exercise.
Energy costs on the rise
While consumer use of energy will take front and center in the public relations department, it's by no means the biggest pain. Lack of energy means the cost of energy rises, when the cost of energy rises, production of goods and services rises, when they rise to meet demand, there's a margin squeeze and what do companies do? They start laying off people by the boat load.
Those that can't cut enough go bust, creating more job losses and putting more pressure on the economy as less people are providing goods and services and are waiting around and consuming energy and food without adding productivity to the economy.
The state usually steps in with inflation-backed plans and tries to stimulate things but with inflation already so high in Europe this is only going to make inflation problems worse.
Why does this matter to South Africans?
Germany is South Africa's third-biggest trading partner and with their economy on the ropes that means less trade, less trade means fewer goods and services and fewer dollars flowing into the country via the Euro-dollar market. The weaker Germany gets, the more pressure South Africa has to absorb internally and they'll take the easy way out by allowing the Rand to take the brunt of it to cover the shortfall and we will continue to see a mass devaluation of the local currency.
I feel like I am one of the very few people who take note of this as everyone carries on with their daily lives, each time I read something or learn something new about the economies around the world, I just see this massive wave of economic pain building up and it's getting closer to the shore.
I stand there and point it out, but it's like no one wants to see it, they'll only acknowledge it when they're six feet underwater. It's unfortunate but you can't save everyone, only yourself.
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Please, tell us how.
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Lol im not here to give people financial advice and it's not like anyone would listen, no ones going to get out of this without considerable pain, regardless of what you do
If we want to find something good about this situation it could be that hopefully, European nations won't put their trust in the Russian regime any time soon. That could boost the development of alternative energy sources such as solar and fusion power and therefore help Europe to become self-sufficient in the future.
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Sounds like copium to me, where would Europe get this so-called self-sufficient energy from? You don't just flick on energy operations overnight, they take decades to boot up and require ENERGY to boot up.
Whoever is telling you that, please share the reports and stats on how it happens, id love to laugh
Actually I wrote:
Didn't mean tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I also added 'in the future' at the end.
But yeah, there are ongoing projects in this sector as we speak. Just recently I read about an upcoming Union law that new buildings should have solar panels on the roofs by the year 2038 was it? Of course, that's small-time energy source but fusion power plants are not. There is one test reactor in Europe already. And in the future when that gets up and running it's going to be a massive amount of clean energy. Booting up ain't the issue but rather keep the plasma stable between the magnets. Then we can shut down nuclear plants. No one is telling me this, I thought this was common knowledge? LOL!
I don't know about the situation with Germany's nuclear power plants. Are they dismantled? If not, could they be restarted again? That would be a faster solution since the Russia card is played out.
LOL wow relying on fusion, which no ones been able to crack yeah good luck with that, if theres someone who knows about energy coming online its a South Africans, our blackouts started in 2007, we have the best place on the planet for wind and solar, and we built two plants since then and we're getting MORE blackouts
Whoever is feeding you that information has no appreciation for reality
That really sounds like there is something fundamentally wrong with how your country is run. I would guess it's corruption. However, that doesn't mean that a less corrupted country can make wind and solar work and have no blackouts. The problem with those is they are not producing enough energy(or some of it goes to waste).
May I also add, again, that no one is feeding me anything. This is common knowledge - science, not sci-fi. No scientific or technological breakthroughs would ever be made if people would just give up when facing an issue. Again, I was talking about future solutions and fusion power will be the answer.
Lol that's the rule not the exception ALL countries are run this way, is the EU is a panacea of zero corruption?
That's a good point, certainly, the EU is not corruption free. It's the opposite. But maybe corruption on different levels affects different things. The higher the level, the fewer blackouts. ;)
@tipu curate
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Sadly I read that this is all part of the plan of the psychotic fucks like Klaus. Strangle Europe and get rid of the reliance on traditional methods of fuel so they can try to usher in the horse shit different energy control. It’s a brutal time we are living in and sadly it’s only beginning.
Eurozone committing suicide man, now that they can't grift off south East Asia and Africa anymore, their policies are about eating themselves, welcome to the 3rd world mother fuckers lol.
Waiting for the first EU country to call it quits and Brexit, as they fight to defend their little union of woke bag holders.
Then Germany better start negotiating with Russia and ignore Biden's demented form of leadership.
Will Parkas and Sweaters be the big fashion trend this fall?
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Lol maybe you guys and the US can share the load and send them some of your overpriced LNG, I don't think the orders for sweaters and parkas are going to go through, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh is a mess :P People will now realise how much of their stuff was made there
As the Fed cranks up the Interest rates more countries will go bankrupt.
The Bank of Canada has just raised it's rate up a whole 1% to a nominal 2.5% as the Mortgage business is having seizures now.
Lol I can attest to that , our county is collapsing I get 6-8 hour black outa a day, jobs market is trash and crime is up over 50%
Lol gosh we really living in a lifeless husk of a world if a measily 1% puts business into a coma