> The European energy war of 2022 will almost certainly go down in history, along with the Treaty of Versailles, as one of the worst economic blunders in history.
No, it is absolutely necessary. What will go down as one of the worst blunders in history is allowing Europe to become so dependent on a single hostile country for energy.
>For people in the EU/UK, how has this currency slide impacted your day to day?
Not at all?
I mean, I guess you could argue which caused which but the real problem here in central Europe are gas and energy prices. Those legitimately doubled and affect personal budgets.
> Economists have been saying for years that the UK economy is too heavily weighted towards finance. We now have an opportunity to resolve that.
But the cause of this issue is not due to being a member of the EU; other member states have more balanced economies. Can you explain what has prevented successive UK governments from addressing this imbalance, yet will now be resolved by Brexit?
> The EU can’t offer much energy, national security, or manufacturing support these days and U.S. is the only other reasonable option.
The UK literally relies on the EU energy market (and vice versa), with lots of imports and exports between the two. There isn't enough of it, but there's already a codependency there. National security is debatable, but as a part of the EU the UK would be leader among equals (big army and nukes), so cooperation would be on an equal footing. Manufacturing of what, specifically?
> The answer is of course that this is not what the EU is.
So all the economic justifications against Brexit are red herrings, right? Because when deciding about the fundamental nature of one’s country, people don’t really care if it’s good or bad for the economy. You have to be a pretty bloodless person to predicate the decision on that.
> Why is the EU not an economic and military superpower?
Best I can tell, mix of apathy, resentment towards people who work hard, and generally smaller ambition and perspective. We have the same problem in the UK so it's not just the EU.
The choice was made decades ago on the alter of faux environmentalism to export the environmental cost of energy production to another nation so the EU could claim moral superiority in the climate change battle. Completely decimating domestic energy sources.
The EU has backed the Ukraine, a war that was mostly created by the US pushing NATO boundaries outwards and backing Russia's dictator into a completely untenable corner.
The EU did this at its own detriment, with very questionable legitimacy (the EU was never given a mandate to deal in such geopolitical issues) plunging the entire continent into an energy crisis the like of which hasn't been seen since the oil crisis in the 70s.
Ask any small to medium company in Germany how they plan to pay their gas bills in the coming 2 years other that declaring bankruptcy.
> Europe’s manufacturing base underpins the value of the euro. When this base is obliterated by high energy costs, the euro will sink.
Hmm... but when the Euro falls the attractiveness of its exports increases.
One consistent thing about these articles is that they fail common sense tests.
Anyway, Brexit is almost certainly to blame for the magnitude of the calamity in England. The bigger problem is that nobody buys anything from there, that English industry and innovation have been stagnating for a long time.
> The UK operated prior to the EU without all these disasters.
This is true. But what’s discussed is how difficult it is to untangle 40 years of ever tighter integration. Decades ago things weren’t made in british factories using parts delivered just in time to be assembled, from multiple European supplier factories. No one is arguing that it’s impossible for Britain to function outside the EU. But “it worked before” isn’t an argument that leaving won’t be a disaster.
Taking the same argument ad absurdum: Britain used to operate without electricity and cars. Now there is a hundred years of electricity and cars integrated into every corner of British society so if cars and electricity was suddenly removed, it would take a long time for Britain to adapt to the new old system of candles and horses. It would work (it has operated that way before) but it would be a disaster for quite some time. An initial shortage of horses and candles wouldn’t be the only problem.
> But, from a non-European perspective, Europe doesn’t seem to be doing well? It seems the EU is slowly disintegrating, and the monetary union isn’t working. Also the political landscape seems to be in turmoil as well.
The purpose of the EU is to prevent war. The EU hasn't had a war in 75 years. That is the longest that Europe hasn't been at war in its recorded history.
Who waged that war?
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