How the US Economy Benefits from Coaxing the EU to Economic Suicide

European industries shift operations to the US to avoid crippling energy costs

How the US Economy Benefits from Coaxing the EU to Economic Suicide

The European economy is collapsing. Energy prices are soaring, particularly for natural gas used for heating and electricity. Natural gas prices in Europe are now around 10 times higher than they were on average over the last decade and about 10 times pricier than in the United States.
Foreign Policy magazine tells us in stark headlines that, “You Have No Idea How Bad Europe’s Energy Crisis Is”.

The cause? The New York Times spells it out for is, “the crisis is a blowback from European sanctions that were intended to punish Moscow”. Sanctions pushed by the US have seen global energy market prices skyrocket. The EU’s technocratic elite with US encouragement swore further that they would wean themselves off Russian gas, oil, and coal.

The Kremlin appears to be graciously helping them move even quicker to that goal, throttling gas flows even more, which it blames on technical problems caused by EU sanctions.

It appears that European economic advisors have severely failed to understand the uniquely autarkic Russian economy which has shrugged off sanctions to little effect, global energy markets, and just how much decades of European prosperity have depended on cheap, reliable energy supplied from Russia.

As a result, inflation in Europe is soaring often in the double digits, consumers are unable to pay their heating bills, protesters are taking to the streets, continent-wide recession is looming, and industries are idling or shutting down. Particularly hard hit are energy intensive manufacturing industries like steel, aluminum, and zinc production, glass-making, paper and cardboard, fertilizer and even…toilet paper.

The Wall Street Journal warns “Some European Factories, Long Dependent on Cheap Russian Energy, Are Shutting Down: Industrial energy costs are soaring in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine, hobbling European manufacturers’ ability to compete globally”

While the New York Times headlines tell us, ‘Crippling’ Energy Bills Force Europe’s Factories to Go Dark”:  Manufacturers are furloughing workers and shutting down lines because they can’t pay the gas and electric charges.

Some of the EU corporate giants effected include, Arcelor Mittal, Europe’s largest steel maker, which is idling blast furnaces in Germany. Alcoa, a top global aluminum products producer, and, Nyrstar in the Netherlands, the world’s biggest zinc producer, which is pausing output until further notice.
 
All businesses dependent on these basic materials for their products will feel similar knock-on effects

The EU is deindustrializing itself out of spite.

And the icing on this cake for the EU?

Now the Wall Street Journal tells us that many European companies, including steel and chemical makers, are fleeing from the EU to the US, aiming for some relief from the jump in regional energy prices.
“High Natural-Gas Prices Push European Manufacturers to Shift to the U.S.:
The Ukraine war is driving up energy costs in Europe, while relatively stable prices and green-energy incentives are luring companies to the U.S.”

Companies such steel manufacturer Arcelor Mittal, OCI chemicals, Tesla, Pandora, Volkswagon are all shifting operations to the US, taking with them potentially tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment.

The EU’s loss is a gain for the Americans. Didn’t anyone ever tell the technocrats in Brussels that “the Hegemon always finds a way to wins.”