A Comedy of Errors
Panic Sets In On the Continent
“Electricity is not a problem! We don’t have any electricity.”
- me, stealing a joke from a dead Croatian singer, and repurposing it to describe the farce that has descended on Europe in the form stupidity, arrogance and cowardice
Every single one of us (especially the parents among you) has gone through the experience of watching someone about to make an obvious mistake despite being told that it is a mistake, only to see them still go through with it to its incredibly predictable end. You no longer get mad at this person. Instead, you just shake your head in disappointment, or laugh to yourself as you accept defeat. This is how I feel about European leaders immediately going into panic mode after getting back into the office now that summer vacation is over.
This piece is intentionally low-effort for the simple reason that everything now happening has been so easy to foresee well in advance, yet is happening anyway. I apologize in advance for not writing up an intelligent thinkpiece or a clever analysis. I can only summon up enough energy to dump information here that will certainly leave you shaking your head in resignation just like I have been doing for months now already.
Let’s begin the Comedy of Errors with German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Green Party. The Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has been doing the rounds on German television lately, fumbling, stumbling, and embarrassing himself more and more each time. Watch this clip from two nights ago:
“We’ll just suspend parts of the economy until we find new sources of energy, bro. We’ll be fine.”
I had to verify what he said with several German friends as my deutsch isn’t in the best shape. They verified it. As I type this, I find myself shaking my head once again.
How the fuck does the Economics Minister of one of the world’s most important economies not know about the concept of fixed costs? Businesses have loans to repay, rents that are due every month, and so on. Suspending business sectors from economic activity creates a chain reaction throughout the economy as a whole. Deutsche Bank, for example, is a colossal giant that has been on shaky ground since 2008. Being exposed as it is could lead to its collapse, one that would take down the European Union’s entire financial system, threatening the organization’s very existence.