Norwegian finance CEO Kjerstin Braathen spoke to the World Economic Forum this week. She was rehearsing a consistent elite theme — the need to move to a greener economy:
‘We need to accept that there will be SOME PAIN in the process…shortages on energy, inflationary pressures…that pain is actually worth it because if we don’t…there’s no economy, there’s no welfare…’
Is it true? Without carbon emission controls will we have no economy? No producing? No buying and selling? No trade? No income? No bussing, schlepping, and toting?
Of course, it’s nonsense. Economies work…even on hot days. But today every tornado and heat wave are taken as a forecast of catastrophe — like the whiff of a gas leak before an explosion.
Commoner disregard
We don’t know how the world’s weather will evolve…nor exactly what it will mean for life on Earth. Nor do we know whether temperatures could be controlled by eliminating carbon emissions…nor whether it would be worth trying.
Nobody does. But there are plenty of climate modellers to spread alarm. And what they have in common is a common disregard for the common man.
Ms Braathen didn’t mention it, but Norway is uncommonly rich, with a huge nationally owned wealth fund. Where did the money come from? Selling North Sea oil.
And now, they wash the black grease from their clothes and look forward to a post-fossil fuel world. They need not worry about a marginal increase in the price of gasoline…or the pain that may be inflicted by shortages or inflation. Those are problems for ‘the people’, not for them. The nomenklatura can afford to spend a little more for gasoline…and enjoy their hot summers in Aspen or on Cape Cod.
From Bloomberg: ‘A Hot, Deadly Summer Is Coming with Frequent Blackouts’:
‘There won’t be enough energy supplies to go around as sweltering heat boosts power demand in the months ahead, putting lives at risk.’
As you know, dear reader, here at the Letter, our hearts bleed for the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the half-wit, and half-smart masses…the underdogs and diehards, who are overtaxed, over-bossed, and overburdened.
The suits have their vanities and fantasies; the working classes pay for them. They fight the wars. They pay the taxes. They stand in line, fill out forms, and wait for orders.
And now, they’re being set up for another rip-off.
From Fox News:
‘The national average gas price is up 35% since President Biden touted his “major effort” to bring down the costs of fuel.
‘On November 24, 2021, Biden announced his administration’s launch of “a major effort to reduce the price of gas at your corner gas station” as prices across America were ticking up.
‘“We’re launching a major effort to moderate the price of oil,” the president said in a speech. “An effort that will span the globe in its reach, and ultimately reach your corner gas station, God willing.”’
Was God unwilling? Or was the ‘major effort’ just another major fraud?
Inflation is an opportunity for the elite…and a scourge of the common man. It forces him to tighten his belt, to do without, to downsize, and downgrade. At the margin — where nearly a billion of the planet’s poorest people live — it’s worse than a nuisance. Almost all their money goes to pay for vittles; higher priced food means less to eat.
A ruse by any other name
But what if the Fed’s major efforts to bring inflation under control were phony? The Fed says it will raise its key rate by 100 more basis points this year — or 1%. Does anyone really think that will be enough to stop 9% inflation?
But maybe the Fed is not as incompetent as it appears. What if the real agenda were to let inflation rip? Maybe it would be ‘actually worth it’? The proletariat will burn less fuel. The masses will eat less food. And ‘the people’ will take up less space on the ferry to Nantucket.
And what if Ms Braathen and the whole crème de la crème de la crème — meeting in Davos, Switzerland…or perhaps in Nice, France, where Ms Braathen went to school…or the Upper East Side of Manhattan…or Chelsea…or Bethesda…
…what if they would actually feel good about it, because…well…wouldn’t ‘de-growth’ be good for de-people and de-planet?
And maybe the de-plorables could be persuaded that ‘saving the planet’ was a worthy, even urgent, goal? Then, they would accept their poverty gracefully — as they now allow themselves to be felt up at airport chokepoints and locked up by COVID rules…
…in the mistaken belief that it is for a good cause.
Regards,
 |
Bill Bonner,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia
