Inflation is suddenly back in the developed countries, a phenomenon many thought was something that belonged to the past. A year ago, most central bank governors assured that this was an expected and transitory phenomenon as the developed economies returned to growth after the Covid induced depression in 2020. Now it looks not to be that transitory. So has inflation come to stay?

To Russia’s demand for a stop for NATO’s eastward expansion, NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg has answered that Russia has no say in which countries are becoming members of NATO, a viewpoint that has been repeated by the G7 countries, warning that there will be “massive consequences” for Russia if it intervenes in Ukraine. So Russia’s “red lines” have been rejected, well knowing that this may mean military conflict. What is contradictory is that by defending Ukraine’s right to NATO membership, NATO actually risks throwing Ukraine under the bus. So has NATO decided to sacrifice Ukraine? Or are the Russians…

When the US increased the capacity for exporting Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) in 2019, Trump promised a new era where the Europeans would get “freedom gas” instead of the malign Russian gas. Now that Europe is in the middle of a gas crisis with soaring prices, what happened to the freedom gas? Short answer: it went to South-Eastern Asia where prices are better. The gas crisis is a result of EU’s love for spot-markets for energy rather than long term contracts. This implies that they sometimes get very cheap gas and sometimes very expensive gas. Just now, the EU is…

The 2016 US election where Donald Trump defeated Hilary Clinton gave rise to an unprecedented wave of accusations of meddling in the elections. The main culprit was Russia, and the Russian meddling was seen as decisive. If not, how could Hilary lose, despite having almost the whole US establishment and most of the media supporting her? That the US should accuse other countries of meddling in their internal affairs, is quite funny, given that they are the meddlers par excellence, and by the way are proud of it. However, meddling in other countries’ internal affairs is and old, bad habit,…

A new a multi-polar world is dawning on us. This has implications for all corners of the world, but not least for Europe, the cradle of the two world wars. The dominating powers in Europe are US-lead NATO in the military sphere and EU in the economic and political sphere. According to both, all would be well in Europe had it not been for Russia which is a malign power trying to subdue independent countries, sowing confusion and distrust within the EU and threatening the continent with military invasion. They both need to reconsider and think harder if they are…