Panic in Europe: Russia Stops Gas Flow on “Force Majeure” as Biden Admin Temporarily Prevents Rail Strike

In two major headline stories today on Monday, July 18th, there was some bad news for Germany and Europe, but some potentially good news for the U.S. This is not a good time to be dependent on public utilities if you live in Europe, especially Germany, as Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom reportedly declared a force majeure today on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline into Europe, stating that “extraordinary” circumstances outside its control would not allow them to reopen it. Meanwhile in the U.S., disaster was averted today, at least for now, as it was announced that the Biden Admin has set up an emergency "National Mediation Board" and signed an executive order that prevents any work stoppage for 60 days. Any "good" news for the short-term is temporary, of course, as the planned collapse of the world's financial system is now inevitable. Charles Hugh Smith reminded us all of the Economics 101 lesson in a recent blog post at of two minds.com that when your society is built on debt that cannot be paid back, there is only one solution: DEFAULT. Gazprom won't be the first force majeure or bankruptcy that we will be reading about in the news in the days ahead....