Rising Prices

Big worries about energy shortages especially gas.

I’d cross fingers for a mild winter, but that will just mean floods.

 

If you Google energy shortage and a random year, these stories seem almost a seasonal formality, I am afraid. People are constantly making such warnings. A few years back I seem to remember a very serious series of stories that the power grid would, as a certainty, not cope with the winter weather, but it did. It' a bit like Nath and his predictions of doom. To be fair, sometimes he's right, but it seems more to do with the law of averages than thorough analysis of the facts.

Of course people are worried about energy shortages, the same way they are worried about any hypothetical crises. Their fears are not indicators of any imminent issue though, like with so many unrealised concerns that were made out to be stone cold certainties over the last six years.

 

Well what’s certain is that prices are going up, while many wages are stagnating and universal credit will decrease. It’s going to be a hard winter for many to get the basics.

Even the Daily Mail is worried.

 

Did an online Ocado shop yesterday and they’ve got no frozen veg at all, a message came up about a worldwide shortage of dry ice or something.

 

I’m hoping for mild inconvenience over social breakdown, so I’m not panicking yet at your story.

 

The Daily Mail has long been famous for end of days fear mongering.

 

Yes. I wouldn’t believe a word it says on most things. For example.

 

What exactly is the Brexit effect on fuel bills? I take it, from the fact that the rest of the world is not beating down our door blaming Brexit for their energy woes, that other factors may have more to do with it, and that it is entirely possible opportunistic people, still sore about leaving the EU, are just adding "Brexit" to the mish mash.

 

Well, not downward that’s for sure.

 

Which bit of 'it isn't about the economy' that you don't understand?
https://www.express.co.uk/news/poli...xit-food-wine-clothes-shoes-lower-20-per-cent

 

Looks like the energy industry could be facing a northern rock style crisis:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news...t-happens-if-your-supplier-goes-bust-12412648

The knock on effect for supermarkets is the main producer of fertiliser that supply c02 (I think?) to the supermarkets have closed down, due to the price of gas.

A **** show basically

 

Ir does feels like a **** show at the moment

I have a little side business bringing stuff in from China , last year a 20ft container of goods cost between 1.5k to 2k to ship from China to the uk, now the shipping companies are adding a 3k - 4K surcharge on , this has effectively killed the business (luckily for me not the end of the world as only a side hustle). But essentially for a product that cost £6 in the shop we were bringing in and selling for £1.8 making 3k to 4K profit per container the added shipping costs make this now pointless. A rough guess would be that anything coming in from China (or possibly anywhere by sea) is going to be at least 25% more expensive until this is sorted out.

The argument I keep getting is that nobody can get hold of shipping containers as they all left China during covid and haven't made their way back yet as not much gets shipped back to China. This is apparently coupled with a lack of truck drivers and other associated workers (which I’m guessing is due to brexit and cheap foreign labour)

I don’t know if it’s brexit or covid but it’s starting to feel like somebody in the government needs to get a grip or we will all be eating dog and cat for Christmas.

 

Brexit is not causing the overall soaring cost of gas but it does mean the UK is currently experiencing much higher prices than every other country in Europe partly because the UK is no longer in the EU internal energy market - having left on Jan 1 2021.

 

How so? And if and when things do get difficult, is it entirely possible that not being restricted by slow moving universal EU regulation, may allow us to ease the burden more quickly and effectively than it woul be for members of the union. It certainly helped with our covid response (which effectively forced the EU to move more quickly, benefitting its own members).

 

You can fantasise whatever you like, but prices have gone up across the board in the UK. In respect of energy, what will we do with this ‘freedom’. Get gas from Australia?

Anyone can make hay in the Sun. When conditions are bad you need cover. That’s what @EnjoytheGame has just explained.

 

Consequence of lockdown

China was shipping containers at a time the rest of world wasn't processing them, moving them, returning them... and most of the worlds shipping anchored wherever it could

There are now too many containers in the wrong place and not enough where they need to be.... classic inflation problem of 'too much money chasing too few products' is the result

The so called economic experts of the world needed to have got together and thought this through a bit better

 

They could, but they would have had to have done some sort of collective thing involving activity for no short term gain. And that's why capitalism is **** all use in a crisis.

 

Agreed, and I'm not sure that China mind a bit of economic meltdown of the Western economy too much, if it strengthens their grip on the world.

 

Aren't all those 'Ghost Cities' coming back to bit them on the arse?

 

Thanks for posting, an interesting video... reminded me of a day I spent in Dalian about 10 years ago. Although not a ghost city, the amount of construction going on was incredible. It looked like a live version of one of those civilization games - big areas of wasteland interspersed with shiny new buildings. Also the worst driving I've ever seen, but that's a different story

 

Yes, Evegrande are in the ****:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58579833.amp

 

they borrowed £217bn , that makes my head hurt

 

One of the advantages of playing by your own rules when everything goes **** up everywhere you can just carry on, only thing China really cares about (in terms of economy) is keeping its currency weak against the $ / £

 

Just visited my gas and electric suppliers online and moved to both of their variable standard tariffs which are fixed for 6 months from October 1st. If Martin Lewis says to do it then I'm doing it.

 

I had a look at switching to another company using Uswitch. £645 extra per year was the best offer, so I’m staying put.

 

My crippling laziness has finally paid off. Signed up for three year fixed gas and electric two years ago. I knew I wouldn’t be arsed to shop around every 12 months.

I’ll be having a nice cup of tea, waiting for all this to blow over.

 

We’ll all be living like Chuck McGill by this time next week

 

I’m sure certain tin foil hat wearers on this site already do.

 

Might be of interest to some of the moon-howlers but the government has just removed the Brexit Impact report of the effect upon the UK energy sector they commissioned from the gov.uk website.

Luckily the organisation who produced it haven't removed from their site...

Twitter thread here.

 

Moon howling is linking a global gas shortage to Brexit

 

More importantly will we lose Moon Howling to the AFCON?

 

Well you may be happy to be spending more outside of the EU’s internal energy market, but then there is seemingly no limit to the mugs people are willing to make of themselves.

Maybe it’s windy in Australia today and they can help us out?

Otherwise, no doubt shareholders in energy companies won’t be returning their previous dividends we paid for while we subsidise them through this period.

 

Sorry you have lost me

Are you trying to claim current high gas prices is a unique UK problem?

 

Saw this today and thought of the container discussion

More than 70 cargo ships queue outside Californian ports amid surge in US imports (msn.com)

 

Of course not. But our specific problems are our own. We left the EU’s internal energy market which allows them to trade efficiently with each other. They use linked auctions that balance prices across the bloc and efficiently share capacity. We could in theory get cheaper energy from elsewhere – if energy was cheap. But it isn’t, so the UK is more exposed to high prices.

Moreover instead of planning for instability we closed storage capacity to benefit shareholders of those utilities holding the capacity.

Fact is a lot was promised, cheaper this, cheaper that, trade deal with the US etc. None of it delivered, just benefits lost. When will you get your head out of the sand?