Michael Yon warns:
PanFaWar [Pandemic, Famine, War] is Here
Chances are extremely high of tens or hundreds of millions dying of PanFaWar in next several years.
Notice they blame Putin for the lot. The reality is that this elective war creates additive stresses that can, and likely will, lead to toppling of governments. Mass migrations. Possibly a toppling of various State governments in the United States, and even of the Federal Government. And all this is without a use of a single WMD other than hunger and other forms of silent attack such as fake ‘vaccines.’
That said, chances that nuclear weapons will be employed has never been higher other than just before bombs detonated over Japan. We are toe-to-toe with World War III. Even short of nuclear weapons, conditions are growing to create massive starvations that would make the term Biblical entirely appropriate.
Consequences of failure to prepare may be final.
Prediction: By 2025, or even 2024, human population on earth will decrease.
Don’t take Mr. Yon’s warning about nuclear weapons lightly. Not only are they a definite threat in the Ukraine war if things go badly for Russia, but they may also be used in the Middle East before too long, as we discussed earlier this morning.
Mr. Yon cites an article in the Telegraph, London, outlining the severity of the economic problems facing us. It’s behind a paywall there, but has been reprinted without restriction in the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, from which these excerpts are taken.
The world was facing a grain supply crunch even before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine … The world faces what amounts to a commodity “black swan” across the gamut of primary resources. Oil, gas, coal and the “ags” are all spiralling higher together, with metals catching up fast. It is a systemic stagflation shock, an intractable problem for central bankers. It acts like a war reparations tax on the economies of importing nations and is ultimately contractionary.
. . .
Unlike the West, China is prepared. It has been stocking up for months and holds 84 per cent of the world’s copper, 70 per cent of its corn and 51 per cent of its wheat. “China has bought enormous quantities of US soy in recent weeks,” said Rabobank. One might ask if Xi Jinping knew something in advance.
Record food commodity prices are an ordeal by fire for some 45 poorer countries that rely heavily on food imports … The World Food Programme warned of “catastrophic” scarcity for several hundred million people last November. The picture is worse today.
“Everything is going up vertically. The whole production chain for food is under pressure from every side,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, the ex-head of agro-markets at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
“I have never seen anything like it in 30 years and I fear that prices are going to go much higher in the 2022-2023 season. The situation is just awful and at some point people are going to realise what may be coming. We’re all going to have to tighten our belts, and the mood could get very nasty even in OECD countries like Britain,” he said.
Energy and farm commodities are interlinked. Natural gas is a feedstock for fertiliser production in Europe, and lest we forget, Russia and Belarus together account for a third of the world’s exports of potash. Rocketing oil prices are driving a switch to biodiesel in south-east Asia, further tightening the global market for vegetable oils.
. . .
Roughly a third of world exports of barley come from Russia and Ukraine combined, 29 per cent of wheat, 19 per cent of maize, as well as 80 per cent of sunflower oil. Much of this is usually shipped through the Black Sea ports of Odesa, or Kherson – scene of hand-to-hand street battles until it fell on Wednesday – or Mykolaiv, where a Russian missile hit a Bangladeshi-flagged bulk carrier this week and killed one of the crew.
. . .
“Russian and Ukrainian wheat are not being offered. Critical corn flows to the world are being stymied. If Ukraine farmers do not plant substantial quantities of corn next month, the supply crunch will be very severe,” said Rabobank.
Smaller farmers in Russia have been shut out of the domestic credit market just before planting season. Emergency tightening by the central bank has lifted average loan cost to 27 per cent this week.
Chicago wheat futures have hit an all-time high of $US1,131. The squeeze is worse for the rest of the world because the broad dollar index is up 30 per cent since the last peak in 2008.
For good measure, Rabobank says we must contend with intense La Niña weather patterns and drought in Brazil and Argentina. “Grain shortfalls are likely to be so pronounced as to require demand destruction, or rationing,” it said.
The commodity index of the International Monetary Fund – purer than misleading market indexes – shows that primary commodities are today more expensive as a whole in real terms than in 2008 even in US dollars. It is much higher for Europe or Africa. This is fast resembling the raw material shock of the early 1970s.
. . .
We are now learning … what it means to eject the world’s only full-spectrum commodity superpower from the international financial and trading system.
We have not even begun to feel the blowback for the Western aerospace and semiconductor industry should Russia retaliate by exploiting its lockhold over the global supply chain for titanium, palladium and neon … As for the “ags”, all the makings of an enduring food crisis are before our eyes.
Again, more at the link.
If you’re in any doubt about the worsening supply situation, consider the price you’re paying for gasoline. Everything relies on gas and diesel – getting seeds to farmers, powering the agricultural machinery that cultivates it, harvesting the crop, processing it and getting it to market, not to mention moving every other item we need from importer/manufacturer to distributor to retailer to consumer. Consider, too, the price of agricultural futures on US commodities exchanges. All the evidence is there, and it’s incontrovertible. It’s made worse, of course, by the feckless incompetence of the Biden administration, plus its deliberate efforts to make energy more expensive in order to promote its “green” agenda for non-fossil fuels. Compare the price of fuel when President Trump left office to what it is today. A very large proportion of that increase is due solely to Biden administration policies.
I can only hope that readers here have heeded the warnings I’ve posted over the years, and laid by a store of their most essential needs to help alleviate current and future shortages. We’re all feeling the pinch already, and it’s going to get a lot worse, very quickly. Watch inflation skyrocket as shortages add to other pressures on our economy.
Folks, I’m not being alarmist. This is real, and it’s staring us in the face right now. If anyone still thinks this is some sort of extremist survivalist nonsense, it isn’t. Your own wallet is confirming that every time you go shopping.
Don’t just lay by a supply of food. Think of all your routine needs, the sort of things you take for granted, and stock up on them, too. Do you have a favorite brand of toothpaste, or feminine hygiene products? Do you can your own food, and therefore need regular supplies of jars, lids, rings, etc.? Do you change the oil in your vehicle or lawnmower or generator, using a particular brand or viscosity of motor oil? In these and many other cases (I’m sure you can think of your own), I strongly recommend buying some reserve supplies of what you prefer to use, because amid worsening shortages they may not be available when you want them, and the alternatives (if any) may not be ones you want.
I’m not saying we have to stock up for the next five or ten years: most of us can’t afford that, and we’ll soon run out of storage space if we try. However, a six-month supply is no more than prudent, and even a year’s supply of critical items may be justifiable, depending on individual circumstances. Only you can judge what’s needed in your own situation.
Peter
thank you
As to China stockpiling supplies, there are quite a few people who have speculated that they did that in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan. Seeing the sanctions being placed on Russia, it does make a certain amount of sense to make that assumption.
I’ll add one more item to causes of deaths, if the new green deal has its way people in the northern tier will be freezing in the dark in winter and people in the south will be dying of heat stroke in the summer. Also green energy has negative effects on cooking and I understand some one is introducing a bill in Congress to ban wood stoves in the United States. In addition the green new deal would imparefood production as well
Quite a few countries have announced they will be seeking to de-dollarize their trade too. India didn't take it well when the Biden administration announced they would look at sanctions on India for not toeing the line against Russia. Plenty of places are now looking to jump on board the Russia-China developed interbank competitor to SWIFT and the Chinese unionpay(?) has taken over credit card transactions in Russia after VISA and mastercard pulled out, amongst other developments.
Couple that with the price spikes biting Europe and I reckon the sanctions have backfired spectacularly on the US. It will only get worse from here.
"Starvation is a weapon that costs nothing". -Every tyrant, dictator, warlord,
commie, fascist, since the beginnings
of civilization.
I've seen this movie before and I did not like the way it ended the last time either. .
Prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes….
Picked up 100# rice and 50# powdered milk, bagged and in buckets. Getting another oil and filter change for the truck. Moving is never fun, knowing that that I should have moved 2 years ago makes it less so.
The one thing not mentioned is medications… How many of those, or the components come from China and other countries???
Only about 98%. The same goes for all your medical supplies–gauze, syringes, needles, wound dressings, everything.
"Chances are extremely high of tens or hundreds of millions dying of PanFaWar in next several years."
Not chance, it is going to happen:
"So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, WITH HUNGER, with death, and by the beasts of the earth." Revelation 6:8
Thank you. Why so many people can't or won't see what is happening. It is so simple to stockpile everyday foods & supplies over time, with no real budget impacts. In my circle the same people that believe the covid charade are believers of the war propaganda. Telling. I have felt for a long time that Russia is constantly attacked in the US by government and media simply being the last true Christian country left. Ignoring the facts and events of the last few decades leaves one susceptible to propaganda.
Just a data point.
My daughter went out to buy Milk, Eggs, and a few sundries last night. No Eggs. No Milk. No canned Cat Food. This was at Wal-mart. We have stocked up. Not Enough, but some. We will try to backfill now, but things are not going to get better. We filled the tank, Sunday afternoon @ $4.64 per gallon. It was $4.84 yesterday. 20 cents up in one day. It will be $5.99 by the weekend.
This is in Kern County, in the middle of oil producing California.
(Note, we pump it of the ground here, but have to ship most of it to other refineries. We have only one small refinery that can crack all the way down to gas)
Also, your friendly, neighborhood gas station has Between 10 Thousand and 20 Thousand gallon tanks in the ground. Most get a shipment once a day, or every 2 days, depending on sales. When sales go up, those tanks empty fast.
So, in most places, local gas stations have no more than 24-48 hours worth of gas in the ground. (at normal sales rates). When folks get spooked sales rates can double, and things can get fun after that. Top off your tank at the 1/2 mark. You might need that half a tank badly.
(I worked dispatching fuel tankers delivering gas to station from the refinery for 2 years. I've seen the inside of this business. Keep an eye on gas. Not Just prices, but availability too)
In the mountains, wildfires are the fear should things degrade further (road maintenance this winter has been 10-15% of needed). Blue money for nothing disincentivizes manual labor across the demographic. Necessary, controlled pharmaceutical supplies can't be stockpiled. Enjoy most major metropolitan centers after dark? The slow disintegration, the spiral gaines momentum. A resolute generation might slow it down. We live in interesting times.