Sunday 26 April 2020

More Mystery Ships

Actually the title of this article is misleading. There is no mystery surrounding these ships, however I wanted to connect it to an article I wrote a few days ago about a similar incident off the coast of South Wales because I have come to suspect that the causes are similar, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/04/mystery-ships.html. Actually when I posted this article, many people commented that what I was reporting on was normal shipping manoeuvres. If that is so then I'd have to ask why the mainstream media mentions it. Either way, the same cannot be said for this similar story. A huge fleet of ships have been gathering in the seas off southern California USA. They are supertankers whose job it is to feed America's unquenchable thirst for petroleum, or unquenchable until now. The coronavirus lockdown has reduced the demand for oil by such a sudden and extreme level that it has caused a bottleneck; one which actually appeared while those ships were at sea. So supply has yet to adjust to demand. Source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-24/dramatic-video-shows-l-a-coast-filled-with-dozens-of-oil-tankers-with-nowhere-to-go. This has obviously caused a record-breaking crash in oil prices, source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52367052, that even surpasses the one a few years ago when the world started a trade war with Russia, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2015/02/you-really-dont-like-russia-do-you.html. Hopefully this situation is temporary, but it is clear that the powers-that-shouldn't-be are quite relishing this new opportunity to exercise their authoritarian muscles and this includes economic reform. How many of the changes caused by the COVID 19 pandemic will remain with us after the pandemic is over? What will be the long-term historical effects of the lockdown? One thing is for sure is that it will be dragged on for as long as it can be justified in the minds of the population.

3 comments:

Adrian said...

Hi Ben. I think we will see libertarian free market ideology becoming somewhat unfashionable as a consequence of C19. A move towards collectivism like we saw after the end of WW2 will follow I am sure. I hope in Britain we might see the last vestiges of ultra individualism and Thatcherism finally thrown into the dustbin of history. Ade

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Hi Ade. There are certainly going to be permanent changes to the economy. What they will be, we'll have to wait and see.

Adrian said...

Yes definitely, but underpinning those changes to the economy will be ideological changes. A real game changer