View from the Centre

that. Whether we like it or not, this situation is to continue for a number of years yet while the Russians and their customers, and the Americans who are not impacted in this regard, continue with business as usual.

We have a position where the unfortunate Ukrainian people are paying a terrible price in terms of death and destruction, the young Russians that Putin is sending out to be slaughtered are paying with their lives, and he and his elite don’t care anymore about them than they do about the Ukrainian people, and us Europeans are paying a high economic price while the real protagonists Russia and the United States suffer little.

A local contributor, based in the centre of the county, looks at life today in Co. Wexford and beyond

Remarkably, Russia, despite the many sanctions applied, has suffered very little economically. Despite the ban on purchasing oil and gas by Europe, the sales of these products by Russia has increased by 40% in the past year with India, China, Pakistan and other countries taking up the slack. The purchase price to them from Russia is pretty low which makes their goods very competitive on the world market against European products which are the victims of the massive prices these countries are paying for fuel. Furthermore, inflation is running at 4.4% in Russia while the rest of Europe is suffering from an inflation rate of more than double

Interest Rate Increases

It baffles me as to how economists and politicians continue to pursue a policy of increasing interest rates when they want to bring down inflation. The rationale behind it is to reduce spending and demand which in turn will bring down prices. As usual it is the people at the bottom of the ladder who suffer most when mortgage rates increase and lending rates to businesses go through the roof as all these increases are passed on. While the rationale may be correct, the reality is not. Those who suffer most have little spending power anyway regardless of the interest rate and every increase simply sinks them into greater debt. (Maybe that’s the desire of the ruling elite as a means to keep people subjugated). Those who have spending power are little impacted by the increases and will continue to spend as they wish. It is worth nothing that the head of the ECB which dictates these matters is on a salary of over €400k per year while board members receive €270k per year. The head of the Irish Central Bank receives a salary of €286k per year. So, as we can see, a few points on the interest rate won’t affect them too much. n