u/lughnasadh

Now that the US sees the EU as a potential enemy, Europe has moved to ensure its financial system can never be sanctioned or shut down; something the US has done to Russia, Cuba, and Iran.

By late 2025, efforts centered on the Digital Euro, a nonprofit payment system run by the European Central Bank (like euro cash). Due by 2030, it would offer lower fees and quickly replace much Visa and Mastercard usage. While still in development, other solutions arrived sooner. Instant bank-to-bank payments, bypassing cards, are expanding rapidly. In February, 130 million users across 13 national systems were linked in a Europe-wide network aiming to cover all of Europe. Fees are a fraction of Visa/Mastercard, though unlike the Digital Euro, it's not yet available as a debit card; only online and on phones.

The EU also wants to decouple from US software and is preparing its own alternative to Microsoft Office.

Europe Is Breaking Up With Visa and Mastercard — and It’s a $24 Trillion Problem

Europe builds Microsoft-alternative ‘Euro-Office’ to reclaim digital sovereignty

As the Middle East War continues, with fuel rationing & $200/barrel oil likely ahead, it feels like history will look back at this moment as a definitive ending of the Fossil Fuel Age. People will still be using oil, gas, and coal for decades to come, but in constantly declining amounts. But something more fundamental has changed.

Fossil Fuels now represent backwardness, yesterday's tech, expense, instability, and unreliability. Renewables were once seen as fringe and environmental gesture politics; now they are taking over as the dominant global energy paradigm.

Still not convinced that's true? Read the linked article to see how China has used renewables to create the greatest industrial/manufacturing economy in all of human history.

Minerals, Metals, and Megawatts: How China’s Power Generation Drives Its Industrial Metals Ecosystem

"So far, Utah is the only state to have passed the necessary regulatory reforms to exempt smaller systems under 1,200 watts from rules designed for larger rooftop models. Vermont and Virginia have also recently advanced similar bills with near-unanimous support, from both Democrats and Republicans……………….Plug-in solar systems, one or two panels with power inverters that connect to a standard electrical outlet, are less expensive — 80–97% less than traditional rooftop installations, according to Bright Saver. And they don't require a technician to install."

Should the current ME war progress to a US invasion of Iran, we can expect to see a global depression starting in the summer & emergency fuel rationing, as 25% of global fossil fuel supply evaporates for years to come. By then, the switch to decentralized home-renewables won't just look sensible, it will look like a hedge against the chaos of Fossil Fuel Age global warfare.

The good news? That switch to decentralized home-renewables is getting easier and easier.

ARTICLE LINK

"The Russians had lost an estimated 3,000 tanks in the previous year, along with 9,000 armored vehicles, 13,000 artillery systems, and more than 400 air-defense systems, Cavoli said in written testimony. The main weapon that the Ukrainians had used to inflict this damage was the suicide drone, which costs about $400 to make……………….“It’s Ukrainian housewives,” Papperger (CEO Rheinmetall, Germany's biggest arms manufacturer) said of their factories. “They have 3-D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones,” he said. “This is not innovation.”

Mr. Papperger needs to look up the meaning of the word 'innovation'. Upending the decades-long paradigm of tank warfare, with decentralized, cheap production that people can do from home with 3D printers, is about as innovative as innovation gets. But when your job depends on selling tanks …….

Also, the specifics here mask a broader 21st-century trend. Decentralization. What used to be "heavy industry" and "national energy grids" can more and more be done by home solar energy and 3-D printers.

Building Tanks While the Ukrainians Master Drones: Ukrainian drones have made artillery and armored vehicles look obsolete. Why is the world still buying them?