Argonautica

Before fossil fuels and the Industrial Revolution, the average person in Britain was no better off than in the days of Julius Caesar. Energy was provided by what today we call “renewables”: wood, charcoal, straw, dried dung and weather dependent rudimentary wind and water mills.

Yesterday, all over Northern Europe spot electricity prices collapsed as the wind blew and the sun shone. Solar and wind contributed nearly 2/3rds of energy generation in the UK and Germany.

Hysteria, innumeracy, and investments decisions are rarely happy bedfellows. So it was that following Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget, we were drowned by expert media opinion all agreeing on its fiscal “irresponsibility”. When there is apparently such a strong consensus in financial markets it is invariably wrong.

The most famous example of the “Play Extempore” in Elizabethan theatre is the Great Tavern Scene in Henry IV Part 1, where Falstaff and then Prince Hal, with faux amateur dramatic spontaneity, assume the role of King Henry lecturing his wayward son. Prince Hal, who had to date shared a life of drunkenness and debauchery with Falstaff, claims he will cast off the genial Sir Jack to assume a more virtuous life as King. If Jack Falstaff is inflation – self-indulgent and hedonistic – Prince Hal is Fed Chairman Powell, who after a life of notoriety as the world record money printer, has recently promised “unconditional” “commitment to restoring price stability.”