The four new scourges — inflation, food shortages, fuel poverty and the fear of escalating war — are now spreading like the four horsemen of the apocalypse to almost every corner of the planet.
Behind them lie a tangle of causes, of which impossibly high energy prices — born of a staggering lack of political preparedness — are certainly one. But this now combines with Russia’s brutal Ukraine invasion, widespread supply chain interruptions and general paralyzing uncertainty about what is going to happen next — for instance, if Russian President Vladimir Putin impatiently uses a nuclear weapon to crush the Ukrainians — and where it might lead.
Confounded by all these new dangers, and unable to see any immediate solutions, or even alleviations, most governments around the world have resorted to reassuring statements about the longer term and how measures will be taken — in due course — to see it never all happens again.