Why do you think Russia has the upper hand? They have a fraction...

Why do you think Russia has the upper hand? They have a fraction of the GDP of the west. Sure they have oil, but oil can can come from many places. The free market will adapt; it may take 5 years, but if russia ceased to exist the world would be just fine. China or the US disappearing would be far more catastrophic, but even so the world could adapt.

You hear about the problems in the West because the West allows journalists to report problems. However terrible it gets in Russia, its turning into the USSR again-- all is well, all is quiet from the outside. But the core is rotting away.

The West benefits from Russian brain drain. software developers, the smart people, the scientists, they are getting out of there if they have mobility. The farmers of the united states benefit from reduced competition. The only thing russia has, for a while, is energy supply. Current US gasoline usage is down 10% vs last year-- despite gasoline being the model inelastic product, it is still somewhat flexible.

Germany and the rest of the EU is in for a hard winter. Yeah. The USA is literally burning away LNG right now because we had no viable market to sell it-- literally burning it off of the oil wells. We have so much LNG. It will take a couple of years to reconfigure the supply lines to hit the EU, but we will survive. Its not like they are Moria, like they have the only supply of mithril in the entire world!

It will take time, but we will adapt. Id much rather be on the side of the US in any war. Our industry and ingenuity will outlast anyone, for now anyway. Only china could really hurt us.

Agreed on your points on TLG. This whole fiasco is just good news for Talga. High oil prices means Synthetic graphite is more expensive to produce. We win.