Subsidies are not well seen. They are considered as a method by which state funds get diverted to keep inefficient operations going while serving the interests of the few at the expense of the common good. In the EU, banks of officials are at work all the time to hunt down subsidies which, it is claimed, undermine the balanced development of the internal market.

True: as a political and economic tool, subsidies can lead to undesireable dead-ends. They can evade state controls while creating political lobbies powerful enough to blackmail governments.

However, does it really make sense to allow everything to function only according to free market rules? Some productive activities which are vital for the greater good of a community would, if run under market rules, either become the monopoly of a privileged minority or non-viable, when they would just disappear.

Moreover, subsidies can serve to give momentum to initatives that are necessary and desireable, so that over time, they could be run according to “normal” commercial cirteria.

Even so, it still remains the case that subsidies need to be treated with caution.

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PRICE RISES

Right across Europe, price rises have become the leading issue of concern, even topping Covid-19. This has not been the case for quite a while. Initially, when prices started to pick up, there was a reluctance by one and all to acknowledge that truly, the scenario was changing. The political and economic establishment decreed with full confidence that the surge in inflation would be temporary.

It had been triggered by the havoc that Covid-19 caused (so they said) when it disrupted the outturn of products and product parts in a number of places worldwide, and also disrupted their distribution from continent to continent. So long as overall demand for goods and services  did not  drop suddenly (and nothing showed this would happen), there was little to no risk that economies would decline drastically and face a crisis, and even less risk inflation.

It does not seem like this was a correct forecast. 

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LIBYA

The Libya problem is still with us. Or better stay, it still is with the people of that country. The elections that were due to be held in December remain pending... if not worse. Political instability and insecurity have continued to sap the foundations of the Libyan nation and to threaten its integrity.

It should be clear that efforts made in past years to set up a framework within which to rebuild what got broken during the civil war, have not been successful. So the question is: has the time not come for a different peace option to be tried?

A problem in all this has been the interference of outside powers in the Libyan situation. Start with the British and the French, and on to the games played by Egyptians, Turks, Gulf Arabs, Americans and Russians. All with their own projects by which to keep in place the ties that anchored them to Libya. Before these ties are loosened, the interest of the Libyan people cannot be safeguarded. Unfortunately despite all that is said, the powers that have some stake in Libya will first of all give priority to enhancing such stake, rather than give it up.