(From the article): "The (EU) economy shrank 9.9% last year, more than twice the figure for 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, the Office for National Statistics said Friday."
Is this the start of an international financial collapse ?
Now combine that with the current U.S. administrations subsidy of incentivizing the unemployed,
can our U.S. economy continue much longer without inflation/ deflation/ stagnation ?
I think it will be a combination of inflation, deflation and stagnation.
Another major elephant in the room is worldwide agricultural shortfalls. China is buying up everything they can get their hands on while countries such as Russia have slammed shut grain exports with high tariffs.
The Department of Agriculture's estimates are as corrupted as every other facet of the current DC swamp. The inflated harvest numbers have resulted in record exports at the expense of domestic consumption.
A further worsening of this situation will be evident prior to planting because of fertilizer shortfalls this year. Many smaller farmers that have survived two years of no plant and or no harvest will not make it in 2021.
An under appreciated result of mono crop failures are the secondary product shortages for
silage animal feed. I predict we'll see a drop in price (sell off) of meat before a steep increase. It will take many years to bring ruminant animal populations back to pre-plague levels.