Rand's fiction received mixed reviews from literary critics. She was sharply critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her, except for Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and classical liberals. Although Rand opposed libertarianism, which she viewed as anarchism, she is often associated with the modern libertarian movement in the United States. Instead, she supported laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system based on recognizing individual rights, including private property rights. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed collectivism, statism, and anarchism. She supported rational and ethical egoism and rejected altruism. Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge she rejected faith and religion. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Hence energy prices are likely to remain high, and a major recession may be just around the corner.Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum February 2, 1905В вЂ“ March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand ( / aЙЄ n/), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. The truth is that Europe needs Russian gas as much as Russia needs hard currency.ДЄt this point, however, I canвЂ™t imagine Europe backtracking on sanctions: doing so would be too humiliating. When you impose sanctions on a country, youвЂ™re supposed to be glad youвЂ™re not receiving its exports вЂ“ that means the sanctions are working. This prompted complaints from European leaders вЂ“ the same leaders who claim they want to stop вЂfunding PutinвЂ™s war machineвЂ™. On Thursday, Russia began reducing gas supplies to Europe (presumably in response to Macron, Scholz and Draghi meeting Zelensky in Kiev). Which means Europe is still вЂfunding Putin warвЂ™s machineвЂ™ вЂ“ only now itвЂ™s paying a fee for the privilege of doing so.ДЄs Phil Pilkington notes, the rhetoric around sanctions вЂњhas completely stopped making even internal logical senseвЂќ. Strangely, Von Der Leyen seems to have ignored her own advice.ДЄnd if you thought that was ironic, India has been importing crude oil from Russia, refining it, and then re-exporting it to Europe at a profit. If we вЂњimmediatelyвЂќ cut off the oil, she said, Putin вЂњwould be able to take the oil that he does not sell to the European Union to the world market, where the prices will increase, and sell it for moreвЂќ. In an interview back in May, EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen explained precisely how energy sanctions could end up backfiring. So not only are sanctions hurting Europe, theyвЂ™re actually helping the WestвЂ™s main geopolitical rival вЂ“ which gets a discount on each barrel of oil it imports. In addition, Russia has easily found alternative buyers for its energy вЂ“ notably India and China. This is mainly due to the rising price of oil, which has more than offset lower export volumes. Meanwhile, RussiaвЂ™s oil revenues have actually risen. In Britain, where inflation is about equal to the European average, there are already warnings of possible blackouts this winter.

As the Economist notes, the вЂњroot causeвЂќ of EuropeвЂ™s inflation is вЂњa severe energy-price shockвЂќ. And while this trend began before RussiaвЂ™s invasion of Ukraine, it has certainly been exacerbated by sanctions. Inflation in the EU is running at 9% вЂ“ the highest on record. However, Europe went ahead with sanctions, and since February there has been a dramatic decline in Russian oil imports.

(The Saudis have been bombing Yemen for the last seven years.) Not only that, but alternative sources вЂ“ like Saudi Arabia вЂ“ are not obviously more вЂmoralвЂ™ than Russia. After all, cheap energy is essential to the running of the economy, and Russia was EuropeвЂ™s single biggest source.

For Europe, the merits of sanctioning Russian energy were always questionable.

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