[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [marxmail] And another casualty of the invasion of Ukraine, neon

[C. G. Estabrook]

‘The lamps are going out all over … we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime’ --Sir Edward Grey, 3 August 1914. (Grey was speaking to his friend, the journalist John Alfred Spender, editor of the Westminster Gazette, in Grey’s room in the Foreign Office. Looking out from his window, across St. James’ Park, it was dusk and the first of the gas lights along the Mall were being lit. The next day Grey would have to face the Cabinet and to persuade them that the time had now come to declare war on Germany.)

"The military incursion has forced Ukraine’s two leading neon suppliers to suspend operations, a major disruption with global economic consequences. Neon is critically important to semiconductor chip manufacturing, and nearly half of the world’s semiconductor-grade neon originates from these two suppliers, Ingas and Cryoin, Reuters notes.”

[Neon prices saw a 600% price increase during Russia’s last conflict with Ukraine in 2014.]

https://gizmodo.com/neon-production-for-chips-halved-by-war-in-ukraine-1848641833
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-ukraine-halts-half-worlds-neon-output-chips-clouding-outlook-2022-03-11/

So, it's probably best not to bet on capitalist economies reaching any sense of normalcy (for a capitalist economy that is) this year.