July 27—The ongoing severe crisis around the supply of Russian natural gas to Europe is underscoring for even the most obtuse that the old ways just don’t work anymore. Many in Europe are scrambling to respond to the crisis; some are even trying to figure out a new way to do things, but by and large they are doing that while refusing to abandon the old axioms that got us into this mess in the first place—the defunct, British system of free trade and globalization which is now in a full-fledged systemic breakdown crisis.
