You read that right: the largest European bank predicted that a growing number of German households will be using firewood for heating! Maybe allowing a petulant Scandinavian teenager to set the country's energy policy was not the brightest idea after all.

So fast forwarding to today, when we find that European energy forward prices one year from today are now at staggering, record levels, implying one would need to part with at least an extra kidney to keep warm in the next year...

... it is no surprise that Deutsche Bank's morbid forecast is gradually coming true and as Bloomberg's Javier Blas shows in his "chart of the day", that google searches for fireword ("Brennholz") have exploded in the past couple of months now that electricity is no longer a staple, but a luxury few can afford.

At this rate, with thousands of frozen casualties seemingly inevitable this winter...

... perhaps Europe will finally learn its lesson that listening to petulant Scandinavian teenagers for energy policy, while glorious for virtue signaling, is also as dumb as it gets. Then again, it is Europe...