It is pretty remarkable when considering that the United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world despite being one of the youngest. There are many reasons behind this, but a big accelerator was the World Wars in the previous century.
These wrecked European countries in terms of lives lost and wealth destruction. It also revealed America's major strategic advantage - being thousands of miles and an ocean away from Europe.
From the late 1990s to this year, Europe had been relatively peaceful for the first time since possibly the Roman Empire. Of course, this changed with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While the war has been contained, there is considerable collateral damage with soaring food and energy prices. And, this is a consequence that is affecting Americans whether it's in their heating, electricity, or the prices they pay at the pump.
But so far, we have been insulated from the worst effects. During periods of heavy load on the electrical grid which tends to happen in periods of extreme heat and cold, prices have soared, forcing the government to limit power consumption of industrial companies so households have sufficient energy. This is exacerbated by the decision of many European countries to retire their nuclear power plants, leading to more reliance on Russian energy.
Just like the war has revealed this vulnerability for Europe, this crisis could reveal the U.S.' vulnerability - an aging energy grid that hasn't been meaningfully upgraded in decades. We've seen some of the issues with blackouts in Texas and other parts of the country due to extreme heat. All of these are local issues but do indicate systemic issues that could cause major problems in a crisis.
Think about how the poor infrastructure of New York City or New Orleans only became clear after Hurricane Sandy and Katrina. So far, this summer has been very mild which has been a positive. However, hurricane season is coming, and there are reports that winter will be unusually cold.
Just like Europe, the U.S. is in the middle of a transition to clean energy. However, this is another vulnerability as it means that companies are not willing to invest in fossil fuel production given this assumption. But, alternative energy is simply not meaningful enough to handle the full load. Therefore, this is a risk that investors (and households) should prepare for.