Spitfire List Web site and blog of anti-fascist researcher and radio personality Dave Emory.
The tag 'eurozone crisis' is associated with 27 posts.

The Great Olive Oil Conspiracy

As one mem­ber of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment observed, wryly, “Is it April 1st?” The EU (read “Ger­many”) has passed a ban on open con­tain­ers of olive oil that are a com­mon fix­ture of qual­ity restau­rants in Europe. This will almost cer­tainly hurt small pro­duc­ers in Por­tu­gal, Spain, Italy and Greece–four of the afflicted economies of the eurozone.


How Austerity Kills (The Continuation of War by Other Means, Part 2)

In past posts, we’ve ana­lyzed the “aus­ter­ity” being imposed by Ger­many on the poorer coun­tries of Europe against the back­ground of the the­o­ries of Pruss­ian mil­i­tary the­o­reti­cian Carl von Clause­witz. A recent op-ed piece in the New York Times illus­trates this analy­sis very clearly.


Merkel: France is Europe’s “Biggest Problem Child” (Not with a Bang but a Whimper, Part 2)

Pre­vi­ously, we have noted how the euro­zone cri­sis is pre­cip­i­tat­ing a stun­ning, unprece­dented dis­so­lu­tion of national sov­er­eignty. With social­ist Fran­cois Hol­lande hav­ing called for more “stim­u­lus” in response to the continent’s austerity-driven, German-mandated depres­sion, the French leader is in the crosshairs.


“Too Big to Fail” (Uber Alles): The EMU and German Economic Imperialism

Pre-conceived Ger­man eco­nomic poli­cies are bear­ing long-desired fruit. Unable to find work due to German-dictated “aus­ter­ity,” skilled work­ers from Greece and Spain are pro­vid­ing “labor bat­tal­ions” for Ger­many. The dev­as­tat­ing effects of that same “aus­ter­ity” is mak­ing indus­trial con­cerns in Greece and Spain ripe for Ger­man cor­po­rate takeover.


Is Germany Using North Korea to Destabilize Asia and the US? (One Heckuva Conspiracy Theory)

TIMELINE–November, 2012: Germany’s for­eign min­is­ter encour­ages the U.S. to embrace both a “Trans-Atlantic” free trade pact and German-dictated “aus­ter­ity.” Jan­u­ary, 2013: Fol­low­ing Obama’s pivot to Asia, Ger­man lawyers and econ­o­mists decamp to North Korea, in the wake of a her­alded “eco­nomic and polit­i­cal open­ing to South Korea and the West.” Early spring, 2013: the Hitler-influenced Asian nation’s leader does just the opposite.


Not with a Bang, but a Whimper . . . .

In Europe, the nation-state is being forced into obso­les­cence, and there is lit­tle dis­cus­sion of this stag­ger­ing devel­op­ment. Angela Merkel has for­mally stated that EU mem­bers must be ready to sur­ren­der sov­er­eignty on fis­cal mat­ters.
Europol, its police force, has suc­cess­fully taken a num­ber of steps that many would see as intru­sive, with lit­tle or no real appli­ca­tion to law enforcement.


Germany’s STERN and Tagesspiegel: Germany Owes Greece Billions of Euros from WWII (Greek Citizenry, Political Parties Agree)

For years, we’ve been cov­er­ing the piv­otal issue of World War II flight cap­i­tal, now on the front burner. Germany’s STERN dis­cusses it. So does Tagesspiegel. 8 of 10 Greeks favor Ger­many pay­ing their WWII debt. So do that country’s polit­i­cal par­ties. Say­ing that the debt has been paid, Ger­many con­tin­ues to dis­sem­ble about the issue.


Going for the Gold in Cyprus (All that Glitters Is not . . . “Oh, Never Mind,” Part 2)

Revers­ing field time and again, the EMU’s not-so-wise men (and women) are destroy­ing busi­ness con­fi­dence on the part of those who might be inclined to invest in the indus­trial or finan­cial sec­tors of the eurozone’s trou­bled economies. It appears that 75% of Cyprus’ gold reserves are going to be appro­pri­ated as part of the “set­tle­ment.” Fur­ther­more, this appar­ently comes as news to the Cypriot offi­cials han­dling the sit­u­a­tion for that unfor­tu­nate country.


Von Clausewitz and the Politics of Debt: German War Reparations Owed Greece Re-Emerges as “Time Bomb”

Greece’s eco­nomic prob­lems have been exac­er­bated by Germany’s fail­ure to com­pen­sate Greece for dam­age done dur­ing the occu­pa­tion of World War II. Ele­ments within the Greek gov­ern­ment have com­piled a report doc­u­ment­ing the extent of the war com­pen­sa­tion owed Greece. Ger­many itself is the great­est debt trans­gres­sor of all. Its wartime pol­icy is inex­tri­ca­bly linked with its cur­rent political/economic posturing.


Deutsche Bank and the Financial Meltdown

It is impor­tant to under­stand that Ger­man banks are any­thing but blame­less in the Euro­pean finan­cial cri­sis. Deutsche Bank car­ried a large amount of bad debt on its books and lied about it in order to fool investors. In 2007, the Fed­eral Reserve had to help bailout Deutsche Bank. The U.S. sued Deutsche Bank over its manip­u­la­tion of the Amer­i­can mort­gage market.