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MP3 One Seg­ment
RealAu­dio
NB: This RealAu­dio stream con­tains FTRs 266 and 267 in sequence. Each is a 30-minute broad­cast.

1. Con­tin­u­ing a line of analy­sis pur­sued for sev­er­al years, this pro­gram ana­lyzes both the Euro­pean Union and the Euro­pean Mon­e­tary Union as vehi­cles for the advance­ment of Ger­man cor­po­rate and polit­i­cal hege­mo­ny. The broad­cast begins with dis­cus­sion of an EU con­fer­ence in Nice (France) in Decem­ber of 2000. The con­fer­ence was described as “revers­ing the lega­cy of Sec­ond World War con­fer­ences at Tehran and Yal­ta.” (“EU Aim­ing to Heal Old Divi­sions” by Peter Nor­man; Finan­cial Times; 12/7/2000; p. 16.)

2. In that con­text, Ger­man Chan­cel­lor Ger­hard Schroder not­ed that “there is no bet­ter place than War­saw to appeal to my col­leagues in Nice to show courage and think togeth­er about the his­toric chal­lenge of unit­ing Europe and bring­ing into the Euro­pean Union the nations of cen­tral and east­ern Europe and the Baltic states.” (Idem.)

3. Schroder was vis­it­ing War­saw at the time. (Ger­many began World War II by invad­ing Poland.) A paper leaked to the Lon­don Times set forth details of the pro­posed enlarge­ment of the EU which some observers felt would fur­ther sub­ju­gate the mem­ber states of the EU. (“Secret Plan for EU Super­state” by Mar­tin Fletch­er and Philip Web­ster; Times of Lon­don; 12/6/2000.)

4. The changes made at the Nice con­fer­ence did, indeed, expand Berlin’s pow­er with­in the EU. (“Pow­er Bal­ance Swings in Favor of Berlin” by Haig Simon­ian; Finan­cial Times; 12/12/2000; p. 2.)

5. Among the changes that were effect­ed at the Nice con­fer­ence was an enlarge­ment of Ger­many’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. (Idem.)

6. At the same time that Ger­many’s pow­er with­in the EU was being expand­ed, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment passed leg­is­la­tion that would pre­vent for­eign cor­po­ra­tions from effect­ing hos­tile takeovers of Euro­pean cor­po­ra­tions. (“Euro­pean Firms Get ‘Poi­son Pill’ ” by Paul Meller [New York Times]; San Jose Mer­cury News; 12/14/2000; p. 4B.) This leg­is­la­tion could enhance the abil­i­ty of Ger­man cor­po­ra­tions to acquire Amer­i­can com­pa­nies, while pre­vent­ing Amer­i­can cor­po­ra­tions from buy­ing Ger­man cor­po­ra­tions.

7. Next, the pro­gram notes the extent to which cor­po­rate Ger­many is a her­met­i­cal­ly sealed, inces­tu­ous sys­tem, large­ly inac­ces­si­ble to for­eign cor­po­rate pen­e­tra­tion. (“New Tax Law Will Trans­form Ger­many Inc.” by Christo­pher Rhoads; Wall Street Jour­nal; 7/17/2000; pp. A29-30.) As not­ed in past broad­casts, con­trol over the Ger­man econ­o­my is wield­ed by the remark­able and dead­ly Bor­mann orga­ni­za­tion.