Dave Emory’s entire lifetime of work is available on a flash drive that can be obtained here. (The flash drive includes the anti-fascist books available on this site.)
COMMENT: As “Europa Germanica” takes form and additional substance, the reality of what Germany is doing is being recognized by a growing number of analysts.
This is not to say that they are conversant with the fundamental realities discussed here–the Bormann capital network, the program theorized by Friedrich List, the Third Reich’s manifestation of List’s theories, the Third Reich’s plans to go underground, the Western Allies’ negation of the de-Nazification edict for postwar Germany, the Webb-Pomerene Act and the World Commerce Corporation, the theories of Carl von Clausewitz–but they are grasping the extent to which the German political and economic agenda is bad for business.
German’s power elite certainly does not believe in collective ownership of the means of production–they believe in German control of the means of production. Once termed “National Socialism,” it might be labeled “monopoly (or “cartel”) imperialism.”
Their adherence to the brutal, thoroughly discredited “austerity” doctrine should be seen as what it is–waging war “by other means,” as von Clausewitz put it. The post below has noted that: “It is the occupation of Poland in a very real sense just, accomplished without tanks or bloodshed as money is used instead of armaments to dominate and control a nation.”
To those who might view this as an extreme analysis, recall that the fascist LAOS party was installed in late 2011 as part of the provisional government in Greece, installed by “the troika” (read Germany) with no input whatsoever from the Greek people.
As noted in the remarkable piece reproduced in its entirety below, the program Deutschland is imposing on Europe undermines the security of any wealth invested in the afflicted nations. Anyone or anything foolish enough to invest in Europe should be prepared to have their assets appropriated and/or negated at some point.
In addition, one should not lose sight of the fact that the “Final Solution to the Greek and Cypriot Crises” will, like previous, superficial steps to resolve the crisis, keep the Euro weak, benefiting Germany’s export-driven economy.
One wonders how much exposure U.S. banks have to European financial institutions. If the fears of a contagion of bank runs and capital flight destroys banks in the weaker Eurozone countries, how will that affect American lenders?
The “Europa Germanica” is deliberate and, to any honest analyst familiar with the historical record, preconceived.
The post below also notes the relative economic weakness of Germany itself. Suffice it to say that most Germans have not shared in the largesse of the past decade, although they have been spared the trauma visited upon other European citizens. They are exceedingly vulnerable to the propaganda of their own media establishment.
Kudos to “SWAMP” for researching this one for us. The post is reproduced in its entirety here, with emphasis added.
“The Mindset” by Mark J. Grant [Author of Out of the Box] and Tyler Durden; Zero Hedge; 3/26/2013.
EXCERPT: In all of the tortuous moments that have taken place with the European Union the one thing that has become apparent is a radical change of mindset. In the beginning there was a kind of democratic viewpoint. All nations had a voice and while some were louder than others; all were heard. This is no longer the case.
There is but one mindset now and it is decidedly German. It is not that this is good or bad or even someplace in between. That is not the real issue. The crux of the matter is that not all of the people in the EU are Germans and so they are not used to being treated in the German fashion, they do not live their lives like Germans and, quite importantly, they do not wish to be Germans.
There is the problem.
The Germans will do what is necessary to accomplish their goals. There is nothing inherently bad or evil about this but it is taking its toll on many nations in Europe. In the case of Greece they went back and retroactively changed the covenants of the bond contract. They did not actually admit this of course and they called it other names but that is what they forced on Greece. In doing so they got the bond holders to shoulder a good deal of the expense of the bailout of Greece. You can say, “Right,” you can say, “Wrong,” but that is what they did. They accomplished their goal.
Always remember that the Germans are under severe financial pressure. They are still paying the bill for the East Germans. They support Target2 and their economy is just $3.6 trillion which is a fraction of the entire Eurozone. They are trying to support a house with less than desirable supports.
Then we come to Cyprus and they make it complicated and put one bank with another bank and take money from depositors and call it a “Tax” and say that people and institutions are liable for where they keep their money when it is more than 100M Euros. All true of course but they do not allow for any “Rule of Law” or “Due Process” by the judicial system but just mandate that the money will be used to help pay Europe for a loan to the sovereign government. Then they also tagged senior bond holders reversing their position of the last years so now, so that it can now be said with accuracy; everyone is at risk. Consequently they have to pay less and they have accomplished several goals which are to punish a “Casino Economy,” to put Cyprus in the same position as Greece, which is not only bankrupt but a ward of the European Union, and finally to insist, by the use of money, that Cyprus succumbs to the German demands. Note that CDS in Europe (Markit iTraxx Financial Index) has jumped 22% in just one week.
It is the occupation of Poland in a very real sense just accomplished without tanks or bloodshed as money is used instead of armaments to dominate and control a nation. Politically you may “Hiss” or you may “Applaud” but there are consequences here for investors that must be understood.
First and foremost is that they will not stop. Nothing will be allowed to get in their way. It can be senior bond holders one day, bank depositors the next, the dismantling of some Parliament on the day after that, a wealth tax on corporations on Thursday, the disallowance of dividends on Friday; with every announcement to come on Saturday evening. The next week can be a cap on bank bonuses, a demand that the cap on bank bonus savings be returned to the State, a financial transaction tax that gets expanded and taxes all bond coupons and the list goes on. What might be, could be, and nothing, absolutely nothing, will be allowed between Germany and her desire to control all of Europe.
I do not speak of motivation here. I am not bashing Germany in the furtherance of their desires. That is a useless and unnecessary exercise. However, what is profoundly necessary, if you invest in Europe, is to understand the risks that you are taking. If you place money in securities on the Continent then what is yours is theirs when they want it. I suggest you clearly understand that proposition and allow for that occurrence.
You no longer have any excuse after Greece and Cyprus. Everything may be called “one-off” but nothing is “one-off” as Germany expands its power wherever they can and by any means necessary. If you believe the propaganda, if you believe what you are told every day by the Press then I can virtually assure you that you will suffer dire consequences at some point and you will now have no one to blame but yourself.
There is also one “unintended consequence” of Cyprus and Greece. No one is going to invest in the local banks. Keeping money in the German banks, the Swiss banks or maybe even the French banks may go on but the local banks in each country are finished. In a clever move, the problems with Greece and Cyprus will drive the money from the local banking institutions in the troubled countries. Watch for capital flights in Spain, Portugal and Italy as their banks will be found unsafe and with good reason.
It is unknown, as of yet, if Germany can win this game. What can be said though is that, nation or investor, you will put yourself at peril by getting in their way. The current risks, in my opinion, are dramatically more than imagined by many or generally thought to be the case. There is no more investing in Europe just gambling and speculating and suffering the consequence of either. Anything can be changed, anything can be modified, and when the forfeiture of people’s savings is trumpeted as a “Tax” then even the English language has lost some of its meaning.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” has never had such important consequences as it does now in the European arena of the Great Game.
It looks like some of Dijsselbloem’s cohorts in Brussels are somewhat miffed at him for revealing another part of that “mindset”: that upcoming 700 billion euro “European Stability Mechanism” (ESM) fund that’s supposed to open next year might never be used regardless of the circumstances:
Recall that Ireland’s 85 billion euro “bailout” in 2010 came in the form of austerity mandates and an 85 billion euro loan(it’s the “bailout” gift that keeps on giving). All that that loaned money went to pay back the 85 billion euros in previous loans Ireland’s government had to take out from November 2008 (when the government nationalized all the private debt of their three largest banks) until the “bailout” in 2010. Those loans went to pay back mostly German and French banks that fueled the real estate bubble in the first place. So the 2010 “bailout” was really just a loan extension that would allow Ireland to pay back it’s previous 2008–2010 loans from the ECB/IMF/EU. That’s why Ireland could have an 85 billion euro “bailout” whle still needing its banks to be recapitalized.
Continuing...
It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens with Ireland’s bank recapitalization ambitions. Back in February, the recapitalization of Ireland’s nationalized banks via the ESM appeared to look something like this:
Now, presumably, recapitalization looks something like like this:
Interesting indeed. At least Moody’s doesn’t seem to care about whether or not the ESM recapitalizes Ireland or not...“in the short term” so that’s a plus. One might even say Moody’s is positively negative on Ireland’s future financial prospects:
The poor markets. Diabolically confusing mindsets can be difficult to deal with.
Here’s another “Family” harboring dark and secretive economic paradigms and this one has kids too...someone needs to call Child Protective Services:
Some notes for Child Protective Services on this case: The parent, Mutti, insists that she is justified in beating her children because such a program of regular corporal punishment helped her overcome her own “sickness” last decade. We could be looking at a history of abuse in the family. Mutti also appears to be unable to discern the vast differences in the degree of beatings she received (it was more like a spanking) and the beatings she is issuing to her current children (signs of abuse are seen all over the body and permanent scarring is certain). Mutti cannot recognize that much of the “misbehavior” she is beating her children over is due to stresses caused by her prior beatings of the children. Her attempts to hold the family together are clearly what is breaking it apart but she has yet to acknowledge this reality. A mental health evaluation of Mutti by Child Protective Services is recommended. We may be dealing with some form of unaddressed mental sickness.
This also helps explain the austerity mindset: As is generally the case in the US, if you’re an austerity skeptic in the EU these days, the policy-making establishment is, by default, skeptical of you and anything you say no matter what:
Yelling “the Emperor has no clothes” does little good when you’re surrounded by the blind, deaf, and dumb.
The Bundesbank recently put out a study purporting to show that Germans and Austrians were much poorer, on average, than their Spanish and Italian counterparts. Classy:
With Germany’s election season heating up, it worth keeping in mind that Merkel got extremely lucky when it comes to her main SPD opponent. Not only is Peer Steinbruck Merkel’s own former Finance Minister he’s also apparently a gaffe-prone with an out-of-touch rich-guy flair. Yep, Merkel it running against the SPD’s version of Mitt Romney. Europe is so screwed. Peerhic Victory here we come:
One of the prevailing assumptions in the eurozone crisis is that Berlin’s insistence on austerity and punitive “bailout” terms will subside once the fall elections in Germany are out of the way. It will be interesting to see if that prediction is true following a right-wing electoral sweep by the most pro-austerity parties:
Paul Krugman makes an important point in his latest column that’s critical when trying to understand the forces at work in the eurozone crisis: Even though the eurozone isn’t technically on the gold standard, it’s effectively run as if it that’s the case. Austerity policies mimic the kind of deflationary traps associated with gold standards: fiscal or monetary stimulus is simply much less of an option when a gold standard is in place OR when there’s a “troika” that’s mandating austerity. And it doesn’t really matter if a gold standard or austerity ends up ruining the economy because the benefits for imposing a gold standard or austerity aren’t really about economic/financial benefits. They’re about psychological benefits...people will feel better about the overall “system” if they confident that no one is getting any “free money”...especially the “moochers”. Confidence that eurozone leaders (in Berlin) will impose pain on “moocher” nations is intended to be sold as if it’s good as gold. And austerity is, indeed, effectively as good as a gold standard when it comes to being as bad as a gold standard can be for the economy. But that doesn’t seem to matter. Gold is shiny and people just like shiny objects. Similarly, austerity is pain, and a large swathe of humanity just seems to enjoy inflicting pain on each other. Golden austerity, it seems, is here to stay:
One of Merkel’s CSU allies recently said that the Cyprus bailout showed what could be accomplished when the remaining triple‑A rating countries all band together in the face of “problem children” like France and Italy. Unfortunately, this probably isn’t the kind of rhetoric that will help forge a healthy and viable vision of European “solidarity” as the continent continues to forge a common future. The sentiments were certainly an expression of solidarity, just not the helpful kind:
With enough selective solidarity, austerity = stability. Apparently.
Most “lost decades” aren’t planned in advance:
LOL, so Weidmann rules out the utility of any further monetary action to help the ailing eurozone economies, instead insisting that governments take the lead in stimulating growth. But the only growth stimulus he approves of is further austerity. Yeah, a decade might be optimistic:
Ha! So we have European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso claiming that we know that austerity was the correct policy, but the time has come to retire austerity anyways because it needs popular support to really work and for some strange reason the proles can’t accept austerity’s grace gracefully. After you take ten steps back, maybe it’s time to stumble forward for a bit:
At the same time, prominant austerity-advocating economists are declaring that we don’t know that austerity is the best approach anymore because economies have behaved so differently from what the austerity-advocates expected that we should question what, if anything, we know about macroeconomics at all. Lol, yeah, knowledge sure is a mystery.
As we’re learning, they’re not exactly “obligations”. More like helpful suggestions:
Germany’s Finance Minister also had some suggestions to EU leaders. Not all suggestions are helpful:
We’re all in this
together!separately!The proposed banking union has always looked rather ominous simply because it’s always had a “to-be-decided” structure coupled with a mandate that any joint deposit insurance regime would come at the price of setting up an EU-wide national budget oversight regime. And now that the “fiscal compact” treaty that provides the demanded “oversight” (loss of sovereignty) has been put into place we’re finding that the “joint deposit liabilities” is no longer desired by Berlin. So the EU is getting the damaging “fiscal compact” treaty that’s going to ensure mindless austerity for years to come but without any sort of shared risk via a joint deposit regime. Even though a joint deposit regime would probably do more do stabilize the EU financial markets than anything else at this point. I guess the crisis must be over.
Well look at that, the US deficit is ‘mysteriously’ shrinking on its own despite the lack of any massive ‘Grand-Bargain’ austerity/privatization/deregulation scheme:
Hooray!This is a complete disaster! The opportunity costs alone will be enormous:Note to self: goals of present-day elites appear to be only achievable through the brutal application of shock-doctrine tactics.
Note to self: need new elites.
I get why a town might be desperate enough to pull a stunt like this, but didn’t anyone bother to ask the G8 leaders themselves if they wanted to be shielded from the grim realities of a global economic downturn? After all, these are world leaders we’re talking about here. Reveling in the impoverishment of the masses while they give happy-talk speeches is sort of their purpose in life. Maybe they wanted to see the devastation in the local economy. It was probably going to be a highlight of the trip for them. Didn’t anyone think of that?
Austerity: the gift that keeps on giving:
Didn’t the author get the message? If someone tells you that the Greek economy fell because of giant public-sector salaries you don’t correct them with facts. Instead, you feed into their misperceptions and just keep pushing the wrong solutions. It’s the right thing to do.