COMMENT: To come to understand what is taking place in Europe, it is essential to understand the military philosophy of Prussian military theoretician Karl von Clausewitz. In All Honorable Men, James Stewart Martin highlighted an important aspect of von Clausewitz’s philosophy, that war and diplomacy are two sides of the same coin. When diplomacy is no longer effective, the policy goal is pursued through the use of armed force. When war and military power have reached the limits of their effectiveness, diplomacy continues the pursuit of the goal.
Generations of Germans have understood this and incorporated that concept into the methodology of German power structure.
A primary focus of this website is, of course, the Bormann capital network, termed by one banking professional “the largest concentration of money power under a single authority in history.”
Having plundered, pooled and secreted away the liquid wealth of Europe, the network was in excellent position to realize the von Clausewitz gambit of the post-war, explained below.
Beyond that, the Bormann capital network is more than just the fruit of World War II plunder. The organization’s vast wealth derives from corporate power and the business and political brokers that administer that influence. Heavily invested in major corporations (especially American “blue chip” corporations) the group can exert great pressure with little effort.
Of course, when that doesn’t work, the Underground Reich will not hesitate to use deadly force.
19th Century pan-German theoretician Friedrich List foresaw a Germany economically astride Europe as a vehicle for world domination. The Underground Reich has realized the Nazi goal, formalized through the Federal Republic.
. . . . The end of battle in 1945 had signaled the start of a new kind of war–a post-war. Germany’s classical military theorist, von Clausewitz, is famous for having declared that “war is the continuation of diplomacy by other means.” In dealing with a Germany which had gone to school with von Clausewitz for generations, we knew that, conversely, a post-war is the continuation of war by other means. Since Bismarck, wars and post-wars have formed a continuous series, changing the quality of the events only slightly from year to year, with no such thing as a clear distinction between heat of battle and calm of peace. This post-war of the German occupation was different from the “cold war” between the United States and Russia, which broke out at about the same time. The latter complicated the diagnosis, like a man getting typhoid fever and pneumonia at the same time. . . .
COMMENT: In analyzing the debacle of the eurozone crisis and the tragedy of Greece, it is worth noting that unfortunate country is essentially being systematically occupied, economically colonized and enslaved using the von Clausewitz concept of “other means.”
We’ve seen that the provisional Greek “austerity” government includes the Greek neo-Nazi LAOS party, installed with no input whatsoever from the population of “the cradle of democracy.”
“Europe Adrift (1)”; german-foreign-policy.com; 12/21/2011.
. . . Recently, a rightwing extremist party was again made a direct coalition partner in a country’s government — in Greece. The newly installed transitional government — imposed under the supervision of Berlin and Brussels — includes not only the conservative and social democratic parties but also the LAOS Party (Laikós Orthódoxos Synagermés, “Orthodox People’s Alarm”). The LAOS Party musters also partisans of the former military dictatorship and is known for its racist and anti-Semitic invectives. Giorgos Karatzaferis, LAOS Party Chairperson, is quoted to have proclaimed that he is proud “not to be Jewish, homosexual and communist,” which “only few can claim.”[5] He is said to have called out to the Israeli ambassador: “Jew ambassador, watch out where you tread! Let’s discuss the Holocaust, let’s talk about all the fairy tales about Auschwitz and Dachau.”[6] Makis Voridis, a member of the LAOS Party and minister of transportation in the Greek government, imposed by Berlin and Brussels, began his political career as the leader of a youth organization of the party presided over by Georgios Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos had been the military commander of the junta. He founded that party after he had been released from prison, in the aftermath of the overthrow of his dictatorship. The German government evidently considers the LAOS Party helpful for implementing its austerity dictate. . . .
COMMENT: As Greece is being subjected to systematic economic exploitation and looting, with no effective participation by the Greek citizenry, it is important to remember that their problems stem, in part, from the long term German policy of avoiding reparations for the wealth they stole during their occupation of Greece.
The purloined Greek capital, like that of many other Nazi victims, has not been repaid.
Following a decision made in August of 1944, the Third Reich transferred its vast assets and secreted the wealth into 750 front companies in neutral countries, where it formed the foundation of the Bormann network. That network, in turn, administers “corporate Germany”–the German “core corporations” and their associated financial institutions.
It is also worth noting that the Nazis loss on the battlefield has been reversed during the postwar. Germany lost the war, but won the postwar.
An important, incisive article from german-foreign-policy.com (which feeds along the bottom of the front page of this website) notes the extent of the economic damage done to Greece during both World War II and the post-war, to date.
Note the skilled, decades-long maneuvering by Germany to circumvent repaying wealth looted from Greece and other nations.
“Protectorate-Like”; german-foreign-policy.com; 2/13/2012.
Last night, under strong popular protests, the Greek parliament accepted the latest “austerity package,” that the German government had promoted in the form of an ultimatum. This “austerity package” will lead to a 20 percent cut in private revenue and the minimum wage, therefore also in the public sector wages, which are dependent on the minimum wage. One hundred fifty thousand government employees will be laid off. Criticism of Berlin has become sharper because of its efforts to transform Athens into a de facto EU finance protectorate, using so-called austerity commissioners. Demonstrators burned German flags; Greek parliamentarians have announced an initiative to remind that German World War II reparations are still outstanding. Since 1945, the Federal Republic of Germany has consistently refused not only to pay reparations, but also Nazi debts, even those undisputed by the German Reichsbank at the end of the war. These would amount to more than three billion Euros today. But, the debate continues in the German capital about the suspension of democracy in Greece.
Protests against Berlin
Berlin’s brutal austerity dictate and the German media’s on-going rabble-rousing anti-Greek (“bankrupt Greeks”) propaganda has enflamed Greek protests against Germany for quite some time. Last summer, Greek demonstrators chanted “Germany out of the EU!”, and displayed “Merkel = Nazi” banners at rallies. EU flags with a swastika in the center were occasionally seen. The memory that this is not the first time that Berlin has dictated Athens’s policies, has recently been accompanied by references to Nazi rule in occupied Europe. Last week demonstrators outside of the Greek parliamentary building again chanted “Nazis Out!” while burning a German flag. Trade unionists also occupied the Athenian offices used by the German Horst Reichenbach and his “task force Greece,” monitoring Athens’s austerity measures, in the name of the EU Commission. These protests against Berlin’s hegemonic dictate are defamed in the German media simply as “anti-German propaganda.”
Old Debts
A few days ago, a group of twenty-eight Greek parliamentarians, from various parties, reacted to Berlin’s persistent pressure by tabling a resolution, calling on the parliament to debate Nazi Germany’s plunder of Greece, which has never received indemnities. The indemnities not only refer to reparations in general, but also to the compulsory loans to the Reichsbank’s clearing account. Shortly before the end of World War II, Nazi bankers were still in possession of Greek assets worth 476 million Reichsmark, which has never been repaid by the Federal Republic of Germany. According to experts, this would today amount to 3.4 billion Euros with interests included. Greece is not the only country that has waived Germany’s old Nazi debts without receiving anything in return. As the economist Albrecht Ritschl, who teaches at the London School of Economics, confirmed, Nazi Germany’s unpaid debts to its wartime adversaries would today range between 700 billion and 1.4 trillion Euros with interests included, depending on the method of calculation.[1] This does not even include the reparations for war damages.
Debt Cancelation
Because of the Federal Republic of Germany’s longstanding policy of refusal, even totally indisputable Nazi debts have never been paid. Bonn scored a decisive success in 1953 with the so-called London Debt Agreement, achieving a gigantic debt cancelation, in the framework of which Greece also waived its former occupier’s enormous debts. That agreement permitted the Federal Republic of Germany the expunction of enormous debts, created both before and since World War II. The agreement also stipulated that the question of the payment of Nazi debts and reparations would first be solved with a peace treaty concluded with a “reunited” Germany. [The Federal Republic of] “Germany has been in a very good position ever since, even as other Europeans were forced to endure the burdens of World War II and the consequences of the German occupation,” says the economist Ritschl. This has made the resurgence of the “greatest debt transgressor of the 20th Century,” namely, Germany, possible.[2] . . . .
COMMENT: Just how acute is the situation in Greece? So bad that physical education teachers are excusing children from participating due to the fact that malnutrition prevents them from exercising without becoming dizzy. These children may very well experience long-term effects from their “austere” diet.
This is a textbook example of politics as the continuation of war by “other means”–applied von Clausewitz.
EXCERPT . . . It has been a common secret among PE teachers for some time now that they don’t expect pupils to do PE any more, because many of them are underfed and get dizzy. . . .
COMMENT: The details of the agreement to which the Greeks are being subjected might be politely described as stunning. The country is being used as a vehicle for shoring up weakened European financial institutions!
Earlier today, we learned the first stunner of the Greek “bailout package”, which courtesy of some convoluted transmission mechanisms would result in some, potentially quite many, Greek workers actually paying to retain their jobs: i.e., negative salaries. Now, having looked at the Eurogroup’s statement on the Greek bailout, we find another very creative use of “negative” numbers. And by creative we mean absolutely shocking and scandalous. First, as a reminder, even before the current bailout mechanism was in place, Greece barely saw 20% of any actual funding, with the bulk of the money going to European and Greek banks (of which the former ultimately also ended up funding the ECB and thus European banks). Furthermore, we already know that as part of the latest set of conditions of the second Greek bailout, an’ ‘Escrow Account” would be established: this is simply a means for Greek creditors to have a senior claims over any “bailout” cash that is actually disbursed for things such as, you know, a Greek bailout, where the money actually trickles down where it is most needed — the Greek citizens. Here is where it just got surreal. It turns out that not only will Greece not see a single penny from the Second Greek bailout, whose entire Use of Proceeds will be limited to funding debt interest and maturity payments, but the country will actually have to fund said escrow! You read that right: the Greek bailout #2 is nothing but a Greek-funded bailout of Europe’s insolvent banks... and the Greek constitution is about to be changed to reflect this! . . .
COMMENT: The European Monetary Union is, as we have seen in many programs and articles, the realization of the stratagem of Pan-German theoretician Friedrich List.
Writing in 1943, Paul Winkler foresaw that Germany would realize its goals through the creation and domination of a German-dominated central European economic union (bearing a striking resemblance to today’s European Monetary Union.) One of the principal influences on List’s thinking was the “continental” concept of Napoleon, who attempted to economically unite Europe under French influence.
“Charles Andler, a French author, summed up certain ideas of List in his work, The Origins of Pan-Germanism, (published in 1915.) ‘It is necessary to organize continental Europe against England. Napoleon I, a great strategist, also knew the methods of economic hegemony. His continental system, which met with opposition even from countries which might have profited from such an arrangement should be revived, but, this time, not as an instrument of Napoleonic domination. The idea of united Europe in a closed trade bloc is no longer shocking if Germany assumes domination over such a bloc—and not France. [Emphasis added.] Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, willingly or by force, will enter this ‘Customs Federation.’ Austria is assumed to be won over at the outset. Even France, if she gets rid of her notions of military conquest, will not be excluded. The first steps the Confederation would take to assure unity of thought and action would be to establish a joint representative body, as well as to organize a common fleet. But of course, both the headquarters of the Federation and its parliamentary seat would be in Germany. [Emphasis added.]”
COMMENT: The Listian model was put into effect by the Third Reich, as can be gleaned by reading Dorothy Thompson’s analysis of Germany’s plans for world dominane by a centrailzed European economic union. Ms. Thompson was writing in The New York Herald Tribune on May 31, 1940! Her comments are reproduced by author T. H. Tetens.
. . . . The Germans have a clear plan of what they intend to do in case of victory. I believe that I know the essential details of that plan. I have heard it from a sufficient number of important Germans to credit its authenticity . . . Germany’s plan is to make a customs union of Europe, with complete financial and economic control centered in Berlin. This will create at once the largest free trade area and the largest planned economy in the world. In Western Europe alone . . . there will be an economic unity of 400 million persons . . . To these will be added the resources of the British, French, Dutch and Belgian empires. These will be pooled in the name of Europa Germanica . . .
“The Germans count upon political power following economic power, and not vice versa. Territorial changes do not concern them, because there will be no ‘France’ or ‘England,’ except as language groups. Little immediate concern is felt regarding political organizations . . . . No nation will have the control of its own financial or economic system or of its customs. [Emphasis added.] The Nazification of all countries will be accomplished by economic pressure. In all countries, contacts have been established long ago with sympathetic businessmen and industrialists . . . . As far as the United States is concerned, the planners of the World Germanica laugh off the idea of any armed invasion. They say that it will be completely unnecessary to take military action against the United States to force it to play ball with this system. . . . Here, as in every other country, they have established relations with numerous industries and commercial organizations, to whom they will offer advantages in co-operation with Germany. . . .
Germany Plots with the Kremlin; T.H. Tetens; Henry Schuman [HC]; 1953; p. 92.
Martin Borman, Nazi in Exile
@ Dave: It is a terrific resume of the situation. Have you ever thought about writing a book? You got one right here. Personally, I never miss an occasion on my blog to publish content, videos, articles, anything that encourages Europeans and European countries to think in terms of nation-states instead of “Europe”. Some might think that I go too far on the side of nationalism but I prefer that to the passive submission to the European Union and its institutions, which is nothing less than the killing of a whole culture and of a dozen peoples and/or nationalities. And all this becomes possible because people don’t see soldiers with nazi uniforms walking down the streets. Having a low capacity to detect gambits where they are, they buy into the deception. Charles Andler and Dorothy Thompson were right. If you know how to do it correctly, soldiers are no longer necessary.
Here’s a great video that describes in under 10 minutes the lunacy of what’s going on in the eurozone and how the it’s being converted into a giant vindictive debtors prison designed to protect the banks and impoverish the public.
Not that it’s surprising at this point, but note that one of the most urgent reforms demands by Greece’s new overlords is a 1.1 billion euro reduction in state spending on pharmaceuticals. Nice priorities:
The imagined spectacle of auctioning off the Parthenon may or may not take place but what is happening less dramatically in Greece is the loss of private property by the middle class. That process of grinding attrition doesn’t make the news.
The unification and homogenization of customs was a primary method of German unification in the 19th century. In enforcing that, a subtle kind of martial law was imposed that created modern Germany. That template worked well inside Germany and now outside as well. Empire by bureaucratic and economic encroachment is succeeding for the Reich.
The CS Monitor has an interesting pair of pieces that attempt to summarize the pro-austerity and anti-austerity arguments. They’re both worth a read. And if the pro-austerity summary is accurate, Europe is pretty screwed because it’s looking more and more like Berlin consensus is increasingly looking like the GOP-style magical thinking that gutted the US’s economy: They have an ideological certainty that national divestment and gutting of the safety-net will definitely work (given enough time), it’s the only option for closing the “competitiveness” gap, and they’re getting tired of all the complaints.
@Pterrafractyl–
The Germans are losing patience? I find that hard to believe. (Sarcasm).
Recall that, in keeping with von Clausewitz, you don’t have to machine gun somebody or put them in a gas chamber and drop the Zyklon B pellets.
Deny them proper employment, nutrition, clothing, shelter, medical care and bingo, the job is done!
The pro-austerity arguments assume that maximizing digits in a few selected bank accounts, while ignoring human tragedy, is a valid goal. In any sane primitive tribe facing a harsh winter, austerity would mean holding all one’s assets very close and sharing them equally among one’s own. The Greeks just agreed to what amounts to a partial default, even if no one is calling it that. They should default completely and right away, restore their own currency and severely restrict foreign ownership and capital flight. Anything else they can think of that makes a Frankfort or Paris banker scream is automatically the right thing to do.
Of course, if all that happened, NATO would ‘liberate’ them.
@Dwight: Yeah, the austerity arguments are like a school teacher dealing with poorly performing students. Approaches like extra homework, tutoring, and addressing malnutrition at home are considered unacceptably “soft”. Instead, the teacher resorts to public humiliation, beatings with a rod AND, just to show the teacher is serious, confiscation of the textbooks with the lingering threat of paper and pencil confiscation if the student doesn’t improve within a semester. I guess there’s maybe 0.1% or so of the populace that might actually improve academically after such treatment, but generally speaking that teacher should be fired because they are destroying those children’s futures.
It’s also worth pointing out that Berlin isn’t the only EU capital infested with junk socioeconomic ideologies:
@Dave: Sad but so true.
@Dwight: Perhaps so. I think Voridis might just be the elites’ man in Greece.
There’s a NY Times article on the firm that’s apparently become the “SWAT” team for fincially-distressed countries across the globe, including Greece:
There’s another additional piece of info that one should know about Blackrock’s pedigree: The Blackrock was started as a division of Pete Peterson’s and Steven Schwarman’s asset-management firm Blackstone. This is the same Steven Schwarzman that compared Obama to Hitler over tax increases for the rich and the same Pete “austerity” Peterson that is spending $1 billion of his own fortune to convince the public that we just can’t afford things like social security and medicare unless, of course, we privatize the system and hand it over to the asset-managers. Considering that Schwarzman’s and Peterson’s Blackstone firm is also in the running for this
type of consulting work, it’s not like the most pro-austerity firm on the planet is being chosen to design distressed banking system overhauls, but still...
Huh, Spain’s political establishment is a little concerned that voters are finding out that the new conservative Prime Minister blatantly lied to the voters about his plans for austerity policies. The concern isn’t about the actual lying...it’s concern about how Spain’s elites are going to have the credibility to con the voters into more austerity in the future:
“Moral decay”. Yeah, that sounds about right:
Of course, for moral “decay” to take place it assumes a given bankster/politician/associated minion would have been unwilling to impoverish their fellow citizens before the financial crisis and weren’t just waiting for the right
crisisopportunity to right all the wrongs that emerged over the few centuries (like a middle-class, non-junk economic theories, democratic ideals, etc....). There are some individuals pushing mass austerity that seem like they might have experienced their moral decay a while ago.[...] davantage d’information sur ce sujet, visitez cette page web. This entry was posted in Resistance. Bookmark the permalink. ← Jared Loughner, shooter [...]
Here’s one more article about how a crisis in eurozone crisis isn’t just a crisis. It’s a feature. The fact that the historically low interest rates and other various stimulus measures taken by the ECB are actually helping German firms more than P.I.I.G.S. corporations also highlights another interesting characteristic of eurozone economy: The “internal devaluation” of the P.I.I.G.S.‘s economies that the Bundesbank is continually demanding isn’t simply over concerns about “competitiveness” and deficits (as BS-filled as those concerns may be). The jaw-boning about “competitiveness” and the demand that the weaker eurozone economies slash their standards of living and send their economies into a tailspin is also about inflation. The Bundesbank is demanding basically minimal inflation and if you want sustained financial stimulus (like ultra low borrowing rates for corporations and trillions of euros in ECB asset purchases) and basically no inflation, you’re going to have to “internally devalue” a chunk of your economy. If you think of the eurozone members nations as compartmentalized “chunks” of the large eurozone ecosystem, what we’re seeing is a net overall stimulus for the eurozone because the stimulus policies aren’t targetting the economices in crisis but instead the entire eurozone, and in order to hold down overall inflation for the eurozone as a whole the weaker nations are being targetted for massive deflationary policies to act as a sort of “inflation buffer” for the larger eurozone economy. It’s a feature.
Atrios has an relevant question for Pimco’s Mohamed El-Erian about his latest piece in the WaPo: What does “streamlining entitlements” even mean? Will Grandma and Grampa get their social security checks in a fancier, more aerodynamic envelope or is this the the Paul Ryan kind of streamlining?
Similarly, what exactly did El-Erian mean when he said this:
Ok, first off, which are the “Outer” countries of the world that are not willing to “move to the center”. Is this North Korean “outerness” or Icelandic “outerness” because those are two very “outer” countries in the world?
And secondly, what exactly is the “West and East Germany” model supposed to look like when applied to the eurozone? I mean, I understand that there’s going to be a wave of privatizations of state assets like with what happened during the German reunification. But what about the other side of the coin:
So where are the trillions of euros in state aid? Is that supposed to be a surprise gift after the P.I.I.G.S. act like good little plebes or is the German reunification model perhaps not the best analog for this historic global realignment?
So many awful questions and only awful answers. At least future generations will get to share in the long-term awfulness after this crop of humans is done
building a global gulag of corporate rule and knee-capped governments everywhereglobal realignment, so there’s that. And sharing is a good thing, right?Here’s a free tip to the states and countries that are about to see their revenue-generating infrastructure privatized: Read the fine print.
@Pterrafractyl
I was just catching up with some of your posts and I couldn’t let it go without mention, as I have done in the past, that I work for a company owned in part by Bain Capital...the other part is owned by Blackstone! This very direct connection between Romney and the austerity clerics currently pillaging Europe should come as no surprise, and yet, I am struck nearly dumb at the final realization that my livelihood—such as it is—contributes even a small morsel to their despicable enterprise.
I must find a new job. Until then, I’m a mole, I’m a mole. Or maybe a cancer within a cancer.
@GrumpusRex: Any inside information that you have, my friend, might prove to be useful. If you see, read or hear something you think may even be remotely important, might not be a bad idea to keep in touch, IMO. =)
@Grumpusrex: Heh, don’t beat yourself up too much. I think at this point you damn near have to engage in barter to truly avoid enabling an oligarch. Non-oligarch-owned business are handing plenty of profits over the oligarchs. It’s an inevitability woven into the fabric of our economy. The “cost of doing business” that involve buying anything — from basic commodities, intermediate/refined products, or the final consumer good — will somehow involve buying from an oligarch-owned industry. And the less refined the product, the more likely it is that it’s from an oligarch-run sector of the economy (get the first “cut” on the resource). At least, that’s a general pattern I’ve observed: aside from the financial sector, there are just an enormous number of oligarchs that have their empires rooted in the extraction some natural resource (mining/oil/agriculture). That’s especially true for the developing-world oligarchs where natural resource extraction is one of the primary things the country has to trade with the world (so, of course, that wealth from extracted local resources gets extracted by elite assholes, local and global).
So even if someone isn’t working directly for an oligarch-owned firm nearly all of us are somehow enabling our oligarchs, directly or indirectly, local and global.
It’s systemically inevitable that you end up with an economy like this when so many industries are allowed to collapsed to handful of core companies. That economic concentration has been a general trend for decades and it’s Romney & Friends that ended up being both the most influential owners (not necessarily biggest, but most influential), and the deal-makers of the transactions that created our newly concentrated economy. Mittens took his millions and made billions that core. and not just due to corruption and intentional rigging. The “Free-markets” that are largely free of anti-trust enforcement are just going to see the existing monopolies/oligopolies just take over more and more industries and create an economy where some group of oligarchs captures the profits all along a growing number of supply chains and sectors. And they’ll be interwoven supply chains and sectors as this goes on over the decades.
And, in due time, you’ll end up with something awful like the modern economy, where not only are our actions increasingly commoditized in an oligarch-friendly way but now, in the observation-for-profit age, our commoditized actions are being tracked for even more profit. And, not surprisingly, our commercialized actions are increasingly interwoven, both in work and play, at home and out and about. Between Google, Facebook, smartphone/cell activity, general internet tracking, and all our non-cash commercial activity we are creating a world where basic day to day activities are profiting many of our crappiest oligarchs.
So don’t worry too much about working several degrees removed from Bain. We all are. The world has become a sick version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with Mitt as our reality-magnet. And you could swap Mitt out for any of his other oligarch buddies although they might not be as telegenic (although I have to say I’ve been surprised by the gaffe-rate by Romney. He’s not exactly new at this). And most of us are someone working for, directly or indirectly, at least one of those oligarchs. That’s what an oligarchy looks like. And that’s what reality should feel like. That it doesn’t feel like that to everyone — feel your Mittness folks, it courses through your reality — is one of the big challenges of the day.
As people say: it’s their world, we’re just living in it. Part of what makes Mittens so scary is that he seems to be the front man for the transition to the world where it’s not just their world we’re living in. It’s their world, and we’re just living in it at their discretion. What Mittens did as a corporate raider is what he’s going to do as a president except replace “corporate entities” with “swaths of society/Grandma”. It’s Mitt’s America.
@Pterrafractyl: Well said. I agree.
Shared sacrifice:
This is a pretty interesting continuation of the German war principle...
http://www.germanywatch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/de-industrialisation-in-war.html
Winning hearts and minds:
It appears there’s been a major setback for Merkel and co.
Francois Hollande just won the election in France.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/06/world/europe/france-election/index.html
Greece is still up in the air but hopefully the leftists can get their act together and pull off a victory. Because if the conservatives remain in power, especially if Golden Dawn decides to ally with them(not at all implausible and it could just happen!), they will be in DEEP trouble.