Category Archives: Europe

Save the People; Fail the EU

Economy, EU, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Iran, Political Economy, Propaganda, Trade

“The EU is our biggest trading partner. We cannot afford to let it fail. We send much of our goods and services to Europe. We share their values. We want to crush Iran with our European pals. They bomb and regulate the world with us. If the Eurozone goes down in flames; if we let them—we’ll be next.” So said President Barack Obama on November 28. Well, sort of. (Okay, I’ve ad-libbed a LOT, but I think I know my president by now.)

Obama was entertaining leaders of the European Union. He promised them that America would stand ready to do its part to help them withstand the Eurozone crisis.

The stakes are too high, you say? For whom, Mr. President? Cui Bono? Who Benefits, Barack?

Ask yourself that question each time you hear a reporter/pundit/analyst/politician insist that the EU and the Euro zone cannot be allowed to fail.

In reply to the question as to what will happen if this colossus collapses, the stakeholders above parrot a bunch of non sequiturs or circular arguments. In the tradition of “a statement that does not follow logically from what preceded it,” these reasons don’t necessarily obtain:

We can’t allow the thing to fail because the stakes are too high. Again: For whom?

David Böcking of Spiegel Online (a most intelligent newspaper; the Germans are impressive) advances the arguments against the break-up of the Eurozone. These are mostly legalistic, and are not rooted in real economic realities. The treaties, observes Böcking, don’t allow for easy disengagement. Legal disputes could arise over debt owed if the seceding country had borrowed money. And, mostly, sinecured EU official would lose sway on the world stage.

Brace for impact, if you believed these bastards, but here are the economic realities:

We flesh-and-blood Americans trade not with Barack or with Brussels, the seat of the European central government, but rather with the people of Belgium, the Netherland, Germany, France. If the financial institutions into which Europeans and Americans have been herded by bureaucrats on both sides of the Atlantic collapse, well then, individual producers and traders will find a way to make a living without these artificial, inorganic structures.

This is a failure of government, not of all the people, although some of the governed, maybe even the majority, have failed. The people who’ve failed are those who have eaten the state’s forbidden fruit.

Uncle Sam: Serial Killer & Liar

America, Barack Obama, China, EU, Europe, Foreign Policy, Military, Neoconservatism, Russia

To the detriment of their sovereignty and their people do the Chinese, the Russians and, yes, the Germans, place their faith in “Washington’s trustworthiness.” Paul Craig Roberts offers an entirely plausible analysis for Putin’s lackluster push-back to US missile provocations. Roberts also highlights—and deciphers—the perplexing specter of the failure, the other day, of a German government bond auction. As Roberts reminds, Germany is “the only member of the EU with financial rectitude”:

“The Russian government, which prefers to use its resources for the economy rather than for the military, has decided that it has been taking too many risks in the name of peace. The day before Thanksgiving, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, in a televised address to the Russian people, that if Washington goes ahead with its planned missile bases surrounding Russia, Russia will respond with new nuclear missiles of its own, which will target the American bases and European capital cities.

The President of Russia said that the Russian government has asked Washington for legally binding guarantees that the American missile bases are not intended as a threat to Russia, but that Washington has refused to give such guarantees.

Medvedev’s statement is perplexing. What does he mean ‘if Washington goes ahead?’ The American missile and radar bases are already in place. Russia is already surrounded. Is Medvedev just now aware of what is already in place?

Russia’s and China’s slow response to Washington’s aggression can only be understood in the context of the two countries’ experience with communism. The sufferings of Russians and Chinese under communism was extreme, and the thinking part of those populations saw America as the ideal of political life. This delusion still controls the mentality of progressive thinkers in Russia and China. It might prove to be a disaster for Russia and China that the countries have citizens who are aligned with the US.

Belief in Washington’s trustworthiness even pervades the Russian government, which apparently, according to Medvedev’s statement, would be reassured by a ‘legally binding guarantee’ from Washington. After the massive lies told by Washington in the 21st century–’weapons of mass destruction,’ ‘al Qaeda connections,’ ‘Iranian nukes’–why would anyone put any credence in ‘a legally binding guarantee’ from Washington? The guarantee would mean nothing. How could it be enforced? Such a guarantee would simply be another deceit in Washington’s pursuit of world hegemony.

The day prior to Thanksgiving also brought another extraordinary development–the failure of a German government bond auction, an unparalleled event.

Why would Germany … not be able to sell 35 per cent of its offerings of 10-year bonds? Germany has no debt problems, and its economy is expected by EU and US authorities to bear the lion’s share of the bailout of the EU member countries that do lack financial rectitude.

I suspect that the answer to this question is that the failure of the German government’s bond auction was orchestrated by the US, by EU authorities, especially the European Central Bank, and private banks in order to punish Germany for obstructing the purchase of EU member countries’ sovereign debt by the European Central Bank.”

[SNIP]

Since the lying left-liberal media complex likes to depict Obama’s coronation as one that took place against all odds, and despite America’s racist population (a majority of which supported BHO)—consider this point made by Roberts:

No newly elected president in memory, neither John F. Kennedy nor Ronald Reagan, had the extraordinary response to his election as Barak Obama.

Dilettantes Diss Netanyhu

Anti-Semitism, Barack Obama, Etiquette, Europe, Foreign Policy, Israel

His well-used trophy wife is French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s greatest achievement. Sarkozy’s distinction is that he’s married to the loose Italian model, Carla Bruni. Bruni, who yodels at every Nelson Mandela birthday banquet, has been “involved with” Louis Bertignac, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Léos Carax, Charles Berling, Arno Klarsfeld, Vincent Perez, former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, and Raphaël Enthoven, the son of Jean-Paul Enthoven, whom she was living with while carrying on with junior. (And these are her publicized conquests.)

The Sarkozy tabula rasa had this to say about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, last week, at the Group of 20 economic summit in the French resort of Cannes:

“I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar.”

Sarkozy’s equally impressive interlocutor, U.S. President Barack Obama, responded: “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day.” The wire service has reported a slight variation:”You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you.”

A reminder of the measure of the men, here is Bibi vs. “O’sissy,” via Pajama Media.

Bibi vs. "Osissy"

Meantime, Israel is making light of it; acting like, well, “the Jew among nations,” who deserves to be kicked around. It’s interesting that other than the losers of Labor, most leaders of Israel’s multi-party democracy rallied behind their president.

Land of Moussaka, Moochers and Looters

Debt, Democracy, Economy, EU, Europe, Foreign Policy

As commentators on MSNBC first pointed out, the leaders of Greece, the cradle of democracy, have sundered direct democracy in their country—a referendum on whether the country ought to leave the eurozone.

For its own good and for the good of the northern European nations funding the ongoing Bacchanalia in the south, Greece should be expelled from the eurozone. (After which the whole EU edifice should be allowed to crumble.)

A world perfected by global central planners is one in which wealth consumers live at the expense of wealth creators; where the rich are coerced into paying for the poor, the North for the South.

If they had a moral and intellectual compass—and were permitted to chart their destinies—the people of Greece would opt to leave the eurozone and the wider European Union (EU). Under that scenario, “loser countries” would be better able to serve as cheap labor and resume exporting goods to their neighbors. Work for a living, if you remember that old-fashioned concept.

It so happens that Greece has become “The Land of Moussaka, Moochers and Looters.” If the polls are correct, the “Greek public has strongly resisted the austerity measures,” yet at the same time, “70% of them want to remain within the eurozone.”

If these polls reflect public opinion, then a referendum would have seen the Greeks decide to continue on the path they are on.