Europe's deflation torture is a gift to the Far Left … If Europe's ultra-Left has so far reaped little dividend from the great "Crisis of Capitalism", this will surely change as the eurozone's 1930s policies of wage deflation sap the credibility of the governing centre and the EU itself. … As historian Simon Schama wrote over the weekend in the Financial Times, "The world teeters on the brink of a new age of rage: we face a tinderbox moment" … There is typically a lag-time between economic shocks and social fury. Luckily there is no Fascist threat this time. It is the (more benign) Marxist Left that stands to gain. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Europe will struggle through austerity by pulling together, even if it drifts left …
Free-Market Analysis: For several years now, we've been covering the power elite's dominant social theme as regards the European Union. And what is that? It seems to be … "Only regional and even global governance can prevent another world war (or at least pan-European war) from happening." Of course not only do we not believe it, we've indicated many times that the crazed bureaucrats of the EU are actually setting up a system guaranteed to heighten the very tensions they purport to downplay.
Europe is an old continent in terms of human habitation. The very first fully human incursions, according to the Bradshaw Foundation were supplemented some 20,000 years ago by Cro-Magnon migrations, from which modern Europe was eventually born. It is true that first Roman power and then (Carolus Magnus) Charlemagne on behalf of the Holy Roman Empire pulled together Europe's fractious tribes, but neither of these interregnums proved the norm. Europe has always been fractured, by language, by race, by culture, even by climate.
Enter the ludicrous EU experiment and its false message of cheery unity. "The European Union is peace," says French President Nicolas Sarkozy. This is the initial fear-based promotion that launched a thousand votes and re-votes and inevitably has enabled the endless corruption of the EU and the creation of a smug, pan-European political order that at its top level is not answerable to European citizens. This too-clever body of Euro-crats welcomed Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy (and numerous other countries) knowing full well that it was creating a great regional divide that could only be fixed, eventually, by desperate and risky actions to create a political union that currently does not exist.
What right did this tiny elite group have to play with hundreds of millions of lives in order to realize their misguided and impractical goal of melding Europe together into one regional lump – apparently to serve as a stepping-stone for world government? Those who did the deed were quite aware of the unworkability of the EU. And they were quite prepared, nonetheless, to risk all for … what? For personal aggrandizement and to generate the increased wealth and control that sociopolitical and physical consolidation can yield. And yet what need is there for EU-style regionalism with all its fascistic faux-cheer that masks a vision of the future, as George Orwell wrote, "of a boot stamping on a human face – forever."
And now … "austerity." The masses of Europe, having been promised a brighter and more prosperous future under the benevolent regime of the EU are faced with years, perhaps decades, of what amounts to institutionalized poverty in which all the bright promises of security, early retirements and lazy living will be stripped away. Only the wretched, mercantilist banks of Europe and America will win, if it come to this. And it was all so unnecessary – as are so many of the results of the crazed power elite agenda.
Unleash the hounds of havoc; let chaos rein; do anything and everything to befuddle, bemuse and eventually bankrupt the masses in pursuit of some loony vision of global governance. Those who engineered the EU knew quite well, almost from the beginning, what they wrought. It is as dispiriting as it is predictable. Above, we quoted an article from the UK Telegraph on the emergent leftist political possibilities generated by the EU crisis, but there is another article in the same edition (by columnist Boris Johnson) that catalogues just how obvious the eventual unraveling was that has brought the EU to this point. Here is an excerpt:
On and on … EU countries went with their plan, and I was there at virtually every stage. I remember when they decided it had to be called the euro, because Helmut Kohl thought "ecu" sounded too much like the German word for cow. I remember when they decided the Eurobank had to be located in Frankfurt, and all the while we sceptics offered sheeplike coughs of dissent. You can't just control interest rates, we said. What about tax? What about spending? How, we asked, can you have a single monetary policy while you let a very diverse bunch of economies continue to run independent fiscal policies? How, bluntly, can you jam northern and southern Europe together? How can we expect Germany to be part of an effective currency union with Greece?
And all our objections were brushed aside. The process was unstoppable, we were told. It was as natural and ineluctable, said Helmut Kohl, as the flow of the Rhine. It was history, they said; and for the first few years it must be admitted that our fears seemed unfounded. The euro seemed to hang together pretty well. It was a handy thing for travellers.
It was only when the financial crisis came along in 2008 that we suddenly saw that the Greeks had been doing exactly what we said they would do. With the help of some smart bankers, they had massaged their debt figures to qualify for the euro, and then they had used the low interest rates of the eurozone to hitch a giant free ride. They'd been paying themselves far more than they earned. They had been racking up huge debts. They were rumbled, and, according to Angela Merkel herself, the euro is in danger of collapse as a direct result of their bad behaviour.
European governments have stumped up for a colossal 750 billion euro (£650 billion) fund to guarantee the debts of southern Europe – and still the markets are not satisfied. The crowds regularly seem to be rioting in Athens in response to the programme of cuts, and there is a general mood of panic reminiscent of 1992, and the destruction of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. The Germans have actually tried to ban short-selling, and everyone is wondering who will be the next target. Portugal? Spain? Italy?
Indeed, what now? Is the predictable and necessary crisis ultimately controllable? Did the Euro-crats and their power elite masters make plans for the Internet itself and the seriousness of the economic tsunami that has engulfed the continent? Maybe not. The Internet has made framing of the crisis most difficult for the powers-that-be. Meanwhile, the depth of the crisis has meant that proposed solutions may be well nigh intolerable, given what people understand of the true causes of the crisis.
And … yes, we have always suspected as much. We wrote of the fractious tribes of Europe and the impossibility of Germany dictating to all of them just because the German economy is currently the biggest and strongest. The idea that Greece, Portugal, Spain or Poland would willingly follow Germany's lead in terms of inflicting increasing financial pain on their citizens for myriad years in pursuit of a Euro-Chimera always struck us highly questionable. Now it appears, from what we have read, that even the Germans don't want it. Empire is a preoccupation of the political class, not of modern German businesspeople.
It seems to us that the tension between various countries, their governments and Euro-crats themselves will only grow as harsh austerity measures are inflicted and the reality of sacrifices becomes clear. This goes for both North and South. The South has been profligate and must pay the price; but the North will be asked to pay, as well, for the crazy cause of keeping the EU together – a political entity that did not even exist in its current form three years ago.
The tensions within the EU will likely manifest themselves in an upswelling of support for various radical socialist and communist groups – and thus will foment political solutions that are likely even worse than those in place today. And while we don't necessarily anticipate a break-up of the EU (though we think it increasingly likely) any such entropy is bound to be profoundly messy and painful – not necessarily for those leading the EU or standing behind it, but for average citizens caught in its wake.
For investors, large and small, the EU crisis is likely to prove incredibly frustrating. The uncertainty over the EU will likely go on and on, and affect most every form of investment – from stocks, to bonds to derivatives. It may even, as we have mentioned before, spell the end of the globalized fiat-money system and usher in some form of asset-backed (gold or silver) money. We would predict, however, if it does, that the power elite will have a tough time controlling events using the traditional methods of promotional, fear-based themes.
This is a new era. Much that worked well for the elite in the 20th century is not working nearly so well in the 21st. We are also aware that a final option in the elite playbook is war – domestic wars, regional wars and international war. War will further change the financial and investing scene, but it will not likely have the impact on elite fortunes that is hoped for. Yes, even war, in our opinion, will not grant the elite a respite from the chaos that has been unleashed or resuscitate the kind of seamless power it enjoyed in the 20th century when it controlled the means and methodologies of communication.
We are aware that many in the alternative news community may believe that what is happening to the EU in its fullness has been planned for. And certainly what is taking place was obviously foreseen – but NOT the depths of the potential chaos, nor the depth of the anger of people involved who are losing so much after having been promised so much, nor the difficulty in controlling the messaging that was, in turn, supposed to control the outcome.
