St. Michalkiewicz po angielsku

The Fourth Reich draws up a bill.

 

The Euro-zone is supposed to have been created in order to immunize EU against financial crises. In the meantime however the financial crisis in the zone itself not only will not subside but is actually spreading, afflicting new members. Greece, despite intravenous drips, is in extremis, her illness contagious and threatening to add Rome to Athens like insult to injury. In this predicament it is worthwhile to go back to its latent beginnings as it will help us to understand not only the nature of the disease but also its consequences.

 

Apparently the Greek disease ( the French have always had theirs, now the Greeks have merited similar dishonour ) originates from living beyond one’s means. It is true but why did Greece begin to live beyond her means? The answer is simple – because she was able to. Why was she able to? Because the EU was providing subsidies. Why was the Union subsidising Greece then? Well, in order to keep the promises given during the time of seducing Greece into the membership. And why were the “European fathers” so keen on Greece and other countries joining the Union? Well, because without their accession it wouldn’t be possible to build a European empire.

And what is the purpose of building a European empire and who is to benefit from it?

Let us leave the last question unanswered for the moment as the answer will most probably arise automatically from the analysis to follow. We can see now that living beyond means was not a cause but a result while the actual cause were the subsidies due to which Greece, as well as other countries, grew accustomed to spending more than they earned, i.e. to living beyond their means in the strictest sense of the idiom.

 

Now, has this addiction to subsidies been a result of a mere thoughtlessness or has it been rather well thought and calculated? To answer this, one has to consider the implied intent. For some time it has been quite obvious to anybody that Greece not only has been living beyond her means but has gone so far that – especially while maintaining the hitherto life style – she will never be able repay her debts. Since it was obvious to a common man, it would be all the more rude to suppose that the managers of German of French banks were unaware of the situation.

Of course they were well aware!

Why then, despite of this knowledge, did they keep on lending to the Greek government, as if nothing had happened?

The answer to this question can only be one: someone, whose opinion they had to reckon with, recommended them to carry on and assured that they would be compensated for possible losses.

Who could that be?

All shows that it must have been governments – German and French ones.

But why were the German and French governments so anxious about the banks carrying on lending to the Greek government, accustoming both the government and the people there to living beyond means so much that it has become quite unimaginable for them to live with less abandonment, not to mention frugality?

The reason for this seeming insanity was that Greece was becoming addicted to subsidies and loans like a junkie to drugs and once dependent, would have to depend on the lender, also in the political sense.

 

Indeed, there are two ways of building empires. One – manu militari – consists in conquest. The conqueror subjugates the conquered and incorporates them into his empire, subduing the nations to his own will. The conquest however requires waging a war which is always risky and costly. Maintaining the integrity of thus acquired empire may cost even more.

Second way consists in deceitful and insidious subjugation. The victim state becomes subdued imperceptibly, preserving appearances of independence until the very end while in reality it is more and more incapacitated by the empire organiser.

It may be worthwhile mentioning that during WW II a German journalist accused the British of building their empire by deceit and bribery while the Germans were just building their empire by “jolly honest war”.

Inasmuch it may have been true then, contemporary Germany seems to have realised that deceit and bribery is not only much more effective than “jolly honest war” but first of all it does not carry any excessive risk, if any at all, and is by far cheaper.

And this is the true cause of the financial crisis, afflicting the Euro-zone.

 

The indirect proof of the above diagnosis is apparent in the fact that the political leaders of EU are offering a therapy which does not even mention the actual cause and concentrates on mere symptoms instead. And what are the symptoms? Well, German and French banks have a lot of trash in their assets – possibly nothing more than trash. Now the therapy as proposed by the political leaders of the EU is to remove or at least to alleviate the irritating symptoms by means of “recapitalising” the banks. How does it translate into plain English? It just means printing – or to be more exact – “creating” a massive amount of fiduciary Euros by clicking the computers of ECB in Frankfurt. Subsequently the newly created money is then remitted to the aforesaid banks which thus become “recapitalised”.

 

Well, but is it really possible to pan gold like that out of thin air? Of course it is not. In reality the recapitalisation of German and French banks means that all happy inhabitants of Euro-zone will have to club together as they will lose a part of their wealth and income due to inflation, i.e. the decrease of Euro value.

For, in reality, ECB is not able to pan the gold out of the air and whenever it seems to be doing so – which applies to all other banks – is just panning the gold out of wallets and pockets of people who are forced to use this particular currency.

In this way the costs of building the Fourth Reich by peaceful means are all being passed on to the inhabitants of the empire – even if at the moment it is limited to the inhabitants of its hard core, i.e. the Euro-zone.

 

 

By Stanislaw Michalkiewicz ( text in Polish )

Clumsily anglicised by G.D.