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The “European Monster State”
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
Rather than solving the Eurozone debt crisis once and for all, the EU summit last week gummed up the bailout process with controversy in the very country that everyone is counting on to save the Eurozone, Germany—but also elsewhere—and nothing has been resolved.
There is Greece, inexorably tottering towards its exit from the Eurozone. Once again, the despised Troika inspectors have arrived in Athens. Based on their findings, they’ll decide if Greece should get the next tranche of the bailout billions—default and/or conversion to the drachma being the alternatives.
Horst Reichenbach, the German head of the Troika inspectors, took one look at the numbers, and while he didn’t end up in the hospital nauseated and with knots in his gut—the fate that had befallen Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos a couple of days after being appointed—he did see that Greeks have stopped paying their bills.
Which is logical. They’re hanging on to their euros under mattresses or in foreign accounts, assuming that they will soon be able to pay their bills with devalued drachmas. The deal of a lifetime. At least €6.5 billion is past due, owed to Greek industry, Reichenbach said. Everyone is doing it. Hospitals stopped paying for medication, individuals stopped paying for electricity, the government stopped paying for construction work.
“The patience of the public has been exhausted,” said Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Eurozone member Slovakia. His country would no longer be willing to help if recipients didn’t implement sufficient reforms. And the number of bailout candidates continues to grow: in addition to the five that have already requested aid—Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Cyprus—Slovenia is now discussing it. And Italy is at the brink. Seven. Out of seventeen.
They’re all going to get bailed out by the temporary EFSF, which has a limit of €250 billion, and later by the permanent ESM, which has a limit of €700 billion. Of course, there is the old ESM that doesn’t exist yet, the one that was passed Friday by the German parliament after it had already been obviated by the new ESM that emerged from the EU summit, the one that everyone interpreted differently, the one that has run into a wall of opposition in Northern Europe. And it doesn’t exist either.
Finland and the Netherlands quickly expressed their opposition to an essential feature of the new ESM—buying sovereign bonds to force down yields and make borrowing cheaper. They could torpedo it; decisions must be made unanimously. But there would be a way around: if the ECB and the EU Commission decide that this is an emergency, only 85% of the votes, as determined by capital contributions, would be required. But no one can override Germany which contributed 27% of the capital.
And there was a veritable tsunami of actions at the German Constitutional Court. They came from all sides: from the left, from conservative Peter Gauweiler (CSU), and from the association More Democracy, which was joined by 12,000 citizens and by the Association of Tax Payers. They want a rush decision to stop President Joachim Gauck from signing the ESM and fiscal union laws until the court hands down its final decision.
According to the plaintiffs, the Bundestag, in passing the ESM, gave up its parliamentary “budget autonomy”—its rights to create and control the national budget. These rights would be transferred to organizations that were not democratically legitimized, thereby limiting the rights of voters to participate democratically in budget decisions. The fiscal union pact similarly violates German democratic fundamentals, they claim.
However, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, believed that the court wouldn’t stop the ESM and the fiscal union pact. In prior challenges, the justices reigned in certain planks of the law, she said, “but fundamentally they had no problem with the aid measures.”
And Chancellor Angela Merkel caught a broadside from her coalition partner. Horst Seehofer, chairman of the conservative CSU, lashed out at her concessions and threatened to let the coalition government collapse if further concessions were made. “My greatest fear is that the financial markets ask: can Germany support all that?” He was worried that the markets would attack Germany and put it in the same spot as Spain. He wouldn’t tolerate the transfer of any additional power to the “European monster state” and promised he’d turn the next elections into an election on Europe. “We will put this question to the people,” he said, which so far, amazingly, no one has done in Germany.
The onslaught of criticism put Merkel on the defensive about the summit decisions. The fundamental principles of German policies had been confirmed in Brussels, said Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert, and the assertion that money would flow freely and without conditions was “completely wrong.”
After the EU summit, markets soared in Asia, Europe, the US, everywhere. The euro jumped. Yields on Spanish bonds fell to the lowest level of the week. A miracle had happened. Or had it? Read.... The Big Blink?
And to put some humor into that dogged Eurozone drama, here is “Merkel at Wimbledon 2012,” a funny video by down-under comedians Clarke & Dawe.
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Maybe there isn't much sense in building an extension for a prison, especially a bankrupt one.
European monster state was the antedote to Pax Americana, on financial and commerical front; and is a botched job.
So its viability is a mirror image of Pax Americana morph. The more Pax Americana morphs the more the world needs a counter balance. Its action and geopolitical reaction on Atlantic front, along with CHina/Bric rising, in PAcific and southern hemisphere. If the PAcifc/Asia rim and southern hemisphere find their own way out of Pax Americana hegemony, Euromonster will cease to be a geopolitical necessity, as world dynamics will move to the tune of other cultural paradigm inputs than pure euro-western.
The "ideal" solution, from humanity's perspective, would be a simultaneous demise of Pax Americana and its mirror opposite the EUro monster state. But the power vacuum created would be ominous. We may be heading there in chaotic spiral; as western alliance breakdown is the tipping point of a five hundred year Atlantic domination age over the world, based since 1970 on an abused energy paradigm : ME oil patch monopoly game and the concomittant US MIC/reserve currency hegemony construct.
Who will find the new paradigm to rebalance the world and create a new age of progress?
We are heading to the dark ages as the feudalista corpocracy is now in control. Also, the muslim cultural world is witnessing a second demise like the one in 1400 AD, when they lost it totally to the west, ironically precisely when they had won the military war in 1453. Islam's inability to know an age of Enlightenment, then as now, is a big stumbling block to huge swathes of Asian and African peoples' aspirations. These factors add a new dimension to the global precarity scene. THe effective demise of nation states creates new forces projected by new media like Internet which are prodigiously creative and at the same time destabilising for the conventional nation state power structures.
Jacques the Fatalist has very much his place in this environment!
The EU was supposed to usher in a New Roman Empire that would dominate the world. It hasn't quite worked out that way, but it still can if France and Germany agree to surrender sovereignty to the EU Superstate. They are however, rapidly running out of time.
I see no evidence that Islam is declining. It seems to be rising, and is on the verge of the creation of a new Caliphate or two. The Egypt Revolution could be pivotal in this respect. China and Russia are intent on assisting them to achieve this outcome, in order to counter the USA geopolitically. Major wars will be needed to get there, and are almost certainly in the cards. I am not saying the rise of Islam is a true long term trend. It is probably more of a last hurrah, but their final blowoff could be a doozy.
Russia IS declining, and has been for a long time.
China, Brazil, and India are rising.
falak
The EU “monster” is neither the “antidote” nor the “mirror opposite” to Pax Americana.
Rather, they are both expressions of a global (in your words) “euro western Atlantic” empire.
The breakup of the EU arrangements should be understood as more consolidation of Europe into the wider “Global Empire”. The Empire is hardly now a Pax Americana. The Empire operates through global corporations and organizations headed by a global elite. The bulk of the world’s wealth and power is owned and controlled by a few hundred corporations and a few thousand individuals, and is protected by the global Pentagon/NATO. That Empire does not serve the citizens of “America” or any other nation state in particular. The noise about a stereotyped “Germany” trying to take over Europe is merely a distraction.
The Empire has frequently promoted and manipulated ethnocentrism, team-spirit nationalism, and Balkanization to expand its grasp. So naturally, the consolidation is resisted by some as though nationalism, jingoism, or separatism, are escapes from the financial, economic, and military tentacles of the Global Empire. Politicians who see the problem as one between “nations”, are as myopic as militarists who promote full spectrum global dominance as the way to eliminate “threats”.
The “EU breakup” is a symptom of the increasing ascendancy of global organizations, and the increasing irrelevancy of local ones. It only remains to be seen how much economic and military ‘shock doctrine’ will be applied to solidify that ascendancy.
I agree, the demise of nation states and rise of transnational oligarchy in west and its global commerclal/financial empires. But as the nation state dies its proponents try and save the old shell in desperate irrational plays: like the Borgias of old tried to save the universal church and failed. The EU was concocted at the height of Pax Americana nation state age; before it morphed into transnational oligarchy corporate empires.
For those of a conspirational bent, it may also look like a reversal of 1913 - the torch of central banking passed back over the Atlantic.
For those of us with a conspiratorial bent, it looks more like The Jooze taking title to Planet Earth and all her resources (whatever is left), human and natural.
It is good then that Israel is a US citizen nation.
It might help them in that endeavour because the claim was made by US citizens on 1776, July, 4th.
And I doubt the Founding Fathers were jewish people.
Both are the product of US citizenism.
The long term goal is to allow merge between Europe and North America.
AnAnonymous said:
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge indicates otherwise.
But hey, in the fantasy world of AnAnonymousity, plate tectonics are under your control. That thing is very much something.
By the same standard, Europe could not merge as islands are included.
By the same standard, you are insane.
Nothing more exciting than pondering demise of Islam while drunk.
If I was you, I would'nt worry about it too much, knowing your comment "What if Allah (God) is a female." Which ilustrates your depth and level of understanding.
Nor I would read history on Wikipedia. Maybe to get the name, date and place references, but surely not for their 'analysis."
If there really is only one god that is Allah, it is nonsensical to suggest that It is sexual and consequently has a sex. To argue otherwise suggests that there is a Mr. Allah and a Mrs. Allah and and assortment of little Allahs running about, not so different from the Greek god model.
Therefor if Allah exists, Allah must be neither a He or a She. Allah must be an It. The whole sex concept is an example of extreme chauvinism.
really? read this about women and Islam : Rabia al Adawiyya - Wikipédia
And this about where Islamic thought once took those of that age; as opposed to the clerics of Qum and the Salafists of Doom and Jihad bloom, based in Wahhabite lands.
The Conference of the Birds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam as dogma, like all the Abrahamic religions, made women subservient; whereas the older religions made them goddesses...that's my point. Allah in that perspective of superior being, of UNIVERSAL religion strain, could be a woman as much as a man. If the word "Allah" means the same thing as Krishna or Zeus...
Anyways, I said it tongue in cheek as I don't believe in religious dogma. As for spirituality, that is llke metaphysics, its a mystery and has its place in humanitas; not blind dogma.
Well, did'nt think we were discussing "women's rights in Islam" but anyhow. Pardon, dont speak French :)
Edit: Ok read it. That is clearly a dogma. Dont think it has any place in religious literature, but maybe fiction or fantasy. Anything with an Arab or Persian name, or based around Middle East does not automatically becomes Islamic (religion) belief. Everyone has their Robin Hoods and Heidi's.
Yes, God is neither male or a female, as having a sex implies a weakness, does not go with the assumption of God being a Supreme being.
Allah means One God, in Arabic and Ilah means God, if Im not mistaken.
You are coming from the western perspective of Equality, whereas Islam is more based on Equity.
You call it dogma, some thinks its a way of life. Depends on one's perspective.
Salafis are also knows as Scholars for Dollars and actually a tool of Pax Americana for the ME oil monopoly.
I respect value systems; although some are better than others, but thats my personal take.
Half of humanity has tits!
And even in the traditional Islamic Fiqh there was room for debate about EQUITY, between Hanbalism and Hanafism; between Ijtihad (independent reasoning) and taqlid (blind adherence to doctrine).
More than half actually, as per current statistics, and if the WW3 kicks off, it could even get to 2/3rd.
Never fancied any isms. Get a bunch of Religious scholars and they can fuck up a perfectly simple thing. Just like a bunch of PhD Economists.
Was a good discussion. Thank you.
Yes, an obvious case of "The center cannot hold" so everyone disperses and tries to loot burning Rome at the same time...perhaps some people would be better off on their own and don't want to be extinguished by a superstate, which wouldn't guarantee a better life expectancy vis-a-vis the BRICs anyway.
Somewhat disagree with your Islam is doomed thesis: after all the fun e.g. started for the Moguls right after 1453, absurdly abetted by the rising European trade networks and technical expertise. Whatever the future holds, it is never wise to misunderestimate it.
My point on that is that the Moghuls, the Safavids in IRan and the Ottomans, the biggest, were "gunpowder" empires. Power constructs.
They did not revive the spirit of secular human progress that flowered in west since Renaissance days; aka 1453! In FLorence etc. I don't imply Islam as religion is doomed. I imply those regions must evolve like the christian nations have to more secular political structures, more personal freedoms and leave dogma out of politics.
If you look back on those dark ages, the Abbassids in fact resuscitated greek civilization at Baghdad and benefitted from it more so than the Europeans as leaders of science and progress from 750 Ad to 1400 when the LAST great Arab philospher/historian/Economist Ibn Khaldoun died. The Arabs even exported it to Cordoba Spain from where it fed the Occitan troubadour culture and in Eleanor of Acquitaine it created the first true western modern woman. Grand daughter of first troubadour poet, William IX of Poitiers, who befriended the Moors when he campaigned there for Reconquista and later participated in first Crusade, she would make chivalry and poetry the rage of the West. The 'fin amor' was born in western lands. That Greek knowledge thread fed muslim scholars like Avicenna and Avorroes who so influenced western logic.
So the irony of this 700 year evolution, 750-1450 AD, in Islamic lands is that all the while they became empire builders they lost their scientific culture. Rabid funadmentalist Islam killed the soul of secular evolution of those regions. Whereas loss of Jerusalem and Constantinople conversely spurred the west's fascination for culture and the greeks. It has never stopped.
So what Islam won in power structures in 1453 onwards it lost in science and culture!
Guess what? The cultural and knowledge strain is more important to humanity than just pure power. The demise of secular progress of Islam is the smoking gun that proves that historical truth. Pax Americana should learn from that today! Pure power kills civilization.
House of Wisdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ibn Khaldoun - Wikipédia
William IX, Duke of Aquitaine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yes, gunpowder empires. And for all we know, the world could be entering an era of empires ruled by force once again. Science-driven technological progress has hit a brick wall. Ever greater amounts of energy are required for real progress. Until the need for fossil fuel is overcome, true progress beyond our current level cannot happen. Right now there are no good answers, because the true renewable sources have an EROEI that is way too low. I doubt that the backward Muslims will solve this one, but no one else is likely to solve it anytime soon, either. If the world enters a 300 year period of stagnation, power will inexorably flow to those who can muster the largest fighting forces, and maintain their ferocity and battle effectiveness.The West's best chance is to forge ahead with robotic armies that can counter the huge Islamic populations.
Look at where all recent technological progress has been concentrated. Computers, telecommunications, robotics, biotechnology, and other stuff that does not require large inputs of energy. Energy hogs like space travel and ultra-fast air transport are pretty much dead.
for the energy conundrum : +1 I have never posted anything to contradict that. 300 years of stagnation : now that is beyond my mind's comprehension, too long a time line for a living generation to predict what comes ahead.
Faòak - "the Abbassids in fact resuscitated greek civilization at Baghdad and benefitted from it more so than the Europeans as leaders of science and progress from 750 Ad to 1400 when the LAST great Arab philospher/historian/Economist Ibn Khaldoun died.."
the myth is leaders bring forth economic prosperity when in fact leaders know jack-shit about anything (how to farm, how to build a boat, who to trade with across the border)
the only relevance to economic prosperity is as you mention freedom (ie. the lack of Govt) afforded by these deranged tossers of history that try to Lord it over society.
The Europeans cribbed alot of the knowledge off of China which helped spark Europes industrial revolution. But this was commerce led, not Govt led.
The only relevance to economic prosperity held by Govt is the level of suffocation of the natural state of society to seek prosperity. Govt is a drag and as we see today across the globe a killer/sucker to economic progress... Govt has no benign or beneficial effects whatsoever
zero gov : I love your anarchy rants! If you were a greek today you would be in heaven. A country with no government, no money, no taxes, no land laws, no nothing. Just the shadow of Frau Merkel.
Lol, go build a greek boat and sink the Bismark!
The main object is political consolidation, not moral progress or even economic expansion. In order to turn their informal power into an "Empire", anything else is thrown under the bus.
There will be those from both sides of the aisle who would argue that an Age of Islamic Enlightenment never occured, or was required in the first place but the main point here is you promoting the EU as the Holy Byzantine Empire of Rothschild Nation, THE alternative to the western transatlantic, classical imperial Rome.
At this point I would normally be throwing around Spengler's nomenclature: You can't want culture and civilization at the same time...and the EU would be civilization.
What do these historico-political anecdotal exchanges really accomplish especially in light of the fact that institutions like the WTO, NATO, UN etc go unmentioned? An aging subordinate of your ''Pax Americana'' can't even consider where its true ills and plagues come from so they continually romanticize some long past ages.
These kind of discourses always happen, falling and rising empires need their glorious and sometimes shady images to sustain themselves.
Analyzing the institutions of Pax Americana - is there nothing else to do but dissect the sinews of peace and war on a financial blog ?
If it means recognizing your very own role in furthering the machinery I don't see why not. Unless of course, you're directly complicit in these processes/institutions which does not really sit well with most of us.
We'd rather enshrine our title in symbol than lead meaningful lives.
Most of the time i am criticized for my lack of compliciteness...but i am sure that many would disagree on that as well.
The exploration of causes should be considered meaningful in itself, if i am not suited to non-symbolic meaningful living i should at least aspire to make other people less meaningless...
I don't promote it. I say its action and reaction to PAx Americana, that exists. You don't read what I write. Don't confuse geopolitics and my personal desires. I don't believe in Empires. Alas, I know they exist and will continue to do so. That's human nature and its history which is convoluted not ideal. Paradox is part of human aspiration. I just say what I see and we can debate its absurdities and pros and cons.
No, i didn't want to make a basic mistake of confusing messenger and message. It only reminded me of some (geopolitical) tracts that are more than a decade old; perhaps the EU is a decade late too.
There is a standing joke in Germany.... "Germans need a passport to enter Bayern".
IIRC, it goes back to the days of Strauss where the CSU considered annexing Bayern from Germany ( summer pause, probably not seriously ).
But now ? ... maybe this would be the best time !
;-)
“The patience of the public has been exhausted,” said Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Eurozone member Slovakia. His country would no longer be willing to help if recipients didn’t implement sufficient reforms.
will see how long this guy will be able to hold power...
in the winter almost 20.000 people attacked the parliament building, lets see what next winter will bring
There are only so many ways one can say "Das EZ ist kaput."
someone needs to tell that batty bitch Merkal then
she's going along with every Eurozone bailout mechanism while posturing she's playing it tough with her electorate. With elections coming next year her Party is looking like a electoral turkey (like Sarkozy)
More solar flares to hit within a week.
i hope you have hardened all of your electronics..................
No monster state can both be a vehicle for corporate interest (through backdoors) and at the same time be the body of representation of the citizens.
Once this dawns on people, that the whole thing is built on corruption, it'll be over quick.
I've posted this before but for understanding the nature of the beast, it's imperative IMHO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo1ygFynK30
in US citizen economics, corporations are creatures of the US citizen middle class. They are a body of representation for the middle class.
In US citizenism, the vote is a US citizen middle class thing. US citizen middle class is the King class.
So yep, hard to the opposition and the impossibility at the same time.
AnAnonymous said:
The points you've brought up here are interesting and delusional. Still, though, as unsupported assertions, they serve your purpose of providing amusing entertainment.
That's just the trihexyphenidyl talking.
That's just the trihexyphenidyl talking.
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A shortcut understanble to anyone who seizes the meaning of the comment I answered to.
Anyone who read this site articles for the past months could have read an article showing that voting in a US citizen middle class thing.
So unsupported assertions?
As to corporations, neither the upper class and the poor class can provide the agregate demand necessary to build a corporation monster.
Only the middle class.