EUROPE IS BEING ROCKED BY THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ON A MUCH MORE FUNDAMENTAL BASIS THAN IS AMERICA
By: S.R. Shearer
October 13, 2008
Europe is being rocked by the current financial crisis; indeed, it is being unsettled on a much more fundamental level than is America - and so much so that Germany's Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble has warned that Germany - which possesses the largest economy in Europe - is facing the same kind of banking crisis that it faced in 1929 and 1931; the type of crisis that plunged Germany into the Great Depression. He went on to say:
"The consequences of the depression were Adolf Hitler and indirectly the Second World War and Auschwitz,"
The words by Germany's Interior Minister have had a very sobering impact on Europe. The mere mention of Hitler, Auschwitz and the Second World War coming from a high German official is nothing that people of Europe find comforting.
Still, the fact is that people all over Germany (and, for that matter, all over Europe) fear a run on the banks, a fear that led Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel together with Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück to say that the German government will guarantee all savings deposits; but as German commentator Peter Schwarz says, the guarantee is worthless; it is -
"...merely a statement of political intent that they have no intention of codifying into law."
And that is so because, as Treasury spokesman Torsten Albig said last Monday, there is no intention by the CDU (Germany's governing political party) to back up Merkel's statement with legislation.
Schwarz remarks:
"Merkel's and Steinbrück's promise of a guarantee of savings deposits is based on a daring economic calculation-that they will never be called upon to carry it out. It is meant to calm savers and small investors and prevent a run on the banks, which could lead to a collapse of the entire financial system."
Schwarz continues:
"If, contrary to their expectations, they (i.e., Merkel and Steinbrück) were called upon to make good on their pledge, nobody knows what would happen. There are no funds or reserves to secure the assets concerned, whose sum has been estimated at more than a trillion euros ($1.35 trillion). The only option would be to enormously increase the state debt, which in the past Steinbrück has always vehemently rejected.
"Underlying Merkel's and Steinbrück's risky promise lie, above all, political motives. THEY FEAR A POPULAR RADICALIZATION AND MOVEMENT TO THE LEFT IF THEY PAY OUT BILLIONS TO RESCUE INSOLVENT BANKS, REVEALING THEMSLEVES ALL TOO OPENLY AS THE LACKEYS OF ... [THE ELITES]."
In the online edition of the newsweekly Die Zeit, journalist Ludwig Greven, a writer for the Financial Times Deutschland, expresses the fear that the financial crisis in Germany threatens to become "A CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY" - by which he means a socialist takeover in Europe. Answering his own question-who governs Germany, the government or the banks?- he responds:
"To all intents and purposes, it is the banks." [In other words, the people would be justified in turning to the Left to save them from the greed of the banks.]
Greven concludes that politicians in Germany not only have "to contend with the threatening meltdown of the financial system, they -
"... also have to be concerned with the legitimacy of politics, and in particular the social reforms of recent years, which apparently were driven by capital's same greedy appetites."
And it isn't as if the people in Germany are not aware of who's responsible for the current crisis: They blame the lackey elites who have governed them for the last twenty years - elites who have been slavishly devoted to the demands of Wall Street with regard to "market deregulation" and the "dismantling of Germany's enlightened social safety net for the poor and unemployed."
Schwarz writes:
"After years in which the government has regarded market deregulation and the dismantling of social gains as its core tasks, now it must clearly distance itself from the interests of ... [Wall Street] in order to retain some shred of credibility."
Schwarz says that ever more people are asking themselves, "Why must they accept massive cuts in social spending and wages when there is obviously more than enough money to rescue the banks."
Greven writes:
"If politicians now limit their role to providing 'emergency aid', ignoring the dangerous effects on political moods, then the global financial crisis could also produce a crisis of our Western democratic system. Those profiting would be left-wing populists and dangerous demagogues ..."
Heribert Prantl argues similarly in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The global financial crisis is not just about confidence in the money markets; he writes:
"It also concerns faith in the sovereignty and capacity of democracy [by which he means the security of the American New World Order System - a system that has guaranteed the elites of Europe untold wealth] ... It is not only about plugging up gigantic monetary holes, but also ensuring that the crisis of global capitalism does not become a global crisis of democracy."
And it's not just in Germany that doom and gloom predominate; it's everywhere: in Italy, in Spain, in France. For example, last week, London's conservative Daily Mail remarked in an editorial:
"For decades, we have worshipped at the shrine of gold. Prime ministers and presidents have bowed before its keepers. The monarchs of cash, arbiters of wealth, supposed founts of all wisdom, have bestridden Europe at the behest of the United States, humbling all in their path ...
Today, we awaken to discover that like so many wizards of Oz, these supremely confident figures are in reality foolish old men-and some young ones-mouthing hollow incantations from behind curtains."
Schwarz writes:
"The development of an enormous speculative bubble in recent years was accompanied by an unprecedented social polarization between the wealthy and the masses of the population. Now this process will experience a further quantum leap with the collapse of this bubble.
"The result will be a worldwide intensification of class struggle. The ideology of the free market, which was raised to the rank of a state religion after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has suffered irreparable damage in the wake of the collapse of major Wall Street banks. Under these conditions social opposition will invariably tend to take an anti-capitalist and left-wing form."
THESE ARE THE THINGS OUT FROM WHICH THE NIGHTMARES OF THE ELITES ARE FASHIONED. EUROPE'S POLITICAL AND BUSINESS ELITES ARE FACING THE KIND OF "PEOPLE'S REVOLT" THAT THEY HAVEN'T SEEN FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS - in Russia under Lenin in 1917, in Bavaria under Kurt Eisner in 1918, and in Berlin under Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxumburg in 1919.
However, Prantl warns:
"The notion that the financial oligarchy will voluntarily yield up its booty and conclude a contract social is ludicrous."
Prantl says that the European oligarchs are looking desperately to Washington to bail them out. It's in this light that one should remember that the most powerful army in Europe is not the German or French armies, but the AMERICAN ARMY IN EUROPE. It's a military machine that is more than capable - should things get really "out of hand," and should it be used mercilessly - of sweeping Europe's weak, under equipped armies away with the same kind of impunity that it did with the Iraqi army.
It's here - it's precisely here - that the words of the prophet Daniel concerning the Gog/Magog War come to mind, words that foretell a time when Antichrist -
"Will gain control over the hidden treasures [i.e., the oil of the Middle East] and over all the precious things ...
"But rumors ... from the north [i.e. north of the Middle East - in Europe] will disturb him, and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many." (Daniel 11:44-45)
What is referenced here are three countries in Europe formerly allied with the Antichrist that will be quashed by American military might:
"After this I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, a fourth beast, terrible and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
"I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, BEFORE WHICH THREE OF THE FIRST HORNS WERE PLUCKED UP BY THE ROOTS: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. (Daniel 7:7-11 ASV) [For a description of this conflict, Please see Chapter XV of the New Antipas Papers, "The Gog / Magog War."]
God bless you all!
S.R.Shearer Antipas Ministries
I must have an open heart in order to encounter God. It should be well-disposed, ready, prepared, moulded, full of expectancies, clean, if possible, without any sign of anguish, sadness, sorrow, pain, or rancour whatsoever, so that my encounter with God may be good and effective. Sometimes, this is rather difficult to achieve, for we often resort to God when we are undergoing serious difficulties, trials, problems and hindrances throughout our lives.
