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
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