{"id":158052,"date":"2015-06-09T20:35:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T20:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=158052"},"modified":"2015-06-10T00:59:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T00:59:35","slug":"german-banker-obama-is-destroying-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/german-banker-obama-is-destroying-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"German Banker: Obama Is Destroying Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse (translation and added comments)<\/span><\/p>\n

Interviewed on June 6th by German Economic News<\/i>,<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0the chief economist at Bremer Landesbank, Folker Hellmeyer, says that because of Obama\u2019s sanctions against Russia, German exports declined year-over-year by 18% in 2014, and by 34% in the first two months of 2015 (no later figures), but he asserts that “The\u00a0damage is much\u00a0more\u00a0comprehensive\u00a0than these statistics show,\u201d because those are only the \u201cprimary losses,\u201d and there are in addition \u201csecondary effects,\u201d which get even worse over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example: “European\u00a0countries with\u00a0strong business\u00a0in Russia,\u00a0including\u00a0Finland and Austria, are economically hit very hard.\u00a0These countries\u00a0consequently place fewer orders from\u00a0Germany.\u00a0Moreover, considering that European corporations will circumvent the sanctions, to create\u00a0production\u00a0facilities at the highest efficiency level in Russia, we lose this potential capital stock, which is the basis of\u00a0our prosperity.\u00a0Russia\u00a0wins the capital stock,\u201d at the EU\u2019s expense, even though the sanctions are targeted against Russia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the nub is this: \u201cFor the future,\u00a0Germany and the EU place their economic reliability into question with Russia.\u00a0The\u00a0relationship of trust is broken by Germany\u00a0and the EU.\u00a0In order to build such confidence, it takes several\u00a0years.\u00a0Between signature and delivery are up to five years. …\u00a0Siemens is now\u00a0thrown out from a major project for this reason [i.e., because the requisite predictability has been lost].\u00a0Alstom has likewise lost the contract for the railway\u00a0line from\u00a0Moscow to Beijing.\u00a0Consequently,\u00a0the potential for damage is much more massive than the\u00a0current figures show, not only for Germany, but for the\u00a0entire EU.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, he says: “More [projects] still in planning include the axis from Peking to Moscow as part of the Shanghai Corporation and the BRIC countries,\u00a0the largest growth project in modern history, the construction of the infrastructure of Eurasia, from\u00a0Moscow to Vladivostok, to Southern China and India.\u00a0How far the EU and Germany’s sanctions-policy\u00a0regarding Russia figures in these developing-countries\u2019 mega-projects will depend upon whether we\u2019ll be seen as hostile in other emerging countries than Russia. [NOTE from Eric Zuesse: Obama speaking 28 May 2014 to graduating West Point cadets<\/span><\/a>: \u2018Russia\u2019s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China\u2019s economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us, and governments seek a greater say in global forums.<\/i>\u2019 His attitude toward developing countries is clear \u2013 they are enemies, to be dealt with via the military, not economic partners to advance with us in economic cooperation.] But, obviously, there is a lack that some participants in European politics [and inside the White House!] have in their abilities to think abstractly on our behalf.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked who will be paying the price for this, he says: “The measurable damage is loss of growth, in lost wages, losses in contributions to the\u00a0social system and in tax revenue.\u00a0This is true for the past 12 months, and it is valid for the years\u00a0ahead.\u00a0The people in Germany and the EU will pay the price through lost prosperity and stability.\u00a0The unmeasurable damage lies in an elevated geopolitical risk situation for the people in the\u00a0EU.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about the situation in Ukraine, Hellmeyer says: “It is indeed irritating.\u00a0People who are focused not only on Western \u2018quality media’\u00a0are amazed at those media hiding the aggression of Kiev<\/span><\/a> and the discriminatory laws implemented by the\u00a0Government in Kiev, which constitute a serious challenge to the claim that Western values and democracy are being supported by the West.\u00a0I believe, to Mr Steinmeier\u2019s credit, that he is in fact talking plainly about these matters behind closed doors.\u00a0The\u00a0question is whether the behavior of the Atlantic alliance supports Mr. Steinmeier.\u00a0I refer in this regard especially to\u00a0Victoria Nuland.\u00a0The fact is that by the coup<\/span><\/a> in the Ukraine, an\u00a0oligarchy friendly towards Moscow was replaced by an oligarchy now oriented toward the United\u00a0States.\u00a0It’s geopolitics, which benefits third forces, but definitely not Germany, not the EU, not Russia, and\u00a0not Ukraine.\u201d So, he sees U.S. as having gained at the expense of every other country, but especially<\/i> at Europe\u2019s expense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about the future, Folker Hellmeyer says: “For me, the conflict has already been decided.\u00a0The axis Moscow-Beijing-BRIC wins.\u00a0The dominance of the West is through. In\u00a01990 those countries accounted for only about 25% of world economic\u00a0output.\u00a0Today, they represent 56% of world economic output, and 85% of world population.\u00a0They control\u00a0about 70% of the world’s foreign exchange reserves.\u00a0They grow annually by an average of 4% – 5%.\u00a0Since\u00a0the United States were not prepared to share power internationally (e.g., by changing the voting-apportionments in the IMF and World Bank), the future rests with those countries themselves,\u00a0to build in the emerging markets sector on their own financial system.\u00a0There lies their future. The EU is currently being drawn into the conflict, which the United States caused because she did not\u00a0share power and want to share.\u00a0The longer we\u00a0pursue this [mono-polar, hegemonic, Imperial, supremacist, internationally dictatorial, aggressive] policy in the EU, the higher the price [to Europe will be].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He goes on to say: “The fact is that the emerging countries emancipate themselves from US control.\u00a0This is evident in the\u00a0creation of competitive institutions of the World Bank (AIIB) and the IMF (New Development Bank) by\u00a0the axis of the emerging countries.\u00a0This displeases the still prevailing hegemon.\u00a0The current international\u00a0hot spots of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, to the Ukraine, are an expression of this, in the\u00a0background, as a clearly identifiable power-confrontation [between the U.S. and every other country].\u00a0If we were there intending to establish democracy and\u00a0freedom, let’s look at the success in achieving those goals. [His implication: it\u2019s failure.]”<\/span><\/p>\n

German Economic News<\/i> asks: “The contempt with which the US government deals with the Europeans is\u00a0remarkable, such as the NSA tapping the Chancellor\u2019s phone, and Nuland\u2019s famous ‘Fuck the EU\u2019 statement.\u00a0Have European politicians no self-respect, or are\u00a0they just too cowardly?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Hellmeyer responds:\u00a0\u201cThe person who\u00a0is a true democrat takes seriously his duties as a politician for the public\u2019s well-being, and does not allow his nation’s self-determination to be so contemptuously trampled underfoot, such as has followed from that remark.\u00a0The person who is not a true democrat, has with respect to the above values and canon, severe deficits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

CLOSE from Zuesse:<\/b> Why is there not, in Europe, a huge movement to abandon NATO, and to kick out the U.S. military? Whom is the U.S. \u2018defending\u2019 Europeans from, after the Warsaw Pact ended in 1991? Why did not Gorbachev demand that NATO disband when the Warsaw Pact did \u2013 simultaneous (instead of one-sided) disbanding of the Cold War, so that there would not become the foundation for international fascism to arise to conquer Russia (first, to surround it by an expanding NATO \u2013 and ultimately via TPP & TTIP), in the aftermath? Why is there not considerable public debate about these crucial historical, cultural, and economic, matters? Why is there such deceit, which requires these massive questions to be ignored so long by \u2018historians\u2019? How is it even possible for the world to move constructively forward, in this environment, of severe censorship, in the media, in academia, and throughout \u2018the free world\u2019? Why is there no outrage that the Saudi and other Arabic royals fund islamic jihad (so long as it\u2019s not in their own countries) but America instead demonizes Russia\u2019s leaders, who consistently oppose jihadists and jihadism? Why are America\u2019s rulers allied with the top financiers of jihad?<\/span><\/a> Why is that being kept so secret? Why are these injustices tolerated by the public? Who will change this, and how? When will that desperately needed change even start? Will it start soon enough? Maybe WW III won\u2019t occur, but the damages are already horrible, and they\u2019re getting worse. This can go on until the end; and, if it does, that end will make horrible look like heaven, by comparison. It would be worse than anything ever known \u2013 and it could happen in and to our generation.<\/span><\/p>\n

———-<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0of \u00a0Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse (translation and added comments) Interviewed on June 6th by German Economic News,\u00a0the chief economist at Bremer Landesbank, Folker Hellmeyer, says that because of Obama\u2019s sanctions against Russia, German exports declined year-over-year by 18% in 2014, and by 34% in the first two months of 2015 (no later figures), but he asserts that “The\u00a0damage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":158053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[115,30,93,880,896,535,59,524,523,49,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-158052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-global-news","15":"tag-military","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-usa-news","19":"tag-warfare","20":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}