Published by Eurasia Review 25 March 2013
By Lawrence S. Schneiderman
The Western "powers that be," manipulate the financial markets to disguise their failures. They are destroying Western economies, the middle class, and the wealth of nations, to perpetuate a sham. Their political strategies vis-à-vis the Euro and America’s debt crisis are embarrassments to Western thought.
Cyprus
is the canary in the mineshaft. It’s a warning not simply to failed economic
and political deliberation and banking mismanagement, but to unbridled conceited
vainglory.
The
Russian Bear is back –
thanks to the moronic, egotistical, self-obsessed, thoughtless, greedy elites
in Brussels and Washington. Their latest Cypriot scheme to placate Reich
Chancellor Merkel and her reelection is nonsensical and shameful. Cyprus is a
drop in the bucket in terms of the Euro Zone’s banking crisis. The size of its
illiquidity is not even real money in today’s ecomony. So why create this
crisis.
Let me tell you how it is. Frau
Merkel is just playing the same game she has since the Euro scam began to
unravel. ‘Germany and the German taxpayer will not bailout the irresponsible
countries of Southern Europe (to buy German goods) unless they agree to severe
measures of austerity and self-deprivation – blah, blah, blah. We must have guarantees! We want it in
writing!’
In the end, Frau Merkel agrees to
one form of bailout or the other. It's all about the bankers, money managers,
and Frau Merkel’s reelection. The rest is window dressing -- pour la galerie.
But this time, the élites may have screwed
the pooch.
This will not end well for
Europe and America. On June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian
– Hungarian province of Bosnia, a
spark was fired in the proverbial mineshaft that led to the destruction of a
large part of Europe. On March 15, 2013, in the day’s last hours, European finance
ministers “fired” their conditions for bailing-out Cyprus’s banking system. A
levy imposed on all depositors, i.e. savers, rich or poor. As of the moment,
the European élites, with open lines to Washington, are meeting in Brussels to fix the damage they have done and avert catastrophe.
But, as my astute seven-year-old grandson once said after giving me a particularly difficult task – good luck with that. And, I say to Europe’s élites, lacta alea est.
What is equally important here, is Russia is immediately jumping on an opportunity, aka the Cyprus banking fiasco. Russia understands, and correctly, Europe’s and America’s failures to deal honestly with their financial crises, results in an inability to commit resources to its national defense, which in turn weakens the West. Concomitantly, they view Mr. Obama, the guardian of Western civilization, as a weakling. Russia understands that with Mr. Obama, politics trumps everything – including fiscal solvency, national defense, and security.
Indeed, for Russia and China, it’s all too easy. Who needs missiles when you have the European and American political class?
Author: Lawrence S. Schneiderman is an International Consultant and Dr. of Public Policy, Vanderbilt University. The views expressed are his own.
