Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder calls for United States of Europe
Sep 05, 2011
BERLIN: Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Sunday called for the creation of a "United States of Europe", saying the bloc needed a common government to avoid future economic crises.
Schroeder, a Social Democrat who ran the country from 1998 to 2005, said in an interview with Der Spiegel that European Union leaders were wrong to expect the euro to drive the bloc on its own.
"The current crisis makes it relentlessly clear that we cannot have a common currency zone without a common fiscal, economic and social policy," Schroeder said.
COMMENT:
This was always the underlying purpose of the EU and the euro currency. It was to work toward a "United States of Europe."
It was clear from the start that the creation of the euro currency itself would be unsustainable unless all of the members eventually came under a unified government and gave up their own individual sovereignty.
Schroeder says this quite clearly in the third paragraph above: "We cannot have a common currency zone without a common fiscal, economic and social policy."
So they only have two choices. (1) give up all national sovereignty, or (2) give up the euro as a viable currency.
In my view, they will fail to create a unified Europe before the euro collapses entirely. The different social structures of northern and southern Europe cannot be harmonized in time to save the Euro or the Union. Northern Europe does not want to subsidize the spending habits of the South (Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal).
So watch Europe as this project steadily disintegrates, starting first with the collapse of the common currency itself (euro). When it does, this will send a financial tsunami across the Atlantic that will collapse our own banking system within weeks.
Both the dollar and the euro are in terrible shape, but because the euro has more immediate problems, it makes the dollar look relatively good right now. In the end, however, the global economy is so tied together that a collapse of either one will mark the downfall of the other.
The shaky currencies are proven by the continual rise of the price of gold and silver (and other commodities). While currencies are usually measured against each other, the ultimate measurement is to gold. Right now the price of gold is back up to $1900/oz, and silver is at $43/oz.
Remember those silly talking heads in early July who pontificated that gold would hit $1800 by the end of the year? By early August they were saying it would hit $1850 by the end of the year. I laughed at both reports. It was plain that unless some serious government intervention/manipulation occurred, the price of gold would easily hit $2000 sooner than that.
The intervention already occurred in August when they raised the margin requirements on gold futures. They had done the same with silver in late April. In both cases, it caused a major retreat in price--which was the intended goal. However, in both cases the retreat was temporary, because when the prices got low, people saw opportunity to buy at bargain prices.
Hence, both gold and silver have risen again. Gold is near its all-time record (from a few weeks ago) of $1913/oz. Silver is again heading toward its $50 record. This in spite of the increased margin requirements that dampen their ability to buy in larger quantities.
We are steadily moving toward a gold/silver backed monetary system. This is the new system of the Kings of the East, who are in a currency war with the Babylonian West's fiat currency. In this currency war, the West will certainly lose. The outcome was set in granite as soon as GATT was passed on Nov. 29, 1994. "Free trade" assured the exportation of every job possible from the West to the East. Any corporation that does not utilize the low-cost labor force of the East will not be able to compete with those who do.
There will always be someone who will export those jobs in order to beat their competitors. And as Americans look for bargain prices, they will gravitate toward the lower-cost items made by low-cost workers in foreign countries.
That is why we have a $50 billion per month trade imbalance, in effect getting rid of that much money overseas every month. How long will it take before there is insufficient money to grease the economy here? That is why August saw NO JOB GROWTH in spite of the multiplied trillions of stimulus spending in the past three years. Even the Fed can't create enough money to make up for the loss of cash flow.
The motor has an oil leak, but no one wants to fix it. They prefer to keep putting more oil in the motor. Then they make speeches about how well the car is now running. The Democrats want to keep putting more oil in the motor to keep the car running. The Republicans want to conserve on oil by slowing the car to a crawl. Neither want to fix the leak.
Today is Labor Day. It is ironic that the Labor Unions have traditionally supported the Democratic Party, when GATT was passed in 1994 under Democratic President Clinton. Today they lauded President Obama for bailing out the auto industry (more oil in the motor). I heard no one question the concept of "free trade." If they really want to maintain free trade, then they will certainly need fresh bailout money periodically. The alternative is to drop wages and benefits for auto workers to allow American workers to compete with dollar-a-day wages of overseas workers.
Free Trade will be feasible only when there are no more low-wage workers anywhere else in the world. When American workers are paid about the same as everyone else in foreign countries, then the corporations will not be able to find cheap labor elsewhere. Only then will the jobs come home--in order to save on shipping costs.
There are consequences to every policy and every law. We need to understand those consequences and make wise decisions accordingly.
The question is whether the politicians (or their handlers) actually understood what they were doing or if their brains were out to lunch. I think that the invisible rulers of the world--those who control the politicians--knew exactly what they were doing. Their goal was to create chaos in order to induce the people to demand that more power be given to the central government.
But God has another plan. He has tricked those same Babylonian rulers into destroying their own system. The outcome will not turn out as they had planned, because God intends to set up His own Kingdom. His plan is good, though it can be scary if you don't know what's going on.