风萧萧_Frank
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欧洲如今已沦为战争项目
欧洲滑向战争贩子的经济学——以及我们现在的责任！
2025年6月13日 作者：亚尼斯·瓦鲁法基斯
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/06/13/the-economics-of-europes-descent-into-warmongering-and-our-duty-now/
2025年6月10日星期二，我与杰弗里·萨克斯和朱塞佩·孔特一起，在欧洲议会参加了一场由左翼党和五星运动欧洲分部联合举办的会议，主题为“和平的经济条件”。我的演讲视频和文字版可在此处观看和阅读。
[引言]
一年前，我会以哀叹欧盟从一个和平项目转变为一个战争项目这种前所未有的转变作为演讲的开篇。但今天，情况已截然不同。
过去一年，好战情绪已渗透到欧盟的方方面面，渗透到每一项政策，浸透了所有塑造欧洲主流叙事和信条的智库。
因此，今天，哀叹一个既成事实毫无意义：欧盟如今已是一个彻头彻尾的战争项目——一个要么将我们拖入永久战争，要么让我们进一步破产，或者两者兼而有之的项目！
我将论证，欧洲的军事凯恩斯主义注定会让欧洲更加不安全、更加不平等、更加虚弱。
现在只剩下两个值得深思的问题：
欧洲为何走上这条道路？既然欧洲已踏上这条战争之路，我们对人民、对欧洲人、对和平应尽的责任是什么？让我从头开始。
【欧盟的设计初衷就是为了服从美国】
冒着惹恼那些相信自己“创世神话”的欧洲主义者的风险，我必须明确指出：欧盟（从其最初的欧洲煤钢共同体开始）是美国一手缔造的——是美国全球计划的一部分，该计划还包括布雷顿森林体系、杜鲁门主义，当然还有北约。
没错，大多数欧洲人渴望不再有战争，不再有极权主义。但欧盟的设计却出自华盛顿特区。而且，它的设计目的并非为了建立一个竞争性市场，而是为了建立一个由一个缺乏民主的官僚机构（即欧盟委员会）运营的大型商业卡特尔，而这个机构的所在地恰好与北约总部近在咫尺，这绝非巧合。
从1950年起，欧盟就受到美国的扶持，并与其利益保持一致——这对于欧洲那些自以为是的统治者和唐纳德·特朗普来说，都是一个令人不快的现实。
回顾欧盟的历史，一条贯穿始终的主线是：它对美国的全面经济依赖。最初，欧盟严重依赖于其作为美元区成员的地位。随后，从1971年起，它又严重依赖于美国的贸易逆差。
因此，无论如何，欧洲对美国的深度依赖已经根深蒂固地融入了其体制结构之中。因此，仅仅依靠口头声明——或者花费数千亿欧元购买武器——是远远不够的，无法摆脱欧洲对美国的内在依赖。
欧盟从一开始就被塑造成一个大型商业卡特尔，这正是欧盟需要固定汇率的原因：汇率波动会破坏任何卡特尔的稳定，使其难以维持成员生产商之间必要的合谋水平。
从1950年到1971年，美国替欧洲解决了这个问题。只要欧洲对美国存在贸易逆差，其卡特尔就牢牢地依附于美元区——其货币与美元挂钩。但大约在1969年，当欧洲（以及日本）开始对美国出现贸易顺差时，一切都结束了。
1971年8月15日，当时的“唐纳德·特朗普”——美国总统理查德·尼克松——将欧洲逐出了美元区。他的财政部长冷嘲热讽地告诉目瞪口呆的欧洲人：“从今天起，美元是我们的货币，但这是你们的问题！”
接下来发生了两件事。
首先，为了挽救其庞大的商业卡特尔，欧洲人争先恐后地建立自己的固定汇率制度。他们尝试了各种方案：欧元区、欧洲货币体系、欧洲汇率机制。但这些方案都被证明是脆弱的，投机者轻而易举地将其摧毁。于是，在绝望之下，他们创造了人类精神所能创造出的最有害的货币——欧元。
第二个发展是，随着美国预算和贸易赤字的扩大，欧元区逐渐演变成一个以德国为主导的净出口机器，其总需求被外包给了美国。
实际上，美国的双重赤字就像一个巨大的吸尘器，将欧洲的净出口以及欧洲出口商的利润都吸进了美国，而这些利润随后被投资于美国国债、美国股票和美国房地产。这就是为什么一旦被逐出美元区，欧洲就对美国的赤字产生了依赖。
这就是尼克松冲击的作用：它将欧洲对美元区的完全依赖转变为对美国赤字的更大依赖。
[从不放过任何错失良机的机会]
在布鲁塞尔，人们喜欢用“欧洲从一个危机走向另一个危机”来形容欧洲的发展历程。
这又是一场错觉。
2008年的危机是我们让欧盟重获新生、摆脱对美国深度依赖的最佳契机。
法国和德国的银行破产了。
欧元区那些不切实际的规则土崩瓦解。
从希腊开始的多米诺骨牌效应，正使我们各国政府陷入破产。
这本是将欧盟从一个本质上依赖美国提供总需求的“大企业卡特尔”转变为一个运转良好、内部平衡的联邦的绝佳机会。
然而，欧洲的激进中间派（包括中右翼和中左翼）却决定改变一切，以确保一切照旧。为此，他们做了最糟糕的事情：对大多数人实行全民紧缩，同时疯狂印钞，让金融家和大企业获利。
当你压榨大多数人的收入，却把数万亿美元拱手让给极少数人时，会发生什么？
由于许多人穷得买不起高附加值商品，企业停止对生产性资本的投资——而富人则利用这些自由支配的资金，将房价、股价、比特币价格、艺术品价格以及所有资产价格推高到令人咋舌的地步。
其必然结果是令人窒息的不平等和民众的深切不满。
人们感到绝望。他们甚至投票支持像我这样的激进进步人士加入欧元集团！然后，布鲁塞尔和法兰克福惊恐万分地推翻了我们，或者说，迫使齐普拉斯先生推翻了他自己的政府。他们没有像1967年在希腊那样动用坦克，而是动用了银行——其实差别不大！政变就是政变。
【两种共生式的威权主义】
猜猜接下来发生了什么：就像二战中期一样，仇外的极右翼分子又冒了出来。
对于那些令人震惊地不受欢迎的激进中间派来说，这简直是天赐良机，他们的政客们现在可以对选民说：不是我们就是他们！
但对于极右翼来说，这同样也是天赐良机，他们需要激进中间派来推行紧缩政策，而正是这些政策引发了不满，助长了愤怒，最终为极右翼赢得了选票。
换句话说，如果马克龙和勒庞还有一丝理智，他们应该在床头柜上放一张对方的照片，每晚睡前都以他们憎恨的对手的名义默默祈祷。
【障眼法】
自由主义极权主义和极右翼排外极权主义是同谋，它们互相扶持。
与此同时，对大多数人实施紧缩政策，而对少数人则大肆印钞，这正在耗尽欧洲的生产基础、社会结构和目标感。
这就是欧盟在公众眼中失去所有合法性的原因。
意识到这一点，掌权的自由主义极权主义者们接连炮制出一个又一个失败的宏伟计划。谁能忘记那早已被人遗忘的容克投资计划、银行业联盟、绿色协议，以及如今也一同被扫进历史垃圾堆的德拉吉报告？
他们宣布了一系列令人印象深刻的数字，但遗憾的是，这些数字最终都未能实现。这是必然的。只要我们的统治者对能够支撑发行真正具有宏观经济意义的欧元债券的政治联盟说“不”，那么用于必要投资的资金就永远无法到位。即便在疫情期间，他们最终发行了共同债务，结果也只是背负了共同的债务，却没有共同的目标。
每一项曾经宣布的宏伟计划都是一场与失败的博弈，是用来掩盖欧洲赤裸裸的真相的障眼法。结果如何？
在经历了十五年零净生产性投资之后，
德国正在快速去工业化，东欧、中欧、奥地利和意大利北部也步其后尘。
财政压力加剧了政治瘫痪。
新法西斯主义和仇外情绪在各地抬头。
在唐纳德·特朗普将欧洲边缘化之际，欧洲对美国的依赖却日益加深。
世界其他国家将欧洲视为一个令人惋惜的失败案例，一个令人恼火的无关紧要的存在。
在这种悲哀的背景下，我们伟大而优秀的领导人又提出了一个糟糕的宏伟计划：既然绿色协议已经胎死腹中，复苏基金也已耗尽，何不尝试一下军事凯恩斯主义呢？
【军事凯恩斯主义的愚昧】
女士们、先生们：
军事凯恩斯主义在美国行之有效，是因为美国拥有联邦机构、货币主权、财政权力、技术基础设施以及统一的采购流程，这些都是实施军事凯恩斯主义所必需的。欧洲既不具备这些，也没有愿意获取这些资源的领导人。这就是为什么军事凯恩斯主义在欧洲行不通的原因。
谢天谢地，它行不通！因为如果它行得通，欧洲就不得不效仿美国，每年发动战争，以便消耗大量的弹药、导弹等物资，从而为维持军事凯恩斯主义所需的大规模新订单提供正当理由。
然而，尽管欧洲的军事凯恩斯主义行不通，也不应该行得通，但它仍然有其存在的意义——
这或许可以算作一种解决方案，比如针对大众汽车：既然大众汽车已经卖不出车了，它就把整条生产线都交给莱茵金属公司生产豹式坦克，冯德莱恩强迫希腊和意大利购买这些坦克，尽管我们既不需要也不想买。
没错，军事凯恩斯主义最终会给欧洲带来沉重打击，但在此之前，它会进一步拖垮我们的国家，并火上浇油，让乌克兰的杀戮战场上燃烧的生命和梦想化为灰烬。
所以，坦白地说：
任何真正对欧洲构成威胁的敌人，都不会因为看到一个停滞不前、负债累累的欧洲投入数十亿美元用于武器而感到不安。恰恰相反！
军事凯恩斯主义最终会成为欧洲大多数人的新紧缩政策，以及少数人的新摇钱树。
它会削弱欧洲，同时以一种不利于支持乌克兰这一既定目标的方式延长乌克兰战争。
【欧洲向北约投降，以及其在乌克兰的角色】
此时，媒体席上将会响起愤怒的叫喊声。难道你听不到他们在质问：“俄罗斯难道不是在紧逼吗？”“欧洲难道不是身处险境吗？”“欧洲难道不应该继续毫无防备吗？尤其是在特朗普抛弃欧洲的当下？”
我的答案很明确：通过军事凯恩斯主义——即所谓的新紧缩政策——削弱自身经济，只会让欧洲进一步衰落，这绝不是增强欧洲实力的正确途径！
别忘了，欧洲已有150万军人，而过去十年，我们在国防上花费了2.7万亿欧元——与此同时，我们的净生产性投资却为零！现在，北约要求我们增加三倍的军费开支——考虑到这2.7万亿欧元的浪费程度，这简直是疯了。
因此，将我们的外交和国防政策拱手让给北约，为了满足特朗普总统增加军费开支的要求而背负更多不可持续的债务，无疑是让欧洲更加依赖、更加不安全、更加丑陋、更加悲哀的最有效途径。
在这种背景下，布鲁塞尔的当权者们正焦急地散布谎言，声称北约扩张是为了遏制俄罗斯的侵略，以此来保住自己的职位并增加预算——而事实恰恰相反。反过来说：北约就像黑手党一样，扩张是为了制造不安全感，从而向我们兜售所谓的“保护”！
这是否意味着普京入侵乌克兰是正确的？当然不是。这说明北约和普京是同谋——他们需要彼此才能共同发动对抗，从而增强双方实力——而这一切都以欧洲的利益为代价。
这也意味着，任何真正关心欧洲安全与繁荣的人
必须打破俄罗斯即将入侵我们的谎言——即使它想，也做不到
必须不懈努力，扼杀欧洲的军事凯恩斯主义
必须致力于推动欧洲和平进程，将俄罗斯没收的资金用于购买更多无用的豹式坦克和莱昂纳多导弹，而不是作为结束乌克兰战争的筹码，最终达成一项全面的欧盟-俄罗斯和平条约。
至于那些不达目的誓不罢休的政客们，我想对他们说：他们：
如果你真的想削弱俄罗斯，让俄罗斯屈服，你就应该努力让俄罗斯加入……欧元区。欧元一举就能摧毁俄罗斯的生产基础，让俄罗斯人民和国家债台高筑，迫使俄罗斯领导人手捧乞讨的碗，奔赴布鲁塞尔和法兰克福！
你以为我在开玩笑。但这玩笑里却藏着太多令人不安的真相！
总而言之，欧洲的经济停滞是其完全依赖美国赤字的结果。这种依赖导致欧洲与美国长达十年的挑起乌克兰战争的计划沆瀣一气。
如今，美国正在脱钩，而我们的统治者——如同被斩首的鸡——却像没了脑袋的鸡一样四处乱窜，绞尽脑汁地想方设法继续阻挠乌克兰和平进程，以便利用军费来支撑摇摇欲坠的欧洲大企业集团。
[什么？]欧洲道德沦丧的根源：加沙与极权主义
女士们、先生们，就在我们今天在此发言之际，欧洲正一头栽进另一个道德深渊：成为巴勒斯坦种族灭绝的共犯。
这不仅仅是令人尴尬的事情，也不仅仅是乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩女士在以色列种族灭绝军队入侵加沙前几个小时，像啦啦队长一样站在坦克前摆拍那么简单。
不，欧盟的共犯并非仅仅因为我们对美国的屈从。不，欧盟还在纵容，实际上是在资助这些战争罪犯。直接地。冷酷地。毫无悔意地。
法国巴黎银行和安联集团承销以色列政府债券，这些债券为以色列在巴勒斯坦被占领土上的“绞肉机”提供资金。
马士基是加沙军事机器的主要运输商。
自2007年，欧盟投入了20亿欧元的研究基金。
以色列实体生产的手段被用来对巴勒斯坦人进行种族清洗、迫害、谋杀和致残。
但还有更可怕的事情正在发生：我们的一些顶级机构在经济上依赖于支持以色列的种族灭绝。如果欧洲履行其职责，制裁以色列，慕尼黑工业大学将损失欧盟“地平线”计划提供的1.954亿欧元资金，该计划资助该大学与以色列机构开展联合研究。
女士们、先生们，
欧洲背负着巨大的罪责。针对犹太人的种族屠杀始于欧洲。欧洲人在非洲、美洲和澳大利亚犯下了种族灭绝罪行。我们通过组建欧盟，将其视为一个和平项目，声称有机会弥补欧洲过去的种族灭绝罪行。
然而，我们对美国的依赖以及统治阶级从帝国主义中牟利的倾向，使得这一切成为不可能——因此，欧洲的双手再次沾满了无辜者的鲜血，在加沙、乌克兰、苏丹、利比亚、也门、叙利亚。
这也让极权主义死灰复燃，在欧洲本土死灰复燃。当德国当局以我与德国犹太人共同组织了一场以“中东公正和平”为主题的会议为由，禁止我入境德国时，他们其实是在表明一个立场：
对他们而言，任由巴勒斯坦人的鲜血肆意流淌，就意味着他们有机会洗清自己对纳粹大屠杀、对德国在纳米比亚犯下的种族灭绝罪行、对比利时在刚果犯下的反人类罪行的罪责……
因此，这无疑是对我们发出的一个明确警告：经济停滞滋生战争，战争又会助长欧洲白人殖民者的心态。
欧洲已经深陷道德泥潭，难以自拔。
十年前，我们在希腊亲身经历了欧洲自由主义极权主义的恐怖，如今它已无处不在——并且正为仇外极右极权主义敞开大门，使其步步逼近。
现在正是我们奋起反抗这两种极权主义的时候。为了欧洲人民！
【我们必须做什么？】
那么，我们必须做什么？首先，让我们明白：
实现和平的经济条件是使欧洲经济与美国的战争脱钩！
但要做到这一点，我们必须彻底结束欧洲对美国的依赖。
这意味着要结束欧洲对净出口的依赖。
这意味着通过以下方式重新平衡欧洲的内部经济：
新的生产性绿色投资；
结束结构性紧缩；
结束充斥着垄断集团的电力“市场”的疯狂局面；
建立新的货币公域，以结束银行家对支付的垄断，并为所有人提供个人红利；
达成一项新的欧盟-中国协议，使我们摆脱美国以牺牲我们为代价，加剧毫无意义的新冷战的议程。
只有通过改革欧洲的政治经济，我们才能结束永无休止的分裂，这种分裂滋生战争、极权主义，并让我们摆脱被像乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩和卡娅·卡拉斯这样鼓吹种族灭绝和与俄罗斯永久战争的啦啦队长领导的尴尬局面。
我们如何才能做到这一点？有两种方法。
首先，我们需要一个值得为之奋斗的、可信的欧洲计划。
其次，我们必须在各自国家，甚至可能在欧洲理事会组织一场公民和政府不服从运动，直到我们的“欧洲计划”获得机会。
我们，DiEM25，十年来一直致力于这项计划——我们的“欧洲绿色新政”——并乐于与你们分享，以便你们能够完善、修订和调整它。
你们，5S运动以及其他渴望参与的欧洲各政党，拥有我们所缺乏的组织能力，因此，我们可以与MERA25跨国政党携手，共同组织这场公民和政府不服从运动。没有这场运动，一切都不会改变，一切都无法阻止欧洲、意大利、希腊乃至德国的长期衰落。
【结论】
总之，欧盟七十五年的历史告诉我们，我们面临着一个严峻的选择。
一个依赖美国、好战、停滞不前的欧洲。或者，一个独立、不结盟、繁荣、绿色的欧洲。
我们面临的选择是：要么建立一个冯德莱恩式的委员会，为种族灭绝开绿灯，阻碍和平，非法删除她与辉瑞的聊天记录，为洛克希德·马丁公司游说，并借贷我们无力偿还的资金购买我们并不需要的武器——同时将人民和地球推向贫困的深渊；要么建立一个优化到不以权力为导向、以共同繁荣为目标的欧洲机构。
我们面临的选择是：要么听命于莱茵金属、莱昂纳多和辉瑞的董事会，对战争利润和税务欺诈藏匿的避税天堂视而不见，而我们的海岸警卫队却将难民变成尸体；要么建立一个理性的、甚至是激进的人道主义的欧洲。
为了拥有这样的选择，我们眼下的任务必须是结束战争，结束种族灭绝，并在为时已晚之前终止名为“军事凯恩斯主义”的新紧缩政策。
Europe is war project now
The Economics of Europe's Descent into Warmongering – and our duty now!
[INTRODUCTION]
A year ago, I would have started this speech with a lament about the hitherto unimaginable conversion of the European Union from a Peace to a War Project. Not so today.
Over the past year, warmongering has seeped into the very fabric of the Union, it has trickled into every policy, it has soaked every one of the thinktanks that generate Europe’s dominant narratives and creeds.
Today, therefore, it makes no sense to lament what is now a fact: The EU is now a fully-fledged War Project – a project that will either land us in permanent war, or it will bankrupt us further, or probably both!
Europe’s military Keynesianism, I shall be arguing, is guaranteed to make Europe less safe, more unequal, weaker.
Only two interesting questions remain:
Why has Europe taken this road? And, now that Europe is on this war path, what is our duty to our people, to Europeans, to Peace? Let me begin at the very beginning.
[THE EU WAS DESIGNED TO BE SUBSERVIENT TO THE UNITED STATES]
At the risk of irking Europeanists who believe in their own creation myth, let me be clear: The European Union (from its beginnings as the European Communities of Coal & Steel) was an American Construction – a part of a US Global Plan that also comprised the Bretton Woods System, the Truman Doctrine and, of course, NATO.
Yes, most Europeans hankered for no more war and no more totalitarianism. But the EU was designed in Washington DC. And it was designed specifically not as a competitive market but as a Big Business Cartel run by a democracy-free bureaucracy (also known as the European Commission) not coincidentally located a stone’s throw from NATO’s headquarters.
From 1950 on, the EU was nurtured by and in tune with the interests of the United States – an inconvenient fact both for Europe’s self-important rulers and for Donald Trump.
Looking back, a common thread runs through the entire history of the EU: its total economic dependence on the United States. Initially, the EU was deeply dependent on being part of the Dollar Zone. Then, from 1971 onwards, it was deeply dependent on the American trade deficit.
So, one way or another, Europe’s deep dependence on the US was ingrained into its architecture. It will thus take much more than mere pronouncements – or a few hundred billion borrowed euros spent on weaponry – to shed Europe’s in-built dependence on the United States.
The fact that the EU was, from the beginning, fashioned as a Big Business Cartel is the reason why the EU needed fixed exchange rates: Currency fluctuations destabilise any cartel, making it hard to maintain the necessary levels of collusion between its participating producers.
From 1950 to 1971, the US took care of this problem on Europe’s behalf. As long as it was running a trade deficit with the United States, Europe’s cartel was embedded in the dollar zone – its currencies tied to the dollar But, when around 1969 Europe (and Japan) started running a trade surplus with the United States, it was game over.
On 15th August 1971, the Donald Trump of that era, President Richard Nixon, jettisoned Europe from the dollar zone, his Treasury Secretary cynically telling the dumbfounded Europeans: “From today the dollar is our currency but it is your problem!”
Two things happened next.
First, to save their Big Business Cartel the Europeans scrambled to create their own fixed exchange rate regime. They tried everything: The Snake. The European Monetary System. The European Exchange Rate Mechanism. They all proved flimsy designs that speculators had no trouble crushing. So, in desperation, they created the most noxious currency the human spirit could fashion – the euro.
The second development was that, as America expanded its budget and trade deficits, the Eurozone morphed into a German-led net exporting machine whose aggregate demand was subcontracted to the United States.
In effect, America’s twin deficits operated like a huge vacuum cleaner that sucked into America Europe’s net exports as well as the European exporters’ profits which were thus invested in US Treasuries, US shares and US real estate. That’s how, once it was expelled from the dollar zone, Europe became addicted to the US deficits.
That was what the Nixon Shock did: It converted Europe’s utter reliance on living within the dollar zone into an even greater dependence on the US deficits.
[NEVER MISSING A CHANCE TO MISS AN OPPORTUNITY]
Here in Brussels they love the expression that Europe progresses from crisis to crisis. That’s another delusion.
The crisis of 2008 was our greatest opportunity to render the European Union viable, and to end its deep dependence on the United States.
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The French and German banks went bankrupt.
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The Eurozone’s impossible rules were in tatters.
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A domino effect, beginning with Greece, was bankrupting our governments.
It was the perfect opportunity to transform the EU from a Big Business Cartel, inherently reliant on the US for its aggregate demand, into a functional, internally balanced federation.
Instead, Europe’s radical centre (both the centre right and the centre left) decided that they would change everything so as to ensure that nothing changes. In this vein, they did their worst: Universal austerity for the many. And frantic money printing for the financiers and Big Business.
What happens when you crush the incomes of the many and hand over trillions to the very few?
Since the many are too poor to buy high value added goods, business stops investing in productive capital –– while the rich use the free cash to push through the roof house prices, share prices, Bitcoin prices, art, asset prices in general.
The natural result is soul-crushing levels of inequality and deep popular discontent.
The people got desperate. They even voted for radical progressives like me to enter the Eurogroup! Then, in horror, Brussels and Frankfurt overthrew us, or made Mr Tsipras overthrow his own government, using not the tanks, as they did in Greece in 1967, but the banks – not that much of a difference really! A coup d’ état is a coup d’ état.
[TWO SYMBIOTIC AUTHORITARIANISMS]
Guess what happened next: Just as in the mid-war period, xenophobic ultra-rightists rose up from the woodwork.
They proved a godsent for the shockingly unpopular radical centre whose politicians could now say to voters: It is us or them!
But it was equally a godsent for the ultra-right who needed the radical centre to impose the austerity policies which created the discontent which fuelled the anger that delivered the ultra-right votes.
To put it differently, if Macron and Le Pen had any sense, they would each keep a framed picture of the other on their bedside tables, saying a little prayer in their hated opponent’s name every night before going to sleep.
[SMOKE AND MIRRORS]
Liberal Totalitarianism and Ultra-Right-Xenophobic Totalitarianism are accomplices, they feed off each other.
Meanwhile, austerity for the many and money printing for the few depletes Europe’s productive foundations, its social fabric, its sense of purpose.
That’s how the European Union lost any legitimacy it had in the eyes of the public.
Sensing this, the Liberal Totalitarians in charge came up with one failed Grand Initiative after another. Who can forget the eminently forgettable Juncker investment plan, the Banking Union, the Green Deal, or the Draghi Report that has now joined them in History’s Dustbin?
Impressive numbers were announced that, alas, dependably failed to materialise. It was inevitable. As long as our rulers said NO to the political union that could sustain a proper, macroeconomically significant, eurobond, the money to fund the necessary investment could never materialise. Even when they – finally – during the pandemic – did issue common debt, they ended up with common liabilities but no common purpose.
Every Grand Initiative ever announced was a dance with failure, smoke and mirrors by which they disguised Europe’s nakedness. The result?
After fifteen years of ZERO NET PRODUCTIVE INVESTMENT,
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Germany is deindustrialising fast, and along with it Eastern and Central Europe, Austria, Northern Italy
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Political paralysis grows on the back of fiscal pressures
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Neofascism and xenophobia are rising up everywhere
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Europe’s dependence on the United States grows stronger at the time Donald Trump is cutting Europe loose
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The Rest of the World looks at Europe as a sad case of what could have been, an irritating irrelevance.
In this sad context, our great and good leaders had another woeful idea for a Grand Initiative: Now that the Green Deal is dead-in-the-water and the Recovery Fund is spent, why not try Military Keynesianism?
[THE FOLLY OF MILITARY KEYNESIANISM]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Military Keynesianism works in the United States because America has the federal institutions, the monetary sovereignty, the fiscal power, the technostructure, and the common procurement process that are essential in implementing Military Keynesianism. Europe has none of that, nor does it have leaders interested in acquiring any of that. This is why Military Keynesianism cannot work in Europe.
Thank goodness it can’t work, I say! For if it could work, Europe would have to emulate the United States in starting a war every year so that the stocks of ammunition, missiles et al could be depleted sufficiently to justify the new colossal orders necessary to maintain Military Keynesianism.
Nevertheless, while Europe’s Military Keynesianism cannot and should not work, it serves a purpose – it is a kind of a solution for, say, Volkswagen: Now that Volkswagen can no longer sell its cars, it hands over whole production lines to Rheinmetall to produce Leopard tanks which von der Leyen makes Greece and Italy buy even though we neither want nor need them.
Yes, Military Keynesianism will fail Europe badly, but not before it further bankrupts our states and throws more fuel onto the fire burning down lives and dreams in Ukraine’s killing fields.
So, let me be frank:
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No really-existing enemy of Europe shakes in his boots watching a stagnating, heavily indebted Europe, invest billions in weaponry. Quite the opposite!
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Military Keynesianism will end up as Europe’s New Austerity for the many and a new money spinner for the few.
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It will make Europe weaker while prolonging the Ukraine War in a manner that is detrimental to the stated aim of supporting Ukraine.
[EUROPE’S SURRENDER TO NATO, ITS ROLE IN UKRAINE]
It is at this point that angry yelps will rise up from the press gallery. Can’t you hear them ask: ““Is Russia not ante portas?” “Is Europe not in danger?” “Should Europe remain defenceless, especially now that Trump is abandoning Europe?”
My answer is clear: Weakening ourselves economically through a Military Keynesianism that constitutes the New Austerity which will, with mathematical precision, diminish Europe further is no way to make Europe stronger!
And lest we forget, Europe already has 1.5m men and women in uniform while, over the past decade, we spent €2.7 trillion on defence – a period during which our net productive investment was zero! Now, NATO demands that we spend three times as much – which is totally insane, given how wastefully that €2.7 trillion was spent.
In this light, surrendering our foreign and defence policies to NATO, and sinking further in unsustainable debt just to satisfy President Trump’s demands for more military spending, is the surest way of making Europe more dependent, less secure, uglier and sadder.
In this context, the powers-that-be here in Brussels are anxiously trying to keep their jobs and boost their budgets by spreading the lie that NATO had to expand in order to deter Russian aggression – when it is exactly the other way round: Like the Mafia, NATO expanded to create insecurity in order to sell us protection!
Does this mean that Putin was right to invade the Ukraine? Of course not. What it means is that NATO and Putin are accomplices – that they needed one another in their joint bid for a confrontation that strengthened both – at Europe’s expense.
It also means that anyone truly interested in Europe’s security and prosperity
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must dispel the lie that Russia is about to invade us – it can’t even if it wants to
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must work tirelessly to kill Europe’s Military Keynesianism, and
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must work toward a European Peace Process which uses Russia’s confiscated monies not as a piggybank for more useless Leopard tanks and Leonardo missiles but as a bargaining chip to end the Ukraine War in the context of a comprehensive EU-Russia Peace Treaty.
As for the politicians in this town who will not rest until they see Russia on its knees, I have this to say to them:
If you really wanted to weaken Russia, to bring Russia to its knees, you should have worked hard to admit Russia into the… Eurozone. In one fell swoop the euro would have wrecked Russia’s productive basis, it would have indebted its people and its state, it would have made its leaders rush to Brussels and to Frankfurt with begging bowl in hand!
You think I am joking. But there is too much truth in this joke for comfort!
To sum up my argument so far, Europe’s economic stagnation was the product of its total dependence on the American deficits. This dependence yielded Europe’s complicity with the decade-long American project of inciting a war in Ukraine.
And now that the US is decoupling, our rulers – resembling decapitated chickens – are running around without their heads screwed on, struggling to find ways of continuing to impede Peace in Ukraine so as to use military funds to prop up Europe’s faltering Big Business Cartel.
[WHAT’S BEHIND EUROPE’S ETHICAL DECAY: GAZA, TOTALITARIANISM]
Ladies and Gentlemen, as we speak here today, Europe is falling headlong into another ethical void: complicity in the Palestinian genocide.
It is not just the embarrassment, also known as Mrs Ursula von der Leyen, posing like a cheerleader of Israel’s genocidal army in front of its tanks hours before they stormed Gaza.
No, the European Union is not merely complicit due to our subservience to the United States. No, the European Union is also enabling, it is in fact funding, the war criminals of its own accord. Directly. Cynically. With no compunction.
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BNP PARIBAS and ALLIANZ underwrite the issues of the Israeli government bonds that fund the Israeli meatgrinder in the Palestinian Occupied Territories
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MAERSK is the prime transporter of the military machine at work in Gaza
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Since 2007, the European Union has channelled €2 billion of research funding to Israeli entities producing the means by which Palestinians are ethnically cleansed, targeted, murdered and maimed.
But there is something even scarier going on: Some of our top institutions depend financially on backing Israel’s genocide. If Europe were to do its duty and sanction Israel, the Technical University of Munich stands to lose €195.4 million from the EU’s HORIZON program which funds the University to carry out joint research with Israeli institutions.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Europe carries an enormous guilt. The pogroms against the Jews started here, in Europe. Europeans carried out genocides across Africa, in the Americas, in Australia. By forming the EU as a Peace Project, we claimed a chance to make amends for Europe’s past genocides.
However, our dependence on the US and our ruling class’s penchant to profit from imperialism have made this impossible – and so Europe’s hands are, again, covered in the blood of innocents, in Gaza, in Ukraine, in the Sudan, in Libya, in Yemen, in Syria.
It has also brought totalitarianism back into our midst, here in Europe. When the German authorities banned me from entering Germany for the crime of co-organising with German Jews a conference on the theme of ‘A Just Peace in the Middle East’, they were making a point:
To them, letting the rivers of Palestinian blood flow unimpeded represented their chance of washing off their hands the guilt over the Holocaust, over the other German genocide in Namibia, of Belgium’s crimes against humanity in the Congo…
It is, therefore, a clear warning to us: Economic stagnation begets warmongering which begets a revived European white settler mentality.
This Europe has fallen so far into a moral crevice that it cannot easily climb out of it.
Europe’s Liberal Totalitarianism, which we in Greece experienced in all its horror ten years ago, is now everywhere – and it is throwing wide open the gates through which Xenophobic Ultra-Right Totalitarianism arrives to darken our doorstep.
The time to rise up against both forms of totalitarianism is now. On behalf of the peoples of Europe.
[WHAT MUST WE DO?]
So, what must we do? Let us begin by grasping that:
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The economic condition for Peace is to de-couple Europe’s economy from America’s wars!
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But for that we must end, once and for all, Europe’s dependence on the United States.
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This entails ending Europe’s dependence on net exports to
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Which means rebalancing Europe’s internal economy through
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new productive green investments,
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an end to structural austerity
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an end to the madness of cartel-infested electricity ‘markets’
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a new monetary commons by which to end the bankers’ monopoly over payments and to institute a personal dividend for all
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a new EU-China deal that liberates us from America’s agenda of intensifying a pointless New Cold War at our expense.
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