We have big trouble in the United States and
everyone knows it. Every day, our President tells us how bad it is and that it’s
not going to get better any time soon. There’s a serious financial disaster waiting
to happen in Europe that will shadow our troubles at home. The European Union is
saddled with a whopping 25 trillion dollar debt that is growing exponentially
every day! Most of us, if any, cannot even imagine 25 trillion dollars! The leading candidate among many to fall
financially in Eastern
Europe is Russia. Only a
few months ago, Russia’s leader,
Vladimir Putin,
announced a U S 400 billion dollar program to modernize the
Russian Armed Forces.
This intention had the EU scared and intimidated. My former colleagues at
NATO headquarters, as well as my
friends in the German
Bundeswehr were nearing panic over the thought of a “Russian steamroller”
once again forming on their borders. However, today in the light of $33.00 per
barrel oil, opposed to $150.00 oil, Russia is barely able to pay her soldiers
every month, let alone fork out $400 billion for modernization. If Russia
defaults on her loan obligations, the European Union will suffer an extreme
calamity that may spell the end of the Union. Austria’s Finance Minister,
Josef Proell has
undertaken a frantic effort to raise $180 billion in a bailout of the Russian
economy. Austria has already
lent nearly $300 billion to Russia,
Ukraine,
Belarus, and other former
Soviet bloc countries and
is worried stiff over their failure to remain solvent. Already, Austria has lent
over 70 percent of her GDP to former Soviet countries. Default will spell
financial collapse for Austria. In
Brussels, it was revealed
that Eastern European countries have borrowed over U. S. $1.7 trillion in the
past year alone. Russia’s interest payment alone is near $500 billion and with
oil so cheap cannot even begin to think about servicing her debt! Russia is near
bankruptcy and may take Austria and the European Union down with her. Many Eastern European nations, such as
Poland,
Czech Republic,
Ukraine, and others are financed with
Swiss and
EU money. Many mortgages on Polish
homes are financed in Euro and
must be paid in Euro. Sixty percent of Polish homes are financed in
Swiss francs. However,
the Polish zloty has
turned in all time lows against the Euro and thousands of Poles are in jeopardy
of losing their homes. Since the zloty recently halved against the Swiss franc,
even more Poles may lose their homes due to foreclosure. Poland has no welfare
system as does Western Europe and the United States. If you are homeless in
Poland, you are in serious trouble. These same dire strait troubles are
permeating Eastern Europe. How quickly things change! How quickly things change.
When I left Germany in 2006, Eastern Europe and the European Union appeared to
me to be on a roll! Many of the indicators I had seen and written about
previously, seemed to be completely opposite to what I was witnessing as
prosperity was rampant and all around. Even the
German unemployment rate,
which I had reported as high, was on the decline. But as fast as things are
moving, it’s hard not to see that many of the predictions that have been made
over the years are going to come to pass, and soon. For years, Garner Ted Armstrong warned of a
coming international financial meltdown and the consequences such an event would
inevitably bring upon us. He warned that the European Union as we know it today
would not survive as a bloated, oversized behemoth. What he warned us about is
coming down the pike. What is most scary to me is the fact that the
German economy has shrunk by 8.4% just in the last quarter of 2008.
Deutsch Bank
projections call for an overall continued shrinkage of the economy at a
staggering 9% for 2009. This is the sort of shrinkage level that stokes popular
revolt. Don’t think for one minute that the ultra nationalist parties,
particularly the
National Democratic Party or NPD isn’t watching events closely as they see
their ranks already growing. Now, it is normal every day Germans, fed up with
the failures of western-style democracy coupled with disdain for the masses of
hostile immigrants from the
Middle East. Most Germans blame the United States for imposing “human
rights” ideals and policies over the past 50 years. Most Germans blame the United States for the
worldwide meltdown of economies, theirs included! Wagging the “Nazi
finger” in the faces of the Germans is rapidly losing the traction that it
once had. Financial meltdown will topple governments and will usher in
totalitarian regimes. It always has! So many EU countries are in trouble that
Berlin can only participate in
limited bailouts. However, based on their own history, German economists are
leery of any Obama-style
bailouts. German economists know that they can’t spend their way to prosperity,
nor can they get out of debt by spending more money. The history of the
Weimar inflation of the 1920s
that ushered in Hitler and the
Third Reich is not as
lost on Germans as it is to us here in the United States and
British Commonwealth
nations. The indications are that Germany will not
even attempt to rescue Spain,
Portugal,
Ireland,
Greece, or
Iceland as they proceed to
financially implode. Rather, Germany will wait on the sidelines and exploit this
crisis for her own benefit. Even if Berlin accepts the plan for EU “union bonds”
as is currently being proposed, Germany will not openly participate in the
rescue of Italy, as an example,
as the Italian public debt increases to 112% of its GDP. Neither will Germany
rush to the rescue of Austria and her “Hapsburg
adventurism” in Eastern Europe.
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The Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association
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