31. januar (EIRNS) — Begivenheder på Wall Streets aktiemarkeder i de sidste to uger giver en illustration af, hvor hurtigt de enorme finansielle virksomheder i City of London og på Wall Street og centralbankerne må flytte både massive investeringer og masser af nye skattepenge fra regeringer ind i en kæmpe ny “grøn finansboble”, før den eksisterende “alting-boble” kollapser. De nærmer sig 275 billioner $ i global samlet gæld, hvilken skal ses i forhold til et luftigt bruttonationalprodukt på 80 billioner $, hvor den del af gælden, der udgøres af ‘zombieagtig’ virksomhedsgæld kun overlever i kraft af en nul- og negativ rente, samt centralbankernes trykning af penge. Alt imens man forsøger at skubbe os tilbage til en økonomisk primitiv verden med “grønne” teknologier og primitivt landbrug, står man selv på en meget vaklende afsats bestående af masser af ubetalelig gæld.

Aktiebeholdninger er egenkapital snarere end gæld; men aktiemarkedernes margin på udlån ligger på omkring 750 mia. $ alene i New York.

Uden at forsøge nogen form for ‘insider’-analyse eller -prognose er der nogle åbenlyse aspekter ved de seneste dages aktieopsving båret af ’subreddit’ #WallStreetBets (forum på websitet Reddit -red.), hvilket antyder, at de amerikanske aktiemarkeder og måske også markedet for ædelmetaller kunne nærme sig et krak, igangsat af en forsvindende likviditet. Der er grund til, at finansielle virksomheder er nervøse for markederne de kommende dage – hvor vi muligvis også vil se nogle klager til SEC (US Security & Exchange Commision -red.) for markedsmanipulation fra de unge mæglere, der er involveret i #WallStreetBets.

For det første er der ‘guld- og sølvfisk’ blandt dem der presser “flokinvesteringerne” fra detailaktieinvestorer, som har kæmpet med hedgefonde i de sidste to uger. Disse ædelmetal-’fisk’ er på udkig efter en gylden mulighed for at lave en ‘short’ tidligt på ugen, og der synes ikke at herske tvivl om, at likviditeten er blevet utilstrækkelig eller helt fraværende i sølvhandlen. I kraft af karakteren af den aktie- og optionshandel, der har drevet GameStop, AMS, Bed, Bath and Beyond og andre faldende franchiser i vejret, har det tilføjet en ekstra margen af långivning på et allerede stærkt overvurderet og overmarginaliseret aktiemarked. Onlinemæglervirksomhederne Robinhood og Ameritrade, hvorigennem meget af denne handel foregik, mistede i sidste uge den påkrævede likviditet og nægtede pludselig handel, hvilket påførte nogle detailinvestorer betydelige tab midt i det generelle opsving i disse aktier.

Illikvide mæglervirksomheder er undertiden et signal om markeder, der forbereder sig på at gå ned. ‘Hysteri’ om aktier med ringe iboende virksomhedsværdi – husk ‘tulipanboblen’ – er endnu et sådant signal. Den enorme overvægt af computer-handel med aktier kan forstærke likviditetstab i relativt sekundære finansielle virksomheder, og skabe krak som det sås i oktober 1987. Og sølvhandel involverer en værdifuld vare, snarere end en aktie. Et forsøg på at organisere en kæmpe sølv ‘short’ mod hedgefonde i denne uge eller i de kommende uger kunne skabe efterspørgsel på en væsentlig større mængde likviditet (marginallån) fra flere mæglervirksomheder og investeringsbanker, som muligvis ikke har det – såvel som at gøre SEC opmærksom på spørgsmålet om at forsøge at ‘afskære markedet’.

Det skal bemærkes, at Federal Reserve gik ind for at yde likviditetslån til Wall Street-virksomheder i de sidste dage i sidste uge. For seksten måneder siden måtte et alvorligt likviditetsproblem på det amerikanske interbankmarked – et problem der oprindeligt syntes at involvere nogle få stærkt gearede, derivathandels-hedgefonde, der blev udelukket fra interbanklån – skylles ned med hundreder af milliarder i Fed-likviditetslån, herunder til store banker på Wall Street, og derefter ved QE4 i oktober 2019. De globale centralbankers QE5, der startede i begyndelsen af marts 2020, har druknet alt lige siden.

De aktuelle likviditetsproblemer bliver affærdiget som værende i meget små aktiekategorier, som mæglervirksomheder og investorer ikke engang bemærker, osv. Men det der betyder noget for en gælds-likviditetskrise er ikke nødvendigvis størrelsen på detonatoren – denne er ret lille – men den enorme størrelse af gældsbomben. 

Vi må erkende, at ‘COVID-hjælpepakkerne’, nu med den sjette på vej, ikke på nogen måde har tjent til at genvinde den produktive økonomi, der ligger under for denne knusende ‘altings-boble’ af gæld. ‘Hjælpe-checken’, der uden forskel går til enhver, der tjener op til 75.000 $/år, og husstande med op til hundreder af tusinder i årlig indkomst, har givet næring til den spekulation, der nu forårsager alarm. Vi må i stedet mobilisere og kræve produktiv kredit fra en nationaliseret Federal Reserve bank, et Glass/Steagall-stop for Wall Street-kasinoet og investeringer af denne kredit i ny, produktiv infrastruktur, begyndende med infrastruktur for medicin og folkesundhed – her og i udviklingslandene, gennem samarbejde med stormagterne, inklusive Kina. Dette vil stoppe de største bankers katastrofale ‘grønne finansfiduser’, og også lægge en dæmper på småfolks spekulative ludomani.

Billede: "Game Stop, GameStop Enfield, CT. 2/2015, by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube #Game #Stop #Gamestop" by JeepersMedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Schiller Instituttets formand Helga Zepp-LaRouche offentliggjorde, d. 18. marts, en presserende appel, som hun understregede i sit webcast, d. 19. marts, for at lukke finanssystemet ned i flere dage, således at der vil være tid til at indføre nødvendige reformer, begyndende med en Glass/Steagall-bankopdeling, for, gennem en konkursbehandling, at reorganisere det nuværende finanssystem. Det neoliberale system er bankerot, sagde hun, pga. det skifte der begyndte for 50 år siden, væk fra efterkrigstidens Bretton Woods-systems faste vekselkurser, over til en dereguleret, spekulativ kasinoøkonomi.

Det finansielle sammenbrud, som finder sted samtidig med coronapandemiens udbreddelse, kan ikke løses gennem flere redningspakker, hvilket blot forlænger ødelæggelsen af den virkelige økonomi. Yderligere vil dette underminere indsatsen undervejs for at rette op på kollapset af sundhedssystemets verden over, der blev saboteret med ”sundhed for profit” for øje (i profitmaksimeringens navn). Hvad der nu er brug for, er et fuldt samarbejde mellem de førende nationer – en global solidaritet – som må erstatte det geopolitiske syn. Selvom at der er taget nogle positive skridt i denne retning, forbliver de økonomiske tiltag indenfor neoliberalismens pålagte rammer, i mens nogle embedsmænd, såsom USA’s udenrigsminister Pompeo, fortsætter med at søge den geopolitiske konfrontation, som ses i hans angreb på Kina.

For at lykkes i kampen mod den globale pandemi, sagde hun, bør vi lytte til lægestaben fra Wuhan, som førte en heroisk kamp mod sygdommen. Hvad der er brug for er kærlighed, ikke ubegrundede anklager. Krisen har givet os muligheden for at kassere alle geopolitiske og neoliberale aksiomer, og i stedet handle i solidaritet med vore medmennesker.

Afskrift på engelsk:

SHUT DOWN THE NEOLIBERAL CASINO ECONOMY NOW, IT IS HOPELESSLY BANKRUPT!

Schiller Institute New Paradigm Webcast, March 19, 2020

With Helga Zepp-LaRouche

HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello, I’m Harley Schlanger from the Schiller Institute, with our weekly webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, our founder and president. It’s March 19, 2020.

Let me begin by simply saying that we had intended to do this webcast yesterday, but the sheer volume of activity on the internet has made it questionable. Hopefully, we will be able to get through the briefing and discussion today, but please bear with us if there’s some shakiness or jumpiness in the picture. These are extraordinary times, and it does require a certain amount of patience and concentration.

We’re facing a situation which is a worldwide emergency, and Helga, we’ll start with your call yesterday. You issued an emergency call for a bank holiday, which I think addresses the problem of the corona virus and the financial crash simultaneously. So, why don’t we start with what you said yesterday?

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the need to address the fact that we don’t only have the coronavirus crisis, which is a pandemic, but we also have clear signs that the financial system is collapsing. So, that is why I issued a call to close the markets for a few days, which I will specify, in order to take the absolutely necessary reforms of the financial system, which has to start with the immediate implementation of a Glass-Steagall banking separation. Followed then by the other measures which we have been asking and demanding for, namely; a national bank in every country; a New Bretton Woods credit system in order to restart the economy and concentrate on the physical economy. This is absolutely necessary because, while it is clear that now, finally, after a quite significant delay, all the governments of the trans-Atlantic sector are clearly taking measures. For example, the European Union has suspended the rules of the stability pact, Trump has invoked the National Defense Act, there are obviously many measures being taken. For example, the various bazookas which have been taken out, giving credit to firms to delay tax payments, to even talk about helicopter money — in other words, directly handing out money to everybody who needs it. All of these things are necessary steps to just keep the economy going, and also calm down the population, which is really in a difficult state of mind. And physically, many people have existential worries about their livelihoods.

But this is all missing one essential point. That is, the reason why we are in this crisis has to be addressed. That is something which absolutely only we can bring on the agenda. So, the very first step would be to close the financial markets in order to implement Glass-Steagall. Now that is obviously something which requires a different kind of approach. It requires the intervention of the most powerful governments in the world working together. And that is the need to have the summit of the United States, Russia, China, and India; then other countries can support that. But you need a decision on the level of the heads of government to end the casino economy, to go in the direction of a world credit system which enables a world health system. Because it should be very clear that this pandemic will not be fought in one country, but you need a health system in every single country of the world, and that is absolutely not possible under the present circumstances. So therefore, the shutting down of the financial markets is the absolute necessary first step, but it must be followed by the whole package.

SCHLANGER: In saying that, and looking at the importance of taking emergency measures, I think it’s really important that people step back and recognize what you just said. This is something that’s been in the making for many years, and your expertise in this comes from your long working relationship with your husband, who forecast this back in 1971. It was clear to him back then that this is what we were facing; and yet, governments missed these warnings. Why don’t you just review for a moment his forecasting on this, and how we missed the boat?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: My late husband, in 1971, was probably the only economist who with absolute clarity recognized the significance of Nixon abandoning the fixed exchange rate system and abandoning the coupling of the dollar to the gold standard, and going in the direction of unregulated monetarism. He said in August 1971 that if the world would stay on this course, it would absolutely necessarily lead to a new depression and the danger of a new fascism, or you would replace the system with a completely different one; namely, a just, new world economic order. Then, at every step of the way, whenever the financial oligarchy moved in the direction of further deregulation, he absolutely pointed to the consequences of that. He predicted the crash of 1987, he absolutely recognized the significance of the 1997 so-called Asia crisis as being really the eruption of a global crisis. And he made this famous video on the 25th of July in 2007, saying this is the end of the system, and all which we see right now will be coming to the surface of the total bankruptcy of the system.

Obviously, the measures which were taken by the central banks and the G-20 after the 2008 collapse, just amplified the problem by pumping more liquidity into the system. Now we are at the absolute end phase of that process. He also was very much on the record saying the consequences in the physical economy of this monetarism would lead to the eruption of pandemics. It would lead to the re-emergence of old diseases, and the emergence of new epidemics, pandemics; because you cannot lower the living standard of entire continents over a long period of time without causing such breakdowns of the health system, the immune system. That is exactly the point we are at right now, and that is why we are saying that you cannot remedy it by just controlling this pandemic. Because if you don’t remove the causes, the danger is that new viruses, new diseases will emerge. So, we are at an absolute fundamental point that we have to change the whole system.

SCHLANGER: I think we’re seeing some governments beginning to recognize that this is more than just a simple crisis. Macron, for example, announced the suspension of the so-called reforms he was pushing. Macron and others are saying we need to look into what caused the failures of the system. But up to this point, Helga, have you seen anyone addressing the need to reject the whole casino economy and go back to the measures that would feed the physical economy?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: No. I think that the measures that have been taken by, for example, Germany — Merkel was yesterday in a TV speech where she really didn’t say anything significant. All she said is, “It’s up to you to flatten the curve of the spread of the pandemic.” Now, I don’t think that is the way to go about it at all. Naturally what is behind that is how all the Western governments are now confronted with the fact that the takedown of the health system over the last decades, the privatization, the shutting down hospitals, shutting down other facilities for the sake of profit, is now haunting everybody, because we have a severe shortage of such facilities. But, I think the approach which was taken by China has been a completely different one. They did not talk about flattening the curve; they took in Wuhan and Hubei province very decisive measures. They closed down the entire area of 60 million people and acted in solidarity in the whole country; all of China was supporting that. They were successful in reducing the number of new cases erupting. So, they basically have it under control for the situation in China. That is a successful model. Also, Singapore and South Korea took a similar approach. There is no reason one cannot replicate what China did, if there is solidarity.

Obviously, in the EU, that has been lacking so far. There was no solidarity. This just shows you the deficiency in the neo-liberal and liberal model of everything — the markets, the health system, the cooperation among countries. I think that the situation now is very severe. You can see it in Italy, which was the country which, because of its positive relations with China, did apply the Chinese model to a very large degree. But in northern Italy, in Bergamo, in Lombardy, they are now faced with the situation that the capacity simply is not sufficient. So there is de facto triage, not because they intend it, because the doctors and the nurses around the clock and they are near the point of breakdown; but they simply don’t have enough facilities, so they cannot treat every patient. This is a total catastrophe.

But China, which not only totally successfully contained the virus, is now worried that it may come back from abroad, because other governments did not apply the same rigorous methods. But the Chinese are providing help. They have sent medical experts to Iran, to Iraq, to Spain, to Italy. They have offered help to any country which wants to take it. They are sending massive supplies to Italy, Spain, and France, who they regard as having shown to have been friends with China. I think the only thing to draw as a conclusion is to stop this anti-China bashing. First of all, it’s completely insane; it is not justified. Cooperate. I think this is the moment where you have to work together as a human species. China has provided the way to go.

You need to learn the Chinese lesson from Wuhan, and that is the best thing the Europeans and others like the United States can do right now.

SCHLANGER: On the question of the takedown of the public health system and replacing it with a totally for-profit health care, which has obviously failed, even the New York Times admitted this today. I just want to read a couple of quotes from an article there where they said that it’s now the EU austerity which has left the health care systems unprepared. We’re talking about Europe, but the same thing can be said about the United States. They said, in the southern European countries, they’re ill-prepared for a pandemic. They describe this as “tragically vulnerable”, that the countries are tragically vulnerable.

Now, we had in the United States, a standard set with the Hill-Burton system, of 4.5 hospital beds per 1000 people. This was taken down starting in 1974. Helga, you were talking about a world health standard. What would that take to get a Hill-Burton standard for the whole world now?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: First of all, you would need a crash program approach, where obviously those countries which have the capability would have to help those who don’t. But all together, it would mean to build 35 million new hospital beds worldwide. It would require having the necessary electricity, which would mean the creation of 358 gigawatts of new electricity; most of which would also have to be built in a crash program. You would need the increase of clean water supplies by 40% of the existing capabilities. So that obviously is a completely different approach, and would require a completely different approach in terms of real industrialization of the Southern Hemisphere. That brings you to the absolute point where this went wrong. We are now at the point where we have to make a fundamental decision: Do we want to in the direction of a Malthusian world order, which indeed would mean what the British system has been pushing? Like Jeremy Warner in the Daily Telegraph, wrote a couple of weeks ago, that the coronavirus has a benefit; namely that it is culling older people. That notion of culling, that you treat the human species as a herd of animals which must be culled, this has been our attack against the British Malthusian genocide approach for a very long time. This is now what obviously is coming to the fore. We have to make a fundamental decision, that we absolutely reject this idea that there are useless people, which obviously is behind some of the thinking, because the danger is that we come out of this with a Green approach, with a Malthusian approach. We have to absolutely go in the opposite direction, and go for the full industrialization of the world economy. We have to have the industrialization of Africa, of Southwest Asia. That is the key moral decision which the whole human race has to make at this point.

SCHLANGER: As you said, this would require international solidarity. I think there is still the proposal that you made, and was somewhat adopted by others, that there be an emergency summit of the great powers. How could they act to bring about not just this new world health standard, but a new financial system?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I made this proposal for an emergency summit of the United States, Russia, and China following the assassination of Iranian General Soleimani on the third of January this year, because there was the immediate danger of an escalation which could have gone into a superpower conflict. Subsequently, President Putin called for a summit of the Permanent Five of the UN Security Council to establish the principles for the continued collaboration and survival of the human species. Now in the meantime, all the governments of the Permanent Five have agreed — the US, China, Russia, France, and Great Britain — that they would agree to this. I still think that the absolutely necessary combination is the United States, Russia, China, and India, being representative for the whole world, and then other countries should cooperate. I think we have reached the point where we have to different principles in the international cooperation. Geopolitics must be absolutely put aside forever. We have to define the common aims of mankind; we have to agree on those principles which constitute the one humanity. That would first of all mean to establish a system of new international relations of countries respecting the sovereignty of everyone, of non-interference, of accepting the different social system of the other one. And then agree on joint economic development programs to overcome poverty, to overcome underdevelopment.

I think the only realistic proposal on the table is what Chinà proposed with the New Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative, which already 157 countries are participating in. The Schiller Institute, already several years ago, started to publish reports — “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” — which is a comprehensive economic study of how to bring industrial development to every continent on this planet. Some of these projects are in different degrees of realization, but that would be the kind of platform which has to be agreed upon by the top governments in the world. That way you could start a real economic development plan following such a summit right away. It would mean you completely change the orientation. In a certain sense it’s like the end of the Thirty Years’ War, where people recognized that if they continued, there would be nobody left to enjoy the victory, so-called. That is the point humanity has reached right now.

We have reached a point where we either become rational and cooperate, or we may not only face a Dark Age, but we may actually face a real holocaust of the whole human race.

SCHLANGER: I think a lot of people would like to get your assessment of the so-called financial measures that are being taken, beyond those that are emergency funds to provide care or funds for people who are losing jobs, a moratorium on foreclosures — at least for a month or two. But what we see from the Federal Reserve in the United States, as an example, is a bail-out of the speculators of extraordinary level of so-called credit; basically, funny money. What’s your assessment of that? Obviously, this goes against what you’re talking about in terms of the financial bankruptcy reorganization.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: That just reflects the intention of Wall Street to keep the casino economy going. They bring out what they call the big bazooka, I think the Federal Reserve put in $1.2 trillion in various support actions, buying up bonds, buying up all kinds of debt to keep the derivative bubble going. The European Central Bank has announced 750 billion, and that is not the end of it. If they keep doing that, and there is right now the clear intention to do so, it will lead to a hyperinflationary blow-out of the whole system.

I’m not saying that these temporary measures to keep individual families and firms going by giving all kinds of support measures, that may be useful in the short-term. But you need to end the casino economy. You absolutely have to have Glass-Steagall, because this would shut down the casino economy for good. You put the commercial banks under state protection, you put a firewall between the commercial banks and the investment banks and all the other operators and players. If they have no more access to the savings of the commercial banks, or do not get bail-outs from the taxpayers any more, they will have to bring the books in order on their own and if they can’t do it, they have to be closed down. That is the kind of intervention which now absolutely needs to exist. If this thing is continuing, you will end up in a hyperinflationary blow-out like what happened in Germany in 1923. That is the complete expropriation of the life savings of the population, and that would lead to a social explosion such as I don’t even want to imagine.

So, I call upon all rational people to support our action that this approach — that you need a summit of the most important governments of the world, and they have to end the casino economy, and they have to adopt a system of integrated cooperation for world development. If there is sufficient support for that, it can be done, because there is already motion in this direction. So, I’m calling upon you, that you sign this appeal which will be below this webcast [https://schillerinstitute.nationbuilder.com/four_laws_new], and that you help us to circulate this idea. Because there is a lot of confusion right now, a lot of panic, a lot of chaos. But you have to elevate the whole discussion on a much higher level, and that has to be one of unity of the entire world. Then we can solve it.

SCHLANGER: You mentioned ending the casino economy, I found it somewhat interesting that yesterday the state of Nevada shut down the casinos in Las Vegas. That’s a good step in the right direction.

Helga, come back to this question of international solidarity, and why that’s necessary. Unfortunately, we have someone who hasn’t gotten that message; namely, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who continues to rant against China, talking about escalating sanctions against Iran, which is one of the countries that has been badly affected by the coronavirus. What can you say about that? Obviously, this is the opposite of solidarity.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think President Trump has been capable of getting rid of some of his bad advisors in the past, like Bolton. And I think he would be very well advised to get rid of Pompeo. What Pompeo is doing right now in his anti-China campaign is really dangerous. The relationship between the United States and China has been deteriorating. It’s very difficult to assess all of this, because there is a lot of fake news being circulated right now, and one has to be very careful in assessing this.

Let me bring in another element of this. There is a geopolitical dimension in a lot of things that are happening right now. There was, for example, a scenario played out in October 2019, where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum, the CIA, and the UN, and a couple of other institutions had a scenario acting out a new pandemic hitting the world with the coronavirus, and they basically came to the conclusion that this would cause 65 million deaths. Now that was the very same day the military games were conducted in New York on the very same day in Wuhan the military games started, and subsequently the Chinese Foreign Ministry raised the question, if the virus had not originated in Wuhan, but possibly coming from US soldiers participating in these war games. There is a big story as to what was the role of Fort Detrick, which was closed down last July. In any case, I’m not in a position now to assess the validity of all of this. And as I said, there is a lot of psywar fake news, disinformation. But this whole question has now led to a brawl whereby Pompeo is continuously talking about the China virus. The Chinese government correctly refuted that as a racist policy. This is going back and forth, and unfortunately, President Trump has repeatedly also used that language of the China virus.

This is very dangerous, and naturally, there is also this question of Iran. The oil price right now is at $20/barrel for Brent crude [North Sea], and that means the entire shale-gas industry at this point is completely bankrupt. So, there is absolutely the danger that on top of this present crisis, you could have a war in the Middle East, with the intention to drive up the price of oil. I’m just saying that we are in a situation where if this present situation is not brought under control in the way I said before, that we could really end up in a complete strategic disaster. This is why I think President Trump is doing a lot of positive things. He has started a very useful cooperation, for example, with Governor Andrew Cuomo from New York. There are lots of things where people overcome bipartisanship. But there is also this other tendency. So, I think the absolute necessity right now is to go for an international cooperation and address the common aims of mankind as an absolute necessity of surviving for all of us.

SCHLANGER: You mentioned earlier the period of the Thirty Years’ War and the end of the Thirty Years’ War, which led to the Peace of Westphalia. This actually does give us an opportunity to reflect on the actual nature of man, as opposed to being totally focussed on material wealth, greed, making money. You actually have an opportunity to sit back and reflect on why we’re here. And I think it would be very useful, Helga, at this moment of great anxiety and stress, for you to reiterate points to what is that nature of man? And how do we regain this concept of the cooperation among beautiful souls?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think that the medical team of doctors who worked in Wuhan, they just issued a very beautiful video and message, where they told what incredible strain one goes through in this period. But then they say they came out of it with the idea that what was really needed was love. That each individual human being is mortal, but what is immortal is love. Love for your loved ones, your family, your nation; love for mankind. And that that is the kind of spirit which needs to be evoked. I think this is really the true tendency you can clearly see. You have those people who are for humanity, like for example, the unbelievable work being done by the many doctors and nurses around the world, and other people who help to make this situation function. And people who grow, who show a humanity which goes beyond anything which was there before. But then you also have the people who are displaying their evil nature. I think in a certain sense, we are now at the point where we have to shed all the axioms which led to this situation; which is geopolitics, monetarism, Darwinism, the liberal system that everything is allowed. And we have to replace it with the idea that the human species is the only creative species known in the universe so far. That we have to employ these creative capacities to relate to each other from that standpoint to respect the creative mind of the other; to show the kind of solidarity which has been demonstrated, especially by such doctors in China in Wuhan. That should be an inspiration of how we get out of this crisis.

SCHLANGER: I would encourage all of our viewers to take the time now, especially if you are off work or you have limited hours, instead of sitting there worrying, or wasting your time watching CNN or MSNBC, go to the Schiller Institute website; go to the LaRouche PAC website; and familiarize yourself with the ideas of Lyndon LaRouche, particularly related to the Four Laws of Economics, and also the Four Power Agreement.

So, Helga, do you have anything else to add?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I can only add that a lot of people in Italy are now going to their balconies and singing. You have opera houses playing for free to be transmitted on the internet. Since we are in the year of Beethoven, I can only say that the best thing to get the inspiration is to listen to a lot of Beethoven. Otherwise, I really think that if you go into the archives of our website and study the works of Lyndon LaRouche, that is actually a very good advice. Because we have to come out of this present crisis with a completely different approach. I think between Beethoven and LaRouche, you will find a lot of the inspiration needed. So, we will come back with other programs as the situation unfolds. So, stay tuned, and help us to change this paradigm.

SCHLANGER: OK, Helga. Thank you very much.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: ’Til soon.

SCHLANGER: ’Til soon.

https://www.larouchepac.com/20200319/shut-down-neo-liberal-casino-economy-it-hopelessly-bankrupt

 – Vi befinder os tydeligvis i en situation under hastig forandring, i hele verden. Vi har i løbet af de seneste dage haft uddybende diskussioner med både Lyndon og Helga LaRouche. Lyndon LaRouche var meget kortfattet i sit råd, da han i går sagde: »Vær årvågne. Tingene kommer til at ændre sig meget hurtigt. Dette er en farlig periode.« Vi har stadig væk en trussel om global atomkrig, som er meget umiddelbar, men der er også en masse ting, der ændrer sig, som det meget tydeligt ses af de skiftende holdninger i Europa, Xi Jinpings besøg i Centraleuropa netop nu for at fremme Den Nye Silkevej, samt begivenhederne på det Internationale Økonomiske Forum i Skt. Petersborg.

Hr. LaRouche gik i dybden med nogle punkter tidligere på dagen, men jeg vil bede Jeff [Steinberg] foretage en hurtig gennemgang for at få en hurtig orientering om den globale situation, og vi vil dernæst i diskussionens forløb trække mange af punkterne frem og følge flere af de ledetråde, som både Lyndon og Helga LaRouche fastslog i deres bemærkninger tidligere på dagen.  

Engelsk udskrift. Dansk oversættelse af uddrag af webcastet følger snarest. Bliv på kanalen!

WE ARE AT A PUNCTUM SALIENS; – WE MUST EXERT LEADERSHIP NOW! How long before the blowout?
 

LaRouche Friday Webcast, June 17, 2016

        MATTHEW OGDEN: Good Afternoon! It is June 17, 2016. My name
is Matthew Ogden, and you're joining us for our weekly webcast
here from LaRouchePAC.com, which we hold every Friday evening.
I'm joined via video by Dave Christie from our Policy Committee,
who's joining us from Seattle, Washington; and Megan Beets from
the LaRouche PAC Science team, who is currently joining us from
Houston, Texas, where she's engaged in some activities there with
Kesha Rogers. Here in the studio I'm joined by Jason Ross from
the LaRouche PAC Science team as well; and by Jeffrey Steinberg
from Executive Intelligence Review.
        We're obviously in a very fast-changing situation,
worldwide. We've had extensive discussions over the past few days
with both Lyndon LaRouche and Helga LaRouche. Lyndon LaRouche was
very concise in his advice when he said yesterday, "Stay alert.
Things are going to change very rapidly. It's a dangerous
period." We still have a very proximate threat of global
thermonuclear war, but we also have a lot which is changing, as
can be seen very clearly by the changing attitudes in Europe, the
visit by Xi Jinping to Central Europe right now, to push the New
Silk Road, and the events at the St. Petersburg International
Economic Forum.
        Mr. LaRouche had some points to elaborate earlier today, but
I'm going to ask Jeff to go through a very quick sort of overview
briefing of the global situation, and then in the course of the
discussion we can draw out a lot of the points and follow a lot
of the threads that both Lyndon and Helga LaRouche made in their
remarks earlier today. So, Jeff.

        JEFFREY STEINBERG: It's critical to bear in mind that
between now and when we sit down a week from today for another
LaRouche PAC discussion, that we will know the outcome of the
Brexit vote in Britain. People are terrified of the implications,
no matter which way that vote goes, and now we have the added
dimension of the assassination of a Labour Party member of the
British Parliament, Jo Cox, which may or may not have been
directly related to the issues of Brexit. We'll still wait
judgment on that.
        Mr. LaRouche had a much more fundamental point that he
wanted to make to us today, which is that regardless of these
short-term factors, the entire trans-Atlantic financial system is
really about to blow. We don't know exactly when it's going to
happen, but we know it's absolutely inevitable, and therefore the
critical question is: what kinds of plans will be in place; what
kinds of reasonable players here in the United States, in Europe,
are going to develop a strategy for replacing the current system?
It's hopelessly bankrupt. There is no way to manage that process.
        There was a commentary earlier this week by an economist
named Simon Black, who just pointed out that major U.S. banks,
led by Bank of America and Wells Fargo, have resumed the whole
liar loans, just absolute fraudulent mortgages, that was one of
the root factors at least involved in the 2008 blow-out. He joins
Mr. LaRouche in saying that we're headed for a far bigger
blow-out at some unknown point in the very near future.
        Mr. LaRouche's point was that what's needed under these
circumstances is a return to classic economic principles,
Hamiltonian economic principles, in which {physical} economic
factors, and not {money} factors, are the priority, and where you
have to start, is by wiping the slate clean and wiping out all of
the existing gambling debt on the books.
        You've got a clear recognition, on the part of some world
leaders, that this is the nature of the crisis-moment that we've
now reached. President Putin spoke yesterday during the opening
plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic
Forum. There were around 16,000 people there. Whatever Obama's
plans, or British plans [were] to isolate Russia, clearly the
isolation is broken. The Italian Prime Minister Renzi was there.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the EU Commission, spoke
there on the opening day. The Secretary-General of the United
Nations, Ban Ki Moon, was there.
        We're still awaiting the complete translation of Putin's
speech, but what from what we've seen so far, he's made it very
clear that the global financial situation, the system, is very
unsettled. The problems of 2008 have not been resolved. He
emphasized Russia's commitment to be the bridge between the Asia
developments centered around Xi Jinping's One Belt, One Road
policy, and the bringing of Europe into that equation as a
cooperative factor.
        So, there are alternative ideas out there, but there's a
desperate moment from the standpoint of the British. We see it in
these two incidents, almost back-to-back: of the brutal terrorist
attack in Orlando, Florida, followed a few days later by the
first time in {hundreds of years} that a British Member of
Parliament was assassinated in cold blood on the streets of
Britain.

        OGDEN: Absolutely! Right in the midst of that, you have a
very important initiative from Congressman Walter Jones, who has
taken the next step beyond what he has already done, around the
campaign to release the 28 pages, which would expose the entire
Anglo-Saudi apparatus behind what led to 9/11 and what continues
to be the threat of terrorism, world-wide today.
        He had 70 co-sponsors on H-Res. 14, but this week he has
introduced a new resolution, which says, Look, we don't have to
wait for Obama at all. We're going to bypass the Obama
administration, and Congress itself needs to take the initiative
to de-classify these 28 pages. It's a very important bill. The
text of it should be read in full. It cites the precedent. The
Supreme Court decided in favor of (former) Senator Mike Gravel,
who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record; and
also cites the fact that this is Congress's prerogative indeed.
        That continues to be a very critical element in this fight
to dismantle what is in fact, as you were saying, the Anglo-Saudi
apparatus behind this entire campaign. Actually, just because
we've brought that up, I wanted to read, very quickly, our
"institutional question" for this evening, and then we can follow
the discussion out from there. It reads as follows:
        "Mr. LaRouche: Recently a scholar at the Johns Hopkins
School of Advanced International Studies penned an article in the
{Asia Times} warning that the Saudi-sponsored Wah'habi terrorism
is coming to Southeast Asia, and the United States has been the
essential enabler of this spread by boosting the Saudis with
protection. Dr. Christina Lin described the Saudi
'religious-industrial complex' as the source of spreading
Wah'habi ideology. Hillary Clinton recently rebuked Saudi Arabia
and two other U.S. allies — Qatar and Kuwait — by name, for
their support of terrorist networks and ideology. Mr. LaRouche,
in your opinion, what types of religions reform must Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, and other Wah'habi-oriented nations,
need to enact, to deal with Salafi-inspired jihadi terrorism?"
        Jeff, I know that you wrote a sort of summary article
earlier, in the beginning of this week, that goes through the
entire Al-Yamamah case, and everything that is implied by the
fact that that's still an on-going apparatus. Maybe you want to
give a little bit of a background on that, in response to this
question.

        STEINBERG: Well, let me just start by saying that I think
the idea of any kind of near-term reform of Saudi Arabia or these
other countries that subscribe to Wah'habism, is a very unlikely
phenomenon. We've got to take the approach that this whole
apparatus has to be exposed, top down, and completely dismantled.
It's going to have to come from the outside.
        A very, very interesting discussion took place earlier this
week [on June 14] on the John Batchelor [radio] show in New York,
where Dr. Stephen F. Cohen, a Russia specialist, professor
emeritus of Russian studies, history and politics at New York
University, for the first time touched on the issue of Obama's
removal from office. He said one of the greatest crimes that
Obama has committed, has been the breaking of the cooperation
with Russia, that basically the U.S. has no understanding or no
capacity for dealing with this threat of Salafist terrorism, but
Russia does. Therefore Obama's demonization of Putin, refusal to
cooperate with Russia, is piling up the body-count around the
globe.
        In a very real sense, the Obama question and the British
Al-Yamamah question goes to the heart of what Dr. Lin said in
that [{Asia Times}] article, namely, who are the enablers? Who
makes it possible? Because Saudi Arabia on its own could do very
little, were it not for the sponsorship by Washington, by London,
and we can't leave out Paris in this equation, of the whole
development of the strategy of playing the Islamic fundamentalist
card for regime change. It started with the Soviet Union. It
extended to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now this is really
what's playing out in Syria.
        Unless you're willing to force the severing of the British
and U.S. support for this jihadist spread of terrorism, then
you're really not going to address the problem. If you single out
Saudi Arabia and leave out Britain, then you're leaving
Al-Yamamah and everything that that implies off the hook. This
was an arrangement that was made in 1985 between [then-Saudi
Ambassador to the U.S.] Prince Bandar [bin Sultan] and [then
British Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher, to set up what was
ostensibly an oil-for-weapons deal. But under the cover of that,
they amassed hundreds of billions of dollars in offshore
slush-funds, and those funds have been really what's been behind
the terrorism.
        The 28 pages make it clear that Prince Bandar was a source
of funding to the 9/11 hijackers at a time that he was getting
upwards of $2 billion wired into that account from the Bank of
England, as the result of his sponsorship of Al-Yamamah.  If you
talk about the Saudis without talking about the British and
without talking about Bush, and now Obama, then you're never
going to solve the problem.

        OGDEN: You mentioned what Stephen Cohen had to say. I think
this is obviously a very big step for him to make these remarks,
but he said, "The major single largest cost of this unnecessary
cold war with Russia, is Washington's refusal to cooperate with
Russia against international terrorism, whether in Syria or in
homeland security. That, I think, is an indictment of our
political class, the Obama administration and Congress in
particular, that we all should judge very, very harshly, because
they're endangering each and every one of us and our families.
Russia knows how to do counter-terrorism. We know we don't know
how to do it very well."
        And then he said, "I would call this anti national security.
These are impeachable offenses by our government, that they are
not doing things, out of this political, ideological Cold War
against Russia, that could help protect us. Whether we talk about
Syria or talk about homeland security, it's a pattern, and it
needs to end right away."
        One thing that just developed out of this yesterday, is
front-page coverage in the {New York Times} of a "dissent
channel," [a draft copy of an internal memo] by 50 mid-level
State Department officials, "urging the United States to carry
out military strikes against the government of President Bashar
al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the
country's five-year-old civil war," which is obviously a direct
declaration of war against what Russia is doing in Syria right
now.

        STEINBERG: Absolutely!

        DAVE CHRISTIE: This is occurring in the middle of where the
Syrian government has just unleashed leaflets into Rakka, saying,
"We're coming!" The Russians have been very clear on this, that
they're not going to sit around and play games, or allow Obama
and his gang to play games, around this idea that we need more
time to separate out the moderate terrorists, which don't exist
anyway. This is a move to shut them down.
        Coming back to this point that what has been raised on the
nature of the terrorism, going back to the Al-Yamamah deal, this
was effectively the geo-political enforcement wing of what was
ushered in at that time. We had some discussions earlier this
week where this was coincident at the same time that Thatcher
brought in the whole "Big Bang" program to have London be the
center of global finance and this speculative offshore financial
system, which was sort of the consolidation of what had come in
in 1971, as Mr. LaRouche forecast, that when they broke with the
Bretton Woods system, they turned their back on the real economic
progress that we saw under Kennedy and, of course, Roosevelt
before then.
        There was an explicit destruction of the American System
that could have swept the planet, were it not for that
intervention by the British in '71. Mr. LaRouche was clear at
that point, that this would result in fascism. We've now seen
that come to fruition.  But the point is, that's the bankrupt
system that is now collapsing; and what Mr. LaRouche said today I
think is very important on the Obama question, and more
importantly what Obama represents.  Because he represents the
British Empire, he represents this integrated financial apparatus
which is funding itself through the dope trade, enforcing it
through terrorism, the whole migrant crisis; all of this is part
of the integrated policy of the British Empire.  And what
LaRouche said about Obama and that system is that they can't win;
Obama is going to lose, period.  The question is, will others
win?  And what Lyn also said today I think is very important, he
says that Putin has shown this leadership; he's straight on this,
he's the best leadership we have so far.  And I think that's part
of this growing recognition that the BRICS nations and
specifically Russia, China, India, are now the world leadership;
the British are having to react.  And I think what we're seeing
in terms of their reaction is, of course, increasingly dangerous;
because they see what the writing on the wall is in terms of the
imminent collapse of their financial system while this New
Paradigm is being consolidated.  Helga made the point on this
question of the German bonds; their 10-year bonds are trading at
negative interest rates, so that is a huge psychological shock to
the German people.  Anybody in business knows the implications of
that.
        So you can really see that the political turmoil here in
terms of the potential of Europe to begin to shift towards this
new emerging leadership; similarly in Japan that we see.  The
fact that the situation in Korea is similarly potentially
shifting; and of course, Ban Ki Moon just spoke in front of the
St. Petersburg Economic Forum.  So, you just really get a sense
of what the potential is to shift this thing.  And I think what
we have to do is recognize that that global leadership is now
being established; but it's up to the American people to
recognize that Obama will lose.  People think that he's
all-powerful and they look at this crazy political election,
which is frankly designed around Obama.  The whole circling of
the wagons around Hillary wasn't so much circling the wagons
around Hillary in terms of her campaign; it was really circling
it around Obama.  And of course, Trump, what is this?  It's
nothing but a clown show to allow Obama to continue with this
agenda.  But as Mr. LaRouche said, he will lose.  The question
is, will we take up the leadership and responsibility to win?

        OGDEN:  And the point that Jeff made about the attempts to
isolate Russia clearly have failed.  I think that the St.
Petersburg Economic Forum is a testament to that fact.  And then
you have the very strong collaboration between Putin and Xi
Jinping right now, which is being acknowledged on all fronts.  I
think that it was very poetically at the St. Petersburg Economic
Forum by one of the visiting ministers from Ecuador, who said "We
view with envy the great projects that change the history of
civilization."  That's where we are. I think Helga LaRouche was
calling it an "epical moment"; it's a change in epic, both with
the emergence of this new world system, but also the fact that
we're experiencing for the first time in history the negative
interest rates within the European system and so forth.  But this
Ecuadoran minister said, these projects that change the history
of civilization, with the New Silk Road that China has proposed,
the creation of the AIIB, the BRICS bank, the Eurasian project
which Russia has defended.  I don't know if people saw the full
speech that Indian Prime Minister Modi made when he came to
Washington last week; but when he spoke in front of the joint
session of Congress, what he concluded his remarks with was
beautiful.  He said, "The foundations of the future are now
firmly in place."  And then he quoted from a poem by Walt Whitman
from {The Leaves of Grass}; a poem called "To Think of Time." And
Modi said, "The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their
instruments.  The baton has given the signal"; and then Modi
said, "Let me add to that if I might, there is a new symphony in
play."  And I think that's a perfect way of describing the new
world system which is now breaking onto the horizon.  And it
really has, despite the attempts by Obama and his allies, to
isolate this and to try to beat this back.  It is continuing to
take hold.

        ROSS:  That's true; it's undeniably taking hold in the world
in such a way that it's clear to everybody, too, that that's a
real standard of value.  You're not looking at the U.S., you're
not looking at the European Central Bank; you're looking at where
the growth is coming from; anyone can see that who is looking at
it. And the obligation that we have to prevent the U.S. from
being the stumbling block in this; because it's astonishing to
read the contrast between the speech that Modi made, or the
remarks of this Ecuadoran who you mentioned, with these kinds of
think-tanks or institutions in the U.S..  They're talking about
threats to American power; how are we going to secure American
power in the coming world with all of its difficulties.  It's
such a bizarre outlook to even try to have.  It's so outdated, so
European oligarchical, it sounds like it's something from
centuries ago; it hardly sounds like anything that represents
what the U.S. was founded to be under the economic leadership of
Hamilton, under the direction that we have taken at our best
times.  So, the great opportunity that we have to join in this in
the U.S., can make all the difference in the world; and it's
unfortunate that it comes to us from such a negative direction.
If we don't do something, the U.S. is blocking this and Obama is
going to create a war to prevent it.

        STEINBERG:  Putin made a point in St. Petersburg that
clearly there is now a profound strategic partnership between
Russia and through Russia the Eurasian Economic Union, with
China. And he said, this is not a closed partnership; we welcome
European participation with open arms.  And then he went after
the TTIP, this U.S.-British free trade agreement that is, in
fact, an exclusive arrangement that would cut off Europe from any
cooperation across Eurasia with Russia, the Eurasian Economic
Union, China.  And he just said, look, we're past the point where
we create alliances that are exclusionary; and he pointed out
that there are now 40 countries that are seeking trade agreements
with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union.  So, I think that
this idea of this openness and a common future and destiny, is
something that is not only at the core of what Xi Jinping is now
in Poland, and he's on a five-day tour of eastern and central
Europe; and then he's going back through central Asia.  So, he's
clearly got this idea of moving forward with the extension of
these policies into Europe; and in effect, there's a major split
beginning to develop in Europe.  It comes down to this
fundamental question of, do you focus on physical economy, or are
you stuck in the British system purely money game.  It's a point
now of clash where the two systems are so irreconcilable that
they can't both survive.  That's also why the war danger is so
pronounced at this point.

        BEETS:  Well, let me just add something in on this point
about this newly forming world system being led by China and
Russia.  I was remembering that a couple of years ago, around the
time of the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, Mr. LaRouche said
that this is the beginning of a world system; but it's not the
final form.  There has to be now a discovery process undertaken
by peoples of the world to uncover and come to a point of
discovery of what the human species ought to be.  And I think is
really the point that is missing from 99% of the discussion that
goes on; most especially in the trans-Atlantic.  But even — and
I would put this out as a question — how self-conscious of a
discussion is this in other parts of the world as well?  And I
think it's important, because Mr. LaRouche's emphatic point this
morning was that the entire system has to be scrapped; we are at
the point of blow-out.  Any moves that are taken to try to save
it are complete foolishness; because anything you try to save in
the system is about to become completely worthless.
        So, you have to re-found a new system upon a newly
discovered notion of physical value.  And that gets exactly to
the principle that is the most fundamental; but is also the least
known, and the most contradicted in the United States today.  The
most fundamental principle of economics; which is that man is not
an animal.  And that there is a scientifically knowable principle
which separates mankind as a species from all other species known
to us today.  And that's expressed in the fact that as a species,
mankind is the only species that is not fixed.  We're the only
species for whom the new generation can be fundamentally
different than the previous generation; as expressed in the
powers wielded by the individual.  The scientific powers, the
powers in and over processes in the Universe, which is expressed
in the productive powers of labor of the individual; which
reflect knowledge of principle which is completely new to that
generation.  Which is both more perfect and higher than the
knowledge of principles of the Universe possessed by the previous
generation.
        I think if we go back and look back to the United States and
to our tradition, we see this expressed most recently — aside
from the leadership taken by Mr. and Mrs. LaRouche in the recent
decades — we see this expressed by the leadership of Krafft
Ehricke and his role in establishing and fighting for the United
States space program.  Krafft Ehricke was completely committed to
the idea, and it was a discovery in his own mind, that for human
beings there are no limits to growth.  There's no such thing as a
fixed set of resources, for exactly the reason I cited, of man's
potential to always discover a higher principle.  Krafft Ehricke
fought for the idea that man must always progress; and therefore,
man cannot be limited merely to the Earth.  Man cannot be a
species of a single globe.  We have to move out into conquering
space; becoming a species which is exerting power in an over the
Solar System.  Reorganizing, shaping, perfecting other planets in
the Solar System, beginning with the Moon.  Just to put it
forward, that's the only legitimate basis for an economic system,
is to organize the social activity of man to effect and promote
that kind of activity; and to protect and promote that kind of
capability which exists in potential in each and every human
being.  I think that we in the United States especially, have a
responsibility to wake up, and to have a renaissance in the
United States.  Where we once again demand our space program, and
demand that it represent the kind of principle expressed by
Krafft Ehricke; and expressed by Mr. LaRouche's insights into the
science of economics.

        CHRISTIE:  Just to follow up on that, I think that is
probably also the place where geopolitics is — it's the symbol
of the absolute end of geopolitics.  And Mr. LaRouche has been
discussing the idea of moving beyond nation-states.  That doesn't
mean a homogenized global McDonald's or something like that kind
of approach to economy.  What it means is, you're still going to
celebrate the cultural differences, you're going to still
celebrate the fact that people have histories and shared
languages and so on and so forth; but you're going to see that
the core of what it is to be human.  We're all human; there's
only one species.  And that's no better expressed than in space
exploration.
        I also think that what you're beginning to see is how that's
operating now in terms of breaking up — or nations now
collaborating and not allowing themselves to be manipulated
around the British strategies of divide and conquer.  For
example, you just recently had Xi Jinping make a trip to the
Baltic nations; to work out the Baltic nations' entry into the
Silk Road program.  And that is one way to defuse the tensions
that the Baltic nations would have with Russia.  India is working
with Iran on the Chabahar port; where you get access to some of
the central Asian nations, which of course, could be pitted
against China.  And of course, China's working with Pakistan
around the Gwadar port; and defusing potential confrontations
that Pakistan and India might have.  You being to see that they
are all collaborating around this common mission; and seeing that
all these nations' relationships and integration is important.
And I think that, in terms of what has to happen in the United
States, we should also recognize that what is going on in these
nations, that is determining the global dynamic; and that is also
what is going to determine the internal political situation.
        So, all the Americans who are depressed about this crazy
election process, should just flush it down the toilet where it
belongs; because it has no real bearing on what is actually
occurring internationally.  It is being defined by this new
concept of thinking beyond nation-states; or at least beyond the
manipulation that can occur under geopolitics where these nations
are beginning to collaborate.  That's the point of space
exploration; that's also the point of Mr. LaRouche's Strategic
Defense Initiative, which he raised today in discussions.  This
present war drive, which is why the British are trying to tear
down this emerging New Paradigm, really began with the Bush crowd
sabotaging the Strategic Defense Initiative of Mr. LaRouche.  Had
that gone through, we wouldn't be on the edge of thermonuclear
warfare; we would have already begun that collaboration back
then.  So now is really our last opportunity to take up that
initiative; but we've got to bring this New Paradigm into the
United States.

        STEINBERG:  I was at an event in Washington when Prime
Minister Modi was here, and one of the speakers was a former
Indian ambassador to the United States.  I thought he made some
very important and pretty frank points.  He said, first of all,
the most important thing that came out of the meeting, other than
the speech that Prime Minister Modi gave before the joint session
of Congress, was the nuclear deal.  The fact that Westinghouse
had been contracted to build six nuclear power plants in India.
So, he's viewing what remains of the actual technology base of
the United States; of course, it's now a company that's working
very closely with the Japanese in order to even meet the
construction requirements.  But the other thing that he said was
that the United States has been blocking India from playing any
kind of constructive role in Middle East peace.  He said India
has a very important role to play; we have close relations with
all of the Arab countries.  But, he said, India views Iran as a
crucial ally; not only economically because of the Chabahar port
and the prospects of India, Iran, Afghanistan economic
integration.  But, he said, the threat to India and to Asia of
Islamic terrorism, is coming from Wah'habism; and that they've
never had any experience of terrorism coming out of the Shi'a
branch of Islam.  Therefore, India views Iran as a buffer against
the spread of this kind of Saudi-sponsored terrorism into South
Asia and the subcontinent. So, these are areas where there's an
enormous amount of room for a change in policy being forced in
Washington; where the kinds of problems that are right now
seemingly intractable, can be solved through that kind of new
approach.
        On the question that Megan raised; Jason, you may want to
say something about this.  There was a very high-level dialogue
that was going on 300 years ago between Western and Chinese
scholars on this question of the nature of man.  Leibniz was
engaged in a tremendous exchange with China, via some of the
Jesuit missionaries who were there in China for a period of more
than 100 years.  So, this common concept of the nature of man is
not something that is alien to leading thinkers in Asia; and I
think what China and even Russia are doing now, is really
reflective of at least an intuitive, if not completely
self-conscious idea of this unique character of human beings as
the only creative species.

        ROSS:  Xi Jinping — I forget the occasion of his making his
speech — but in some recent remarks that he made, he had traced
through the history of mankind.  He was detailing all the big
discoveries that made modern humanity possible; but he went all
the way back.  Fire, metallurgy; he talked about in the past 200
years, the incredible revolutions of steam power, of chemistry,
electricity.  So, there's definitely a recognition that something
very special happened in a scientific way coming out of Europe
from the period of the Renaissance; that's undeniable.  The
aspect of it that was universal, you bring up the work that
Leibniz was doing about 300 years ago to try to maintain and have
a dialogue with China; to have an opportunity for European
science to make inroads into China, to uplift people's living
standard there and to find more collaborators to work on things
with.  And also at the same time, his view that Chinese natural
philosophy, or natural theology, or an outlook on the world and
on social relations, that there was a potential for the rest of
the world to learn a great deal about that from China.  His view
was that if one were to ignore Christianity, which he saw as
given as a revealed religion based on — in other words, it
wasn't a discovery that anybody could have made.  It occurred
through a personality who was in the Western world.  That leaving
that aside, China was superior in its moral and cultural outlook.
        The attacks on it today are pretty astonishing.  People
saying, "Oh, look at China's economy; it's faltering.  Look their
growth rate is only 10 times ours; it used to be 20 times ours.
They're going down."  Meanwhile, it's just negative interest
rates; it's obvious where the growth is coming from.  Also, the
way they have to play up the idea of China being a threat; it
sort of seems like a psychological case of projection almost.

        STEINBERG:  Sure, yeah.  I think it was pointed out that in
the case of Russia that the U.S. defense budget, when you count
in all of the defense expenditures, is over $1 trillion a year.
There's a $1 trillion program to completely overhaul and
modernize our nuclear weapons arsenal; and that's in the
Department of Energy budget.  That doesn't even show up in the
$600 billion Pentagon budget.  That's $1 trillion that's going
into preparation for the insanity of being able to launch, fight,
and win a nuclear war.  Russia's entire defense budget is $84
billion; so it's literally less than 10% of the U.S.'s.  And
China similarly; it's a fraction of what the U.S. is spending.

        OGDEN:  Yeah, as Stephen Cohen said, Russia knows how to do
counter-terrorism; we don't know how to do it very well.

        ROSS:  We're certainly not acting on it if we do have that
knowledge.

        OGDEN:  And I think there is an element, as Mr. LaRouche was
emphasizing, of President Putin's own unique insight as a world
leader.  Going back to the very beginnings of his Presidency,
with what he did in Chechnya to defeat the threat of Islamic
terrorism there; he said the threat here is that Russia is
Balkanized.  That we become the new Yugoslavia.  And what would
that imply for the civilization of the world?  But even going
back to the fact that Putin's background is as an intelligence
officer, he very well knows that the source of this whole Islamic
terrorism threat has its roots in the Al-Yamamah deal and the
efforts that were made by Prince Bandar and Margaret Thatcher at
that time to deploy the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the
Soviet Union.  The Al-Yamamah deal was a Cold War deal; and the
fact that this has not been dismantled, means that this is still
an active threat.

        STEINBERG:  The other thing that sort of begs that same
question is, is it that we're not good at it?  Or really on the
other side?  I think you've got to look at the case of this
shooter down in Orlando — Omar Mateen; and consider the fact
that he was employed for 7-8 years by a British company called
G4S, which is the third-largest private corporation in the world,
behind Walmart and some Asian supermarket chain.  It's a
mercenary company; it's a "private security company".  They're
involved in mercenary activities all over the world.  They were
in Iraq as part of the so-called "contractors" involved in the
occupation.  In Israel, they man the checkpoints; they provide
the technology.  They are the security for the illegal Jewish
settlements in the West Bank.  Here in the United States, they
have the contracts to provide the security for 90% of the nuclear
power plants in the U.S..  They're a major contractor for the
Department of Homeland Security.  And they had this ticking time
bomb on the payroll; even when he was under investigation by the
FBI for a period of a year, his job was never in jeopardy.  You
almost get the sense that these British companies maintain a
small army of people who are severely mentally disturbed; who can
be triggered at any time that there's a necessity for a pretext.
        Remember that in January of 2001, Mr. LaRouche gave
testimony in opposition to John Ashcroft's confirmation as
Attorney General; because he said the character of the Bush
administration was that they would look to create a Reichstag
Fire incident to go for dictatorship.  That was seven months
before the 9/11 attacks that that warning was issued; and it was
absolutely prescient.  So, I think what Dr. Lin said in her
article, that the U.S. and the British — although she focussed
on the United States — have used these jihadists as tools in a
policy of regime change that has destabilized the Middle East and
a lot of other parts of the world.  We are part of this jihadist
structure; the British — pivotally so through things like
Al-Yamamah — but for the last 15 years with the Bush
administration and now Obama, we've been part of that same
equation.  So, this is something that we've got to face the cold
hard truth of if we're ever going to deal with this problem.

        OGDEN:  And you see this rabid opposition to even the
declassification of the 28 pages and the 9/11 Report.  What
Brennan is doing right now to run cover for the Saudis, is
disgusting.

        STEINBERG:  And who did Obama meet with today?

        OGDEN:  Prince Salman; exactly.  Well, I think with the
activation of this Walter Jones bill, this is definitely going
one step further; and I think a lot of people have begun to
recognize that you have to call out Obama for what he's done on
this front.  We've celebrated the courage that Senator Mike
Gravel had on this when he exposed the Pentagon Papers in the
1970s; and I think that this continues to inspire people.
Obviously, it has inspired Walter Jones.  The depth of the
resolution is, I think, beyond your average fare for
Congressional "Whereas" clauses.  What it says in terms of citing
George Washington, in terms of citing the Supreme Court case in
support of Mike Grave; and just generally making the point.  And
also not pulling your punches on the Saudi aspect of this; it
names explicitly the Saudi government and the role that this has
played.  And Bob Graham has repeatedly warned — and I think this
every single time there is an attack of this nature, it has to be
repeated — the fact that the 28 pages were not declassified,
means that the logistical support network that was in place
before 9/11, which enabled the 9/11 attackers to do what they
did, was not dismantled.  And for all we know, is very well still
in place; and a lot of the connections.  The Sarasota aspect of
the cover-up by the FBI of the 80,000 pages, this speaks to the
fact that this attack happened in Orlando.  Then, there's the
entire southern California aspect, which was documented in the
investigations that went into putting together the 28 pages.  I
know you've said a lot about this already, Jeff, but all of these
points have to continually be touched upon.

        CHRISTIE:  I would just add, I think that that as a flank is
very crucial; because it goes right to the gut — not just of
Obama and the cover-up — but more simply of the Bush crowd and
their illegal wars that we've launched since under the guise of
so-called terrorism after 9/11.  Targetting nations that had
nothing to do with it, but really had to do with the geopolitical
games against Russia, China, and India.  But as Mr. LaRouche
mentioned on the occasion of the Orlando incident with this
Mateen shooting up the club; Mr. LaRouche brought it back to
Al-Yamamah.  That you have to see it in a much larger context;
these are not isolated cases.  So, I think the flank of the 28
pages goes right to that whole structure that has been brought in
since the Al-Yamamah deal, which has been connected to the
various aspects of the financial system and so forth.  What Mrs.
LaRouche said is, if you look at everything, we are at an
absolute {punctum saliens} moment; where you have — as we
discussed at the opening of the show — the question of vote on
the Brexit on the 23rd, which is already having huge
implications.  Obviously, we don't know all the details, but it's
highly likely that this assassination of the British Member of
Parliament was related to this.  You have the Brexit vote, you
have the financial collapse; now admitted that they're going back
to the crazy mortgage fraud that had threatened to bring down the
system in 2007-2008.  You have the German bonds trading at
negative interest rates; Japan's central bank putting out
negative interest rates.  You just have all of this coming
together.  The war games and the desperation by the British.  And
what Mr. LaRouche said is that we have a situation that is
unpredictable.  And I think what that means for all of us and our
fellow Americans, is to say that this really is open for what we
decide to do.
        In other words, there may be various players who might have
all their different ideas of what to do in this moment of crisis;
but we have to have the sense that we know what to do because of
what Lyn and Helga have done over these decades.  And this is an
opportunity now to take the leadership and demand that our
program and policies be implemented.  But even more importantly
perhaps, is a way of thinking about it; and a way of creativity
being at the forefront of what we think of economics, of what we
think of human relations in general.  So, we just seize on this
moment of the {punctum saliens}; that this is the time to exert
leadership.

        OGDEN:  I think that's a very well-stated point to close our
show on.  Again, the {punctum saliens} — the pregnant moment;
the moment of decision.  As Jeff mentioned, by the time we meet
here next week, the Brexit vote will have occurred; a lot is
changing very rapidly.  We have a lot to watch from that.
        I would like to thank everybody for joining me here today.
Thanks, Jeff and Jason both; and also Dave and Megan for joining
us via video.  And thank you all for tuning in; please stay tuned
to larouchepac.com for critical daily updates.  If you have not
yet subscribed to the LaRouche PAC Daily email, you may do that
through our website.  And if you have not yet subscribed to our
YouTube channel, please subscribe to our YouTube channels to be
sure that you do not miss any of our regularly scheduled shows
here on larouchepac.com.  So, thank you very much and good night.

6. februar 2016 – Den internationale Betalingsbank, BIS, der har hjemsted i Basel, og som almindeligvis refereres til som centralbankernes centralbank, advarer om, at det internationale finanssystem står for at nedsmelte.

BIS’ direktør Jaime Caruana advarede under en nylig tale i London School of Economics om, at det igangværende kollaps i oliepriserne kunne prikke hul på hele den globale gældsboble. Daily Telegraphs internationale erhvervsredaktør, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, skrev den 5. januar: »Hr. Caruana sagde, at en ’illusion om bæredygtighed’ har blindet lånere og långivere og lullet dem ind i en falsk tryghed, da kredit var lettilgængelig og priserne på værdipapirer stigende. Denne illusion kan slukkes på et øjeblik. ’Den finansielle cyklus kan vende temmelig pludseligt’, sagde han.«

Olieproducenterne har responderet til kollapset i priserne ved at producere mere olie, ikke mindre, og olieindustrien kæmper nu for at finde ud af, hvordan den skal afbetale en gæld på 3 billion dollar, en tredobling i løbet af mindre end et årti, advarede Caruana. Risikoudbredelsen for højtydende energiobligationer er sprunget fra 330 basispoints til 1.600 i løbet af de seneste 18 måneder. Caruana ringede også med alarmklokkerne omkring carry trade, der næres af massiv, global kvantitativ lempelse siden krisen i 2008, og som nu skarpt er vendt til en strøm den modsatte vej. Evans-Pritchard bemærker malende, at »det, der syntes at være et væddemål, der kun gik én vej, har nu vist sig at være en Faust-pagt, nu, hvor Federal Reserve har drejet taphanen om … Vi kunne meget vel være ved at nærme os stormens øje«.

Caruana advarede dernæst mod lige præcis den politik, som Wall Street og [City of] London desperat er tyet til i løbet af de seneste 6-8 uger: Mere kvantitativ lempelse (’pengetrykning’, -red.) og en panikslagen bisse mod negative renter. »Det kunne være fristende at forsøge at holde finansopsvinget gående, eller givet det nyt liv, men dette vil være lige så meget pleje af den døende patient, med mindre gældsmængden tilpasses«, sagde Caruana.

Evans-Pritchard konkluderede: »BIS synes at sige til os, at et opgør stadig kan udføres på en reglementeret måde, hvis vi ser kendsgerningerne i øjnene, eller også ende i en kaotisk bølge af fallitter, hvis vi ikke gør. Om det bliver på den ene eller anden måde, så må gælden væk.«

BIS er ikke alene om denne panik. Citibank-strateg Jonathan Stubbs rapporterede til investorer i et memo af 4. januar, at »verden synes at befinde sig i en kredsende dødsspiral«. Selv om han fokuserede snævert på det, han kaldte »Olie-maggedon«, en selv-nærende spiral af faldende oliepriser, stærkere dollar og økonomisk »recession«, så advarede Stubbs: »Dette er fundamentalt for at forhindre en regulær/fuld global recession og farlig uorden i finansmarkederne. Indsatsen er høj, måske højere, end den nogensinde har været i tiden efter Anden Verdenskrig«, rapporterede CNBC den 5. januar.

Med formand Tom Gillesberg

Lyd:

Video i 2 dele:
1. del:

2. del:

EIR korrespondent Michelle Rasmussen spurgte Udenrigsminister Kristian Jensen om faren for atomkrig imod Rusland og Kina efter han holdt en tale for Udenrigspolitisk Selskab på Københavns Universitet den 4. februar 2016.

LaRouchePAC Fredags-webcast 29. jan. 2016.

Ved at genindføre Glass-Steagall gør man en ende på den idé, at der kommer nogen redning fra skatteborgernes penge (bail-out) til dette massive bjerg af ulovlig og illegitim gæld. Jeg siger ulovlig, fordi en af de største komponenter i denne gæld er de illegale fortjenester fra den internationale narkohandel og anden international kriminel aktivitet, der har fået lov at passere igennem de amerikanske banker som en del af hele Bush-Cheney-politikken først og nu, Obama-politikken. Så der er et kriminelt element i systemet i øjeblikket, der gør krisen i amerikanske husstande større ved at sprede afhængighed af narkotiske stoffer i et hidtil uset tempo over hele landet.

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Med næstformand Michelle Rasmussen

Relevante links:

LaRouchePAC fredags-webcast om bl.a. USA's præsidentkandidat Martin O'Malleys støtte til Glass/Steagall-bankopdeling

Danmarks første astronaut Andreas Mogensen:
EIR interview

Fred gennem internationalt samarbejde om rumfart.
Interview med Andres Mogensen, første dansker i rummet.
Dansk version af en EIR artikel fra den 19. september 2015

Leder fra USA, 31. januar 2016 – Hele det transatlantiske finanssystem, inklusive Wall Street, befinder sig under kvalerne af det totale krak, og skriften er på væggen, kommenterede Lyndon LaRouche den 29. jan. Wall Street må erklæres bankerot, punktum, ellers vil det ikke være muligt at producere den reelle rigdom, der er nødvendig for at trække økonomien tilbage fra randen af undergang, sådan, som Franklin Roosevelt gjorde det.

Den globale, finansielle disintegration skrider frem i accelererende tempo her i begyndelsen af 2016 præcis, som LaRouche forudsagde, at den ville tilbage i midten af december måned 2015. Det britiske imperiums »bail-in«-krigslist (overlagt tyveri og ekspropriering af værdier), som LaRouche sagde, var folkemord og aldrig ville kunne fungere, fungerer rent faktisk ikke. Der er nu en panikslagen indsats i gang i Wall Street og City of London for at sætte tempoet op for god gammeldags, kvantitativ lempelse (’pengetrykning’) og bail-out (statslige bankredninger) i et forsøg på at hindre en total nedsmeltning. Den japanske Centralbanks overraskende beslutning i dag om at sænke rentesatsen til det negative område, fra +0,1 % og ned til -0,1 %, er en refleksion af denne panik.

Den italienske regerings aftale med EU om at give Italien muligheden for at oprette en de facto »dårlig bank« ved at yde regeringsstøtte til CDS-derivater for at dække de lån, der viser indtægter (non-performing loans, NPL’er) på bankernes regnskaber, blev yderligere udarbejdet for at åbne op for et helt nyt marked, hvor gribbefondene kan kaste sig over denne kategori af italiensk gæld. Og de italienske bankers NPL’er udgør ikke 17 % af deres portefølje, som det rapporteres officielt, men er snarere det dobbelte heraf, iflg. en pålidelig senior-efterretningskilde i Washington, der beskrev den umiddelbart forestående nedsmeltning af det italienske banksystem som »et akut systemisk problem«.

Der er en utilsløret panik blandt så adstadige talerør for Det britiske Imperium som The London Economist og The Telegraph, der erkender krisens alvor, men som brygger den ene dækhistorie efter den anden sammen med hensyn til årsagen, snarere end at konfrontere den kendsgerning, at hele deres system er bankerot og dødt. Ud over at give Kina skylden, fokuserer de nu på den beslutning, som formanden for Federal Reserve (USA’s Centralbank), Janet Yellen, traf i midten af december måned om at sætte rentesatsen op en smule, som den angivelige årsag til den aktuelle nedsmeltning. Den 28. jan. havde The Economist en artikel med overskriften, »Federal Reserve får det bedste ud af den dårlige situation, den har skabt« og klager over, at »problemet er, at Federal Reserve ikke holder møde igen før til marts. Forude ligger der lange uger, hvor der kunne opstå alle mulige former for ravage på finansmarkedet. Hvis panikken er tilstrækkelig slem, kunne Fed indkalde til et ekstraordinært møde for at handle, hvor prisen ville være at afgive det signal, at situationen i sandhed er dyster (og at de havde begået en enorm brøler i december). Men hvis Fed vælger at vente, mens markederne gør det, de gør, kunne en omstødelse af politikken til marts komme for sent til at forhindre en skrap deceleration i den amerikanske, økonomiske aktivitet« – dvs., en total nedsmeltning.

Jeremy Warner fra Telegraph forsøgte også at give Yellen skylden for det aktuelle rod, men advarede om, at situationen nu er ude af kontrol: »Finanssystemets Herrer er ved at skride ud af kontrol« lyder hans overskrift, og han fremfører, at »finansmarkeder er på farlig vis blevet afhængige af centralbankernes billige, monetære steroider – der således skaber endnu mere gæld. Har USA’s Federal Reserve begået en frygtelig fejltagelse ved at hæve renten? … Der har lydt næsten hysteriske krav om, at Fed skal omstøde denne beslutning«.