I can't see what Russia has done wrong? Crimea? But the Crimean people had an referendum and voted to become part of Russia again, a right written into their constitution. No figting, no loss of life, no thousands of troops marching in, no tanks, and no NATO photographs showing any of this, but Europe is arming up for war, a war that would leave no winners because everyone would die in the nuclear winter that follows.
Following the announcement last week by the US Defense Department of its biggest ever arms deal involving the purchase of nearly 500 F-35 fighters, Europe replied in kind on Monday. At the world’s largest air show in Le Bourget near Paris, the German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, together with her colleagues from France, Florence Parly, and Spain, Margarita Robles, signed major agreements to develop a joint European air combat system (Future Combat Air System—FCAS).
The cost of FCAS, which is announced to be operational by 2040, is immense. Up to €8 billion will flow into joint development alone. Overall, costs are expected to be more than €100 billion. The Handelsblattnewspaper reports that “by the middle of the century” the FCAS project could devour “up to €500 billion.” The same sum would finance Germany’s entire education budget for 27 years!
The massive armaments project is part of plans to transform the European Union into a major military power capable of waging war independently of and, if necessary, against the United States.
Johannes Stern - European Union rearms for World War III
The Western protection racket gears up. kv
ReplyDeleteBecause people need jobs.
Because people have been cheated out of family farms, businesses and the commons.
By a government-privileged usury cartel.
Which you support, kv?
" Europe promotes homosexuality, multiculturalism and egalitarianism. Russia promotes family, patriarchy,"
ReplyDeleteMakes me think Russia is all gay or at least all bisexual...
Like the Baptists and Catholics
DeleteIt's a good thing that the USA and EU are not on a gold standard and are not "revenue constrained"!!!
ReplyDeleteSince the Gold Standard did not prevent WW1, I'd say you should look for another means to preserve peace, Bob, such as ethical fiat creation and use and the abolition of all privileges for the banks.
ReplyDeleteThe following is COMPLETELY wrong, false and wrong-headed. The USA entry into WWI was funded by the Fed:
ReplyDeleteSince the Gold Standard did not prevent WW1, I'd say you should look for another means to preserve peace, Bob, such as ethical fiat creation and use and the abolition of all privileges for the banks.
As I wrote in 2012:
During World War I federal expenditures ballooned and although the new income tax was able to partially finance the war effort, most of the financing was done through federal borrowing and by the highly accommodating monetary policy of the Federal Reserve. The role of the Federal Reserve at this time was expressed unambiguously by the New York Federal Reserve Bank Governor Benjamin Strong, who told a Congressional committee in 1921 that ‘I feel that I, or the bank at least, was their [the Treasury’s] agent and servant in those matters’ and further added that the wartime inflation caused by the low interest rates maintained by the bank were ‘inevitable, unescapable, and necessary’ for prosecuting the war (Strong, 1930) [emphasis added}
This is the pure Rothbardian explanation. Wars are funded with fiat money which robs average people of purchasing power without the victims understanding exactly what is being done to them and without any due process of law.
https://bobroddis.blogspot.com/2012/08/daniel-kuehn-provides-factual-basis-for.html
Further, the subsequent 1920 depression was not caused by laissez faire but by the sharp cutback in war spending and fed activity. Laissez faire does not cause or lead to depressions or recessions.
WW1 started in 1914, Bob. And Europe being on the Gold Standard did not prevent it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, that the Gold Standard is so easily suspended during war is an indication that it is not needed any other time either - as history has born out.
Laissez faire does not cause or lead to depressions or recessions. Bob Roddis
ReplyDeleteNeedlessly expensive fiat (e.g. a Gold Standard) is not laissez faire but government privilege of private interests such as gold owners, gold miners and fiat hoarders.
Also, that the Gold Standard is so easily suspended during war........
ReplyDeleteThat's like blaming obesity and diet-related illnesses directly upon healthy diets and exercise because people tend to go off healthy diets and exercise routines so easily. That's about the dumbest thing you've ever said. And you've said plenty.
Your point was that a Gold Standard prevents war - it doesn't.
ReplyDeleteAs for adhering to standards, the Bible has sensible ones like justice and using one's abilities - not hoping for lazy, risk-free gains via injustice and fiat hoarding.
And you can be sure that neither Mises nor Rothbard is your ultimate Judge.