Putin Agrees: Europe Has Lost Its Sovereignty

Putin's address to those at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum today contained a vast quantity of information and data about the state of Russia and the world. But IMO the most important statement he made was confirming what my last two articles have focused on--the Colonization of Europe, which means its loss of sovereignty and independence of action. Here are the three crucial paragraphs, the first two provide the context while the third delivers the judgement. Emphasis is mine:

Yes, now these contradictions are suppressed, "swept under the carpet". Democratic procedures, elections in Europe – to be honest, sometimes you look at what is happening there, what forces come to power – all this looks like a screen, because political parties similar to twins change each other in power. However, the very essence does not change from this. The real interests of citizens and national business are being pushed further and further to the margins, to the periphery.

Such a separation from reality, from the demands of society, will inevitably lead to a surge in populism and the growth of extreme, radical currents, to serious socio-economic changes, to degradation, and in the near future to a change of elites. Traditional parties, as you can see, lose all the time. Some new formations appear, but if they are not much different from the traditional ones, they also do not have many chances for survival.

All attempts to make a good landmine with a bad game, all the talk about allegedly acceptable costs in the name of pseudo-unity cannot hide the main thing: the European Union has finally lost its political sovereignty, and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else's tune, accepting everything that they will be told from above, causing harm to their own population and their own economy, their own business.

What we are seeing is the inevitable result of the depredation wrought by Neoliberal Parasitism emanating from the Outlaw Anglo Empire, the Zero-sum aims of the international Rentier Class and its Financial Capitalism weapon that's described so well by Dr. Hudson in his Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy. Some will argue that Europe lost its sovereignty years ago, and such arguments are quite sound. What's different now is the condition of abject Colonization is more apparent than ever before thanks to the “thoughtless sanctions” that have boomeranged onto those who levied them and now seriously threaten their national livelihoods.

Putin curtails his brief talk about Europe's current problems and speaks to the roots of the current global economic crisis and without using the term Neoliberalism describes how it worked to cause the crisis. Why? Fundamentally because Neoliberalism involves the deindustrialization of nations to the point where the nation must now import most of the goods its polity demands; and to do that the printing presses are unleashed. Putin describes it thusly:

Without inventing or wishing to use other recipes, the authorities of the leading Western economies simply launched the printing press. In such a simple way, they began to cover unprecedented budget deficits.

I have already mentioned this figure: over the past two years, the money supply in the United States has grown by more than 38 percent. Previously, there was such an increase for decades, but here in two years 38 percent is 5.9 trillion dollars. By comparison, only a few countries in the world have a larger gross domestic product.

The EU's money supply, in turn, has also increased dramatically over this period. Its volume increased by about 20 percent, or 2.5 trillion euros… .

They printed money in huge quantities, and then what? Where did all these funds go? Obviously: including for the purchase of goods and services outside Western countries – this is where they flowed, this money was printed. They literally began to "vacuum", to rake global markets. Naturally, no one thought about the interests of other states, including the poorest ones. They were left with only what is called, as we say in our people, oshmetics, and even at astronomical prices.

So, if at the end of 2019, imports, imports of goods to the United States amounted to about $ 250 billion a month, so far it has grown to $ 350 billion. It is noteworthy that the growth was 40 percent – in proportion, this corresponds to the unsecured pumping of the dollar money supply of recent years. They printed, distributed money and for this money raked all the goods from the markets of third countries.

I would like to add one more thing: The United States has long been a major supplier of food on the world market, deservedly, deservedly, deservedly proud – and there was something – of its agriculture, traditions of farming, this is an example for many, and for us, by the way, too. But today, America's role has changed dramatically. From a net exporter of food, it has become a net importer. Roughly speaking, they print money and pull on themselves the flow of goods, buying food all over the world.

And it's not just with foodstuffs but with everything short of weapons, some high-tech items, and automobiles--the deindustrialization Trump used as his political weapon to gain the presidency. But there's a further, deeper answer to Why that only a few are discussing: The dramatic decline in the Outlaw US Empire's GDP when it's determined honestly all thanks to deindustrialization and financialization of its political-economy that began in the late 1970s and exploded during the Reagan/Bush years. The reason is because what's known as unearned income from rents and such are in reality an economy's overhead--instead of being added into GDP such monies must be subtracted from GDP. So, if a nation has a declared GDP of $20 Trillion of which $5 Trillion is unearned incomes, that $5 trillion must be subtracted twice as it isn't a positive as it was initially treated but overhead--costs--that must be subtracted, thus the genuine GDP is $10 Trillion, not 20. And that's what's happening within the Outlaw US Empire and all its colonies. So, in order to maintain a certain level of living standards once deindustrialization is mostly achieved, all that remains is the printing of money, distributing it, and calling it income when in fact it's the further debasement of currency--in this case a fiat currency that's backed by nothing of value. And unfortunately, since that currency is the major international trading currency, its debasement causes global inflation of the sort we're now experiencing. Putin elaborates:

Even higher rates of increasing imports of goods are observed in the European Union. It is clear that such a sharp increase in demand, not provided with commodity supply, triggered a wave of deficits and global inflation. That's where this global inflation comes from. Over the past couple of years, almost everything has risen in price in the world: raw materials, consumer goods and especially food.

Yes, of course, these countries, including the United States, they continue to import, but the balance between exports and imports is in the other direction: there are already, I think, 17 billion more imports than exports. That's what it's all about….

In the context of an inflationary storm, many developing countries have a reasonable question: why exchange goods for dollars and euros, which are losing weight before our eyes? The conclusion is that the economy of imaginary entities is inevitably replaced by an economy of real values and assets.

The Global South having once been colonies, then suffered neocolonization as part of the first wave of the Globalization of Neoliberalism, do not want to become colonies again and over that past decade have worked on their development and organizing themselves into regional associations that aren't traditional blocs since the members retain their sovereignty in decision making domestically and internationally. It's this aspect of our changing times that Putin, Xi, and others at the SPIEF will now discuss and form the basis for my continuing investigations.

Not all European nations are submitting to being Colonization, but the holdouts are few--Hungary and Serbia--and of course those who were never placed under the NATO or EU yolks--Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan. And it must be noted that no colonized nation's publics voted to become enslaved to NATO/EU which are now ruled by the Outlaw US Empire. Thus, it is up to those publics to revolt and oust those who have betrayed them and made them servants as Putin's description of Neoliberal political parties is absolutely 100% correct as they are now no different from the Duopoly existing within the Outlaw US Empire that's beholden to the Rentier Class and its allies.