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Europe’s financial system on verge of collapse

FeaturesEurope’s financial system on verge of collapse

Belize City, July 13th, 2016–Last weekend, Prime Minister Renzi said that while Italy has a banking crisis that could end in collapse at any time because of the more than 360 million euros in non-performing debt; he should warn that the crisis surrounding Deutsche Bank is “a hundred times worse”.

Deutsche Bank is sitting on a pile of non-performing loans and some US $ 72.8 trillion in current derivatives contracts. Germany’s entire GDP is US $ 4 trillion, and the entire European countries produce some US $ 18 trillion dollars per year. Deutsche has a leverage ratio of 40:1. Remember Lehman at the time of its collapse had a leverage ratio of 31:1. In the last 12 months, Deutsche Bank’s balance sheet fell some 48%. Now it’s at 8% of its value in the year 2007.

But another bubble is about to burst in Europe. According to Bloomberg, as of Monday major real estate funds in London were facing major investors’ run; and the prospect of an imminent blowout of the entire British real estate bubble is very real. Standard Life Investments has suspended its UK Real Estate fund so as to stop investors’ pulling out money.

The panic was clearly shown Monday when it was announced that Andrea Leadsom was strong-armed to withdraw from the race for leader of the British Conservative party so that Theresa May can be installed today (Wednesday) as Prime Minister. Why? The Brits needs a government in place to deal with the onrushing crisis.

On Sunday, David Folkerts-Landau, chief economist of Deutsche Bank, gave an interview in which he called on Europe to immediately emit an emergency 150 billion euros bailout. At the same time RT reported that George Soros had written an op-ed in which he said that the collapse of the EU was “almost inevitable” since the Brexit vote.

Taken together, the current conditions in Italy, Deutsche Bank and the London real estate market are certainly more than enough to blow up the entire trans-Atlantic financial sector. Leading political figures in Germany are now calling for a one-time capital injection to save Deutsche Bank and thus save Germany, Europe and the United States.

Now this imminent systemic crash cannot be separated from the growing danger of nuclear war — one involving the Warsaw NATO heads-of-state summit last week — and yesterday’s unanimous, provocative, and over-reaching decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague in the South China Sea case filed by the Philippines against China (and Taiwan). The gist of the court’s ruling is the incredible finding that the 110 acre Taiping Island , occupied by Taiwan, which houses a military garrison, a hospital, and a farm, is not an island, but rather just a piece of rock; and therefore is not granted the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone due to any island. That 200-mile zone overlaps the other Spratly islands and reefs. Thus, the magic of the “impartial Court”.

As Taipei’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated today, the Philippines had not requested a ruling on the Taiping Island, but the Court took it upon itself to over-step its jurisdiction – such is how imperialism works.

This morning Taiwan’s President, Tsai ling-wen, addressed the crew of a frigate that was dispatched to the South China Sea and the Taiping Island. Both China and (ROC) Taiwan will defend the sovereign rights of China to the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, China has publicly warned the United States that the South China Sea is not the Caribbean, and China will not tolerate the United States’ attempt to interfere with its sovereignty. China has meanwhile published a chronicle of the United States’ interference in the Caribbean since the year 1901 to current in Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. It’s interesting to note that in the one hundred and fifteen years, the USA has intervened more than two hundred times in the Caribbean, from paying to remove governments to outright invasion and execution of leaders.

Belizeans should note that the 5 member team is led by a UK citizen of Ghana extraction, and four Europeans, from France, Poland, Netherland and Germany. Two of them are also judges to the sister Anglo-American organization – International Court of Justice (ICJ). Monday, Graham Allison wrote in Diplomat.com that the three sister Anglo-American organizations – International Court of Justice (ICJ), Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) “are only for small powers. Great powers do not recognize the jurisdiction of the international courts”. According to Mr. Allison, last week, former UK PM, Cameron urged China to follow the rules system and accept the decisions of the PCA, but Mr. Cameron forgot that last year this same court—PCA had ruled that the UK had violated the Law of the Sea by unilaterally establishing a Marine Protected Area in the Chagos Islands. The UK has never accepted the ruling of the Hague court, and the protected area remains in place today. And the worst offender of these rulings have been the United States. In the 1980’s Nicaragua had brought the United States to Court for mining its harbors. The US was ordered by the Court to pay reparations to Nicaragua, the US refused, and when the case was brought to the UN Security Council the United States vetoed six resolution. US Ambassador, Jean Kirkpatrick summed up Washington’s view by saying, the PCA is “semi-legal, semi-juridical, semi-political body, which nations sometimes accept and sometimes don’t”. Since Belize is a minor power, the Anglo-Americans are instructing us to accept a European court to decide if we Belizeans own the lands and sea of Belize’ current borders. Wow!!

And how will all of this affect Belize? The immediate is this threat of nuclear war by the Anglo-Americans against Russia, China and India as a reaction to the imminent collapse of the financial system. In 1962, The Soviet Union (Russia) had put nuclear missiles in Cuba aim at Washington DC. The United States was prepared to start World War III unless the missiles were removed from Cuba. Today, 2016, NATO has put nuclear missiles in Poland and the Baltics on Russia’s borders; and the United States has announced last week that it’s going to put nuclear missiles in South Korea on China’s border. And to make the situation more dire, the United States also announce that China must comply with the decision yesterday of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) or face the military forces of the United States. The coming weeks will dictate if we are all destroyed by a craze Anglo-American oligarchy which refuses to accept that Europeans do not own nor control the world anymore. As Bloomberg editor said yesterday – “Hey Dude, We are Back” – meaning that after 162 years of humiliation by the Europeans, China is a great power again.

And as to Belize’s economy, I personally don’t believe anything will changed for the better. Look at the facts. Agriculture – citrus, marine products, sugar, grains, bananas and tourism pay for 80% of the goods and services we import each year from North America, Europe and Asia. The other 20% is loans from Petro-Caribe and the multi-laterals. Due to global factors beyond our control here in Belize the credit from Petro-Caribe is over. Only the credits from the multi-laterals are available, some 5% of imports. And also because of the over-hang from the financial collapse of 2008, the austerity policies of the Anglo-Americans have cause both our agricultural and tourism products to collapse this first quarter. Agriculture is down by some 37% and tourism down by 35%. In money terms that’s some $ 112 million dollars or 22% of imports. If this trend continues then the current year 2016 will see a decrease of some $ 440 million in imports or total imports will fall to about $ 1.5 billion dollars. This is not far-fetch as importers are facing severe difficulties to access US dollars to pay for imports. The problems are not just de-risking by banks but also less income from agriculture and tourism. And to this must be added the recent arbitration award to Michael Ashcroft and his companies which has decreased our US dollars by some US $ 75 million dollars between September 2015 and July 2016.

We import some $ 2 billion per year. Now we have to cut back some $ 500 million dollars per year. This means our standard of living must fall by the same or nearly the same – 24%. How can we fix this?

The main problem is the way we think – ideology. Some like me (a follower of George Price) believe in Belizean nationalism – that Belize and all its resources exist solely for the benefit of citizens of Belize, that foreigners must come after citizens of Belize, they can help; but can never develop Belize for Belizeans. The other view and the view held by most of the leaders of Belize is the globalists view, the neo-liberal view of the world, the view-point of the oligarchy. Most of the leaders, in politics, business, labor, and religion supports the view of the oligarchy.

This view holds that Belizeans come after foreigners – second class-citizens, that Belizeans are not capable citizens, that we must follow the advice of our colonial imperialist masters. We Belizeans cannot think and must not think and if any do think then they must be punished. Our place in the tourism sector is to supply menial labor as maids, etc. for the big foreign operators. And in the agricultural sector, Belizeans are not entitled to own large tracts of land, that some may be small farmers while the majority must work for the large foreign own plantations. The rest may work in the distribution and trade sector. The retailing sector is reserved for Asians whose markup are less and thus contribute to the oppression of the natives. This is the social-economic view of our religious, labor, business and political leaders. And this view-point is thought in all the schools of Belize. The chains are still strong.

The Anglo-Americans have always held the view that the rightful place of Belize in Central America and the Caribbean is to be like the rest of Central America – like Honduras. In the Caribbean Only Haiti (US $ 835) is poorer than Belize. Bahamas has a GDP per Capita of US $ 22,217 per year. Trinidad has US $ 21,323; Barbados has US $ 15,366; Jamaica has US $ 5,106; while Belize has US $ 4,831. Honduras has US $ 2,290. Soon, very soon Belize will be like Honduras. This is the plan of the globalist, the leaders of Belize.

Belizeans, a wonderful opportunity has fallen on us. Let us unite as one people- as Belizeans, forget about political party, forget about class and race, forget about religion, and unite as Belizeans. And then we must start to develop Belize for the sole benefit of the citizens of Belize. As humans we need food, clothing and shelter. Belize is blessed with lots of good arable land which can supply our foods, our clothes and our houses. Only land ownership for every citizen can make us free.

In the first instance, we need good machines which can only come from Taiwan, China, Brazil, India, Russia and Germany. A few minor machines can be supplied by the Americans, but they are not in this kind of business anymore. We must sell agricultural goods and tourism to pay for these machines. We must start to close Belize’s economy if we don’t wish to be another Honduras. We can follow the model that has been used in Taiwan, South Korea and China – government must put in place the manufacturing industries and after a few years can sell them as shares, but only to Belizean citizens – no foreign ownership and control of our Belize. It’s a waste of time to wait for private Belizean investors to develop manufacturing industries in Belize. It will never happen. And if it don’t happen very soon especially with the current global situation, then Belize will soon be like Honduras. You can take that to the bank!

Ooh and as for money, remember government creates money – how you think GOB is paying the Belize portion of the BTL settlement? Why not create Belize dollars for our economic development rather than only create it to pay a British billionaire. The machines come from state credit from Taiwan, China, Brazil, India, etc. We don’t need any foreign investors – you will forever be a slave, a colonial toddy, a fool – never a free man or woman.

Long Live Belize!

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