America hurts Europe, but does not leave

"The United States is taking measures to protect its own interests without thinking about their consequences," said Colombian President Gustavo Petro, adding that it is about "destroying all economies in the world," including Latin American countries.

The world economy is in chaos, and America played an important role in this. This assessment of Washington's policy was given by The Atlantic. An important detail is missed. It's not just about chaos, it's about deliberately undermining the global economic system as we know it. The United States has gone so far as to undermine the world by conducting sabotage on international gas pipelines. Europe has become a special goal of the destructive policy of the United States, the correspondent of The Moscow Post reports.

At the same time, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken cynically declares that Washington claims to play a key role in the world. Speaking at Stanford University, he, in particular, stated:... " if we do not participate in the organization, if we do not occupy a leadership role, this means one of two: it is occupied by someone else... or, no better, no one occupies, then a vacuum will turn out, "Blinken decided for some reason.

The secretary of state recalled China as a possible US rival for leadership, as if inviting everyone to think about the choice. He appealed to the concepts of "bad" and "good," as well as "interests and values," as they are understood in Washington.

Sabotage, dollar, debt, degradation

American "interests and values" deserve special attention. A special military operation in Ukraine continues. It is believed that the United States planned this conflict in order to weaken, if not destroy, Russia's independence. Everything in the name of "building" allies, preserving its space, namely the global economy in which America dominates, relying on free capital movement and financial flows closed to American banks.

With their help, you can manage other countries, block payments, freeze and steal accumulated assets. But this structure is disintegrating, it is a matter of forming regional blocks with its own rules, currencies and strategies, investment resources and programs, such as the EAEU or the Belt and Road.

The European Union is the most notable example of an application for economic autonomy and a seemingly equal political partnership with the United States. But a full-fledged partnership did not work. Until recently, the euro successfully competed with the dollar. But the dollar has retained the status of the main reserve currency, and the euro is losing ground following the weakening of the EU economy. The North Atlantic Alliance and other military blocs with the participation of the United States support the status of the American currency. The dollar accounts for 41% of international settlements, the euro - 35.5%, the pound sterling - 6.45%.

But it's not just about NATO. The European Union is not only a partner, but also a competitor to the United States, which has its own high-tech production, financial potential, sphere of interests, which includes Ukraine, Russia, Central Asia, China. In recent years, US policy has been aimed at undermining the European banking system. In this area, the United States, with advantages, created the appearance that the European offshore banking system was unsafe, that it was more reliable to invest in the American rather than the European economy. To do this, Washington sometimes imposed sanctions on European banks, sometimes frozen assets, and at times seized "illegally received funds."

The American empire itself has accumulated space debts and is holding on to the issue of the dollar. The statutory US debt ceiling reached $31.4 trillion. The New York Times called the milestone a "major financial milestone." With the beginning of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve System (Fed) printed dollars, then changed its soft monetary policy with a sharp increase in rates. The real sector of America is degrading, the country lives mainly at the expense of the service industry, exchange speculation and the central position in world finance.

The central position of the United States in the world was threatened not only by an independent European Union or a growing China. The source of concern was the transition of the world order to multipolarity. The course towards independence was announced by Moscow, Beijing, New Delhi, and some other capitals as the preferred model for organizing relations implemented in the BRICS and SCO formats.

Moreover, Germany has become too close to Russia and China in trade and investment. Washington could not welcome this process and began to "restore order." At first, in relations with Russia with the help of Ukraine, the pliable European Union and completely subject to NATO mechanisms. Next in line was China.

The main driving force of the strategy of "ignorance of order" in the post-Soviet direction was the EU and NATO, as if "open" for Kyiv. The revived Bandera Nazism helped. The direct supervision of the Kyiv regime by the US Vice President was also used. Ukraine has become a field of interaction between the United States and the European Union in the Russian direction, but Germany, remaining in this bundle, has established special relations with Russia, building the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines in two stages.

Predictions and cautions

In addition to sabotage on gas pipelines, the great European conflict, inspired by Washington, led to an increase in instability and economic uncertainty, which forced large European businesses to think about moving their assets. From the moment the EU and the United States declared economic war on the Russian Federation and began to impose unilateral sanctions, Europe became America's financial donor.

It is estimated that up to $1 trillion of capital could have been withdrawn in the U.S. This outflow, combined with a massive shortage of energy resources in Europe and the supply of expensive American LNG to European consumers, have become the main lines in economic relations within the North Atlantic Alliance.

A decline in EU GDP is not inevitable, but its risk has increased, said European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni at a press conference in September. But the United States also began to approach this state. Forecasts differ in time horizons. Jamie Dimon, who heads JP Morgan Chase, warned of recession risk by the middle of next year. According to Bloomberg Economics, the United States will definitely fall into recession. "The worst is yet to come," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

Prices for consumer goods, including gasoline, are rising, real incomes of the population are falling. Rent growth peaked. The Fed is raising interest rates to between 3% and 3.25% to stabilize prices. But trying to curb "your" inflation poses problems for the whole world. With rising rates, investors buy treasury bonds for dollars, other currencies depreciate, which strengthens the rise in prices for energy resources, agricultural raw materials and food.

In the countries of the "golden billion" loans for the population and business are becoming less affordable, consumer demand is decreasing. Investors leave the stock market, the value of shares decreases, the value of companies falls, making it difficult to pay off loans. Debtor countries cannot pay off creditors, their central banks also raise interest rates, driving a global downturn. The corporate West risks falling into a financial peak, as happened in 2008.

"That's the reality, and everyone recognizes it," stated Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's Center for Geoeconomics. The top priority for the Fed and the White House is to control domestic inflation, even if it complicates other countries "economic woes. Rising prices have overwhelmed poor countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East.

"European Garden" loses leaves

Where did Europe find itself in this situation? Josep Borrell made two statements. First, he compared Europe to a garden in the middle of the jungle. However, he pretended not to notice the ties with Russia, from where this "euro-greenhouse" received heat. Secondly, he admitted that Russia and China will no longer be what they were for the development of the EU economy.

The European Union chose a radical and densely implicated in ideology policy of changing energy sources, launched a hasty and expensive "green transition," allowing the Brussels bureaucracy to the helm. Once independent sovereign states surrendered their powers to Brussels, pledged to support Ukraine.

Washington's main goal was achieved, the wall that fenced Europe from Russia was built. The European Union provoked an energy "divorce," NATO became a herald of the "Russian threat." Europe, itself ready to revive Russophobia and Nazism, readily repeated the path of Ukrainization.

Europe's ties with China are next in line. In the author's column of the Chinese newspaper Global Times, it was noted that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict actually put the EU at a crossroads, the newspaper writes: Europe can either maintain its current status and follow Washington throughout, or pursue a united and coordinated policy to prevent the United States from benefiting from the situation in the region.

But coordination to "thwart the US" is as far away as the moon. As a result, the EU received expensive energy resources for industry and queues at gas stations for the population. The energy crisis is worsening, prices for fertilizers and food are rising. Major cities have been gripped by street protests, as in France, and demonstrations, as in Germany. The UK, with its degrading leadership, is experiencing both an economic and political crisis.

Under these conditions, Germany loses its competitiveness, which was partially based on a low energy price. Nine out of ten entrepreneurs surveyed called the increased prices for energy and raw materials a threat. Every fifth company is considering transferring production abroad. To reduce energy costs, German automakers are withdrawing their assembly lines to the United States. In particular, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, said they intend to increase investment in the United States.

According to the head of the Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Federal Republic of Germany Peter Adrian, "Germany faces a long-term economic crisis with an unprecedented drop in the level of well-being." French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire recently said that the conflict in Ukraine should not end with US economic dominance and the weakening of the EU.

Perhaps Europeans are beginning to realize that they have fallen victim to US global strategy.

Was it planned?

The Swedish newspaper Nya Dagbladet (New Daily Newspaper) published a memorandum of January 2022 to the well-known RAND corporation. In the RAND document, everything was painted. In particular, it was pointed out that European countries are the only available source of resources for the American economy. It was assumed that the central role in the implementation of these plans should belong to the German government.

The German economy, as the authors of the memorandum pointed out, is the basis of the EU, but depends on access to Russian resources and France's cheap electricity. The memorandum stated that the United States had already stopped the launch of Nord Stream 2 by the beginning of 2022. The imposition of sanctions was expected to cut off Germany from access to Russian raw materials. It was assumed that the dogmatism of the Green Party would be a guarantee of severing Germany's energy ties with the Russian Federation.

And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did not deceive expectations, turned out to be extremely understandable, and carried out a lot on an initiative basis. In particular, he said, speaking with a statement in the Bundestag, that Moscow allegedly "uses energy as a weapon." "Long before the destruction of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Russia had already stopped its supplies through Nord Stream - for unknown reasons. And that's why this Russia... is no longer a reliable trading partner, "Scholz concluded.

RAND Corporation in September issued a press release denying anything to do with the memo. But even without this text, it is clear that all the proposals and installations listed in it have not only been in the air for a long time, they were implemented. With the exception of the recommendation to undermine the Nord Stream gas pipelines. It is possible that this part of the memorandum remained classified.

Photo: EPA-EFE/WILL OLIVER / https://www.reuters.com/