From The Real News Network, a penetrating analysis of the European economic crisis from Rob Johnson, a member of the UN Commission of Experts on Finance and International Monetary Reform and Director of the Economic Policy Initiative at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
His key insight: The destruction now underway is intentional, designed to destroy the programs enacted during the Cold War to provide enough social protections for citizens to prevent their defection to communism.
A key quote:
At the present time, the European adjustments are not the product of a mistake, but in fact they’re the product of a vision or design among some, what you might call the elites in Europe, that a single market is needed to break down some of the leftover architecture of the Cold War, which might be called the insurance premium that was paid against conversion to communism.
The state structure, the livelihood-supporting structure that was part of Southern European civilization, particularly in the Catholic nations, is now being destroyed. I don’t think that’s happening coincidentally or randomly. I think that is part of design that the single market was supposed to achieve. It’s not happening slowly. It’s happening on the grounds that we can’t afford it, probably happening because Central Europe, former Eastern European countries, and Asia are all low-cost production centers, and the German manufacturer is no longer interested in foreign direct investment in Southern Europe with these social conditions when he can go into Asia or Central Europe and probably operate for two-thirds or half the cost.
