EDITORIAL

‘Tennessee Valley Authority Imperialism’

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—Seventy-five years ago Canadian economist Robert Bryce observed, of the Franklin Roosevelt Administration’s moves to create a new, post-war Bretton Woods monetary system and to develop the economies of nations such as China:

“This looks to be the opening for that New Imperialism which one hears about these days—a benevolent, liberal and far-sighted, if not actually socialist, imperialism—a TVA imperialism. The new imperialists would have as objectives, not a high return on capital, but rather a flourishing trade built up on the basis that would be created by the rising standard of living in the capital-importing country. More distant objectives would be the peace and strategic security for the lending country, achieved not so much through political influence, as through the political stability that a prosperous trade and progressive economic and social development would ensure in the borrowing country.”

Since today this rather precisely describes—not U.S. policy or British “public-private partnerships”—but rather, China’s new paradigm of the Belt and Road Initiative, all the attacks from American and European neo-cons and Keynesians claiming China is “imperialist,” practicing “debt-trap diplomacy,” and so on, should be dismissed for the garbage they are. These are fearful squawkings of those who, having done away with bank regulation, let the global crash of 2008 come on, and who are complicit in the greater crash coming on now.

If the globally admired model of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and its deliberate recreations in China’s Three Gorges Dam, its water-transfer projects and high-speed rails, its elimination of rural poverty—if those are imperialist, that is the imperialism we need, as it was in FDR’s Good Neighbor and anti-colonial economic policies.

The real question is whether the leaders of the United States, Russia, India, necessarily taking the point for other very qualified nations, will join with the President of China in launching a newBretton Woods monetary system, for the purposes President Roosevelt saw in the original. The Belt and Road Initiative has already provided a launchpad for that policy—capital and credit flowing from “volcanoes” of economic and technological productivity, to developing nations, and flows of speculative capital being deliberately suppressed in the process.

The Schiller Institute’s international call for a New Bretton Woods, with 50 of the more prominent of its thousands of signers, is circulating today at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly; will circulate through the U.S. Congress this week, and is going out internationally. Helga Zepp-LaRouche stressed today that it is the only effective antidote to a European system marked by deeply unpopular and tottering governments, trying to issue orders to governments with broad popular support, the latter moving to work with China on the Belt and Road and with Russia.

This mobilization is led as well by the independent campaign of Kesha Rogers in Texas’s 9th CD, endorsed by LaRouchePAC—uniquely led, because Rogers has spelled out the program for a North American Belt and Road Initiative and North American Infrastructure Investment Bank; and because she can defeat Rep. Al Green, who leads the Democratic Congressional impeachment circus. All those who want to defend the Presidency should be supporting Rogers’ campaign against “Impeachment Al” in any way they can, and helping push President Trump into a New Bretton Woods and even “TVA imperialism.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

German Strategic Leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche Rips Apart the ‘Pathetic Spectacle in Berlin’

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche warned today that the German government could fall at any time, with obviously enormous implications for the already-shattering European Union. A look at her lead article for the German weekly Neue Solidarität on Sept. 21 gives the “why” of that assessment, as she rips apart the policy of Germany and the EU, and urges adoption of an entirely different policy. She writes:

“If one understands ‘theater of the absurd’ to mean the representation of disoriented people in a meaningless world, then we are now witnessing a gala performance of the genre in Berlin. What the scandal around the former head of [Germany’s domestic intelligence agency] the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (BfV) [Hans-Georg] Maaßen, who was kicked upstairs as a result of his blindness on the right, the irresponsible behavior of Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and the personal efforts of Chancellor Merkel and SPD chair Andrea Nahles to remain in power, demonstrate, is that the Berlin establishment is in the wrong film. They are acting out the script of a world which only exists in their heads, and has nothing to do with the reality of the normal population or with strategic developments. If Germany is to avoid severe damage, we urgently need a new policy!

“If Seehofer calls migration the ‘mother of all problems,’ then he himself and the geopolitical neo-liberal paradigm that he represents is the ‘grandmother of all problems.’ Because there would be no refugee crisis in this form, if Bush, Obama, Blair and Cameron had not waged wars in Southwest Asia on the basis of lies, although such violation of international law is never addressed by the German establishment. A glaring proof of their complicity is the announcement by Economy Minister Peter Altmaier of the sale of new weapons systems to Saudi Arabia, a country which is even now waging a war of annihilation against Yemen. If the world is to endure, this will have repercussions under international law!

“And there would be no crisis in this form either, had Europe distanced itself from the policy of colonial powers and the subsequent conditionalities of the IMF toward Africa. Had Europe pursued over the past decades the policy of industrializing Africa that China has undertaken for around 10 years, the African refugees would have had no reason to leave their homes.

“In light of these realities, the theater in Berlin is not only absurd, but also abominable.”

The danger, Zepp-LaRouche warns, is that the behavior of Seehofer, Merkel, Nahles and company has massively increased the political disenchantment in Germany. Thus, the anti-migrant demonstrations and other recent violence in the city of Chemnitz “cast the shadow of the Weimar Republic on the wall.” Fascism can once again become a danger today, she observes. At the same time, the EU is falling apart, including because it refuses to join the dynamic of the new paradigm.

What Germany needs, writes Zepp-LaRouche, is a new combination of forces that will put on the agenda a policy of cooperation with China and Russia “to solve the greatest strategic challenges” of today. The includes, emphatically, working together with China to develop Africa.

“What is totally missing in German policy today, is a great vision for the future of mankind. And that is precisely what China put on the agenda five years ago” with the Belt and Road Initiative. “We need to shape a future that will not only overcome poverty on the entire planet within a short time, but can also realize the potential of all people on this Earth.”

China Won’t Abandon Opening-Up and Will Stick to Its Principles, New White Paper Reveals

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—Today’s Global Times editorial reports the release of a Chinese government white paper dated Sept. 24, “on the facts about China-U.S. economic and trade friction and China’s stance.” The 36,000-character report (momentarily available only in Chinese) “reflects the calmness of the Chinese government and society in the face of unprecedented trade pressure from the U.S.,” the daily writes.

Interestingly, Global Times says China will not conform to U.S. and European pundits’ guesses in this trade dispute. It reports that some in the West expect China to give in to all demands; others think China will retaliate strongly, perhaps even “do away with the business environment of U.S. and Western companies operating in China, which would be a huge retrogression for its opening-up policy. The white paper’s answer to such speculation, is that neither will occur.”

It continues: “The white paper has clarified the facts about the trade protectionist practices and bullying practices of the U.S. administration, the damage to the global economy from the improper practices of the U.S. administration, and China’s position. The U.S. has been making use of its powerful media to portray itself as the victim of unfair trade with China,” but the report “tells readers why the U.S. was irrational to launch a trade war against China, and why the U.S. moves will not serve its ends.”

Global Times concludes: “China is clear that reform and opening-up is vital to its development, and retrogression on opening-up would be an irrational act of backwardness. That is why China has behaved in neither a cowardly [n]or a radical fashion, but stuck to principles ever since the trade war started…. China is honest and principled and a major trade power with intensive strengths. No one can take us down.”

Sheila Bair’s Assessment of the Debt Bubble Is To Watch Out for the Short Term!

Sept. 22 (EIRNS)—U.S. economist and former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Sheila Bair, interviewed in the Germany daily Die Zeit Sept. 21, said the opposite of almost all other analysts talking about the current precarious debt/market situation. Nearly all pundits are saying, “Oh, of course we look all right through 2019, but then we could have another crash like 2008.” But Bair concludes her interview, “In the long term I’m optimistic. But I’m very worried about what will happen in the short term.”

Bair’s basic point is that the economy is in a debt bubble ready to collapse under higher interest rates; and it is “absurd and insane” that bank regulation is being rolled back and capital requirements reduced by Wall Street extreme pressure on officials. She recalls that financial firms, just as in 2007-08, already don’t know or understand whether they have enough capital to withstand a crisis.

“We are in a bubble,” Bair stressed. “That has applied for some time both to the stock and the bond and debt markets. But even on the real estate market there are overblown price developments. It’s always claimed that speculative bubbles are recognizable only retrospectively. I see it differently. It is difficult only to know when they burst. I can only strongly urge that the Fed promptly end the cheap money phase which has now gone on much too long.”

As in at least one earlier interview this year, the former FDIC chair praised China, where she has consulted financial firms, and to which fingers are pointed for the large amount of credit and debt it has generated. “The Chinese are constantly confronting the problem,” she told Die Zeit. “We, by contrast, are not so honest about our economy being encumbered with high levels of debt. The biggest problem in China is the overindebted state firms; however, there Beijing can decide when and how it will allow failures.”

Total debt-to-GDP is, in any case, considerably higher in the United States than in China, though this is seldom acknowledged.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

President Trump at UN Delivers ‘Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem’

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—In stark contrast with his predecessor Barack Obama, President Donald Trump convoked a meeting at the United Nations today on the subject of coordinating action against the drug trade. Britain’s legalization champions fumed.

President Trump thanked the 31 countries present at the United Nations’ “Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem” event today, and especially thanked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for attending as the group’s special guest. These 31 host nations have taken “critical steps” to combat the global drug problem, he said.

He pointed to the 2018 World Drug Report, which highlights that cocaine and opium production have hit record highs, and that global deaths caused by drug use increased by 60% from 2000 to 2015—a rise of 60% in 15 years.

The U.S. President also pointed to the destructive side effects caused by trade in illicit drugs: their links to organized crime; illegal financial flows; corruption; and terrorism. It is vital “for public health, and for national security, that we fight drug addiction and stop all forms of trafficking and smuggling that provide the financial lifeblood for vicious transnational cartels,” Trump said.

He praised aggressive actions against drugs by individual nations, citing the U.S. securing its border; supporting law enforcement; devoting “record funding to the opioid crisis, and promoting treatment and recovery,” and said that many other nations are doing so.

He pointed to Colombia’s newly-elected President Ivan Duque, who (although a proponent of Wall Street liberal economic policies) campaigned on an anti-drug platform. Trump said the U.S. looks forward to “partnering with his new administration to eradicate coca production in his country.”

With such initiatives in mind, in August the U.S. announced a “Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem.” The call is simple: reduce drug demand; cut off the supply of illicit drugs; expand treatment; and strengthen international cooperation. “By taking these steps together we can save the lives of countless people in all corners of the world … millions and millions of people,” the U.S. President insisted.

Altogether, 124 countries have signed up to support President Trump’s plan for action against mind-killing drugs.

Washington Media Circus in Overdrive: Rosenstein Remains at Least Until Thursday

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—U.S. national news media went wild on Monday morning, reporting that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was on his way to the White House to meet with Chief of Staff John Kelly, either to resign or be fired. The drama unfolded over a New York Timesstory leaked late Friday afternoon, Sept. 21, which had Rosenstein, the man in charge of the illicit Robert Mueller Special Counsel investigation against President Donald Trump, arguing that the 25th Amendment should be invoked to remove Trump from office, and offering to wear a wire to gather dirt on the President.

While it is a very short distance from the Justice Department on Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, media reports about Rosenstein being on his way to a dramatic confrontation lasted for some hours. Finally, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders read an official statement, which said: “At the request of the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he and President Trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories. Because the President is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, D.C.”

President Trump told reporters in New York that he had spoken with “Rod” today and that he would be meeting with him on Sept. 27, and that he, Trump, wanted to have “complete transparency” about the matter.

There are several overlapping dynamics at work here:

Several former Justice Department officials are facing a grand jury in Washington, which has begun to investigate the illegal coup against the President, starting with the antics of fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. McCabe was referred for criminal prosecution, because he lied to the DOJ Inspector General about his role in media leaks. There are obviously people within the Department of Justice who want everyone who participated in the coup unveiled.

McCabe also seems bent on taking down with him those who hung him out to dry. There is no question but that the sourcing of the Timesleak on Rosenstein originates in memos written by McCabe which McCabe’s attorney has, Robert Mueller has, and the Department of Justice has.

The British are screaming about Trump’s Sept. 17th declassification order regarding several foundational documents central to the coup, exposing the British hand in the matter. Trump’s declassification order came in the week when George Papadopoulos began talking about the CIA and British efforts to entrap him and fabricate evidence against the Trump campaign, efforts which provided the pretext for the FBI’s unprecedented and completely unfounded counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.

Rosenstein had gone to the White House on Friday, Sept. 14, to urge the President to hold off from immediate declassification, based on objections from Britain and Australia. The President agreed to have Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice Inspector General, review the documents, but stated that he expected that review to be expedited, and that speed was very important to him.

Michigan GOP Candidate for Congress Agrees with LaRouche PAC’s Three-Point ‘Campaign for the Future’

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—Jeff Jones, a Republican campaigning for U.S. Congress in Michigan’s 12th District against incumbent Democrat Debbie Dingell, has stated his agreement with LaRouche PAC’s statement, “Countdown to the 2018 Midterm Elections: We Must Take Charge Now!” LaRouche PAC has welcomed Jones’s agreement and urged voters to seriously consider Jones as they prepare to vote on Nov. 6.

“The alternative and opposite policies, advocated by the national Democratic Party, present us with a future filled with constitutional chaos, economic despair, and endless wars, and must not be allowed to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives,” LaRouche PAC said.

The LaRouche PAC statement on the 2018 midterm elections contains three points: 1) end the coup against the President; 2) enact LaRouche’s four-part platform; and 3) promote good relations with other major powers such as Russia and China in areas of mutual concern, such as stopping terrorism, promoting economic development, and exploring space. Point 2 includes LaRouche’s Four Laws: Restore Glass-Steagall to prevent another financial collapse; establish a New Hamiltonian National Bank to issue credit for productive investment; recognize that the use of the federal credit system is to increase the physical-economic productivity and the standard of living in the U.S.—i.e., increase the productive powers of labor; and introduce a crash program for fusion energy and a space program, as President Kennedy did, with the effect of economic spinoffs which greatly increased the productivity of the U.S. economy and raised U.S. living standards.

Jones’s opponent, Rep. Debbie Dingell took over the seat of her husband, Rep. John Dingell, four years ago, after he had held it for 58 years. After co-sponsoring a bill to reinstate Franklin Roosevelt’s Glass-Steagall legislation, Debbie Dingell became the only Member of Congress to ever remove her or his name from the legislation—which LaRouche PAC, and others, promoted.

ENDING THE STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Trump Concurs with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Working with Kim Jong-un

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump told reporters in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly, that he expects to meet North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un again “quite soon,” following up their extraordinary Singapore summit. Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would arrange the meeting “in the immediate future” by going to North Korea.

On the purpose of these meetings, Trump said there has been “tremendous progress” since one year ago, when the United States and North Korea appeared on the verge of war. “That was a very dangerous time. This is one year later, a much different time,” Trump said. He called Kim’s personal letter requesting the second summit “very warm” and “beautiful.” The letter had been delivered by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Trump’s view accords with President Moon’s, who met with the U.S. President this afternoon in New York. Moon just returned from a three-day meeting with Kim in North Korea, and said that Kim wants “complete denuclearization quickly” in order to focus on North Korea’s economic development.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for his part, said at a UN press conference this morning, “President Trump’s leadership, combined with efforts of countries to enforce the pressure campaign, has de-escalated tensions with North Korea and brought us closer to our final goal: the final, fully verified denuclearization of the D.R.P.K., as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong-un. Last week’s summit between President Moon and Chairman Kim yielded another positive step forward.”

Answering a question about prospects and timing, Pompeo replied: “This is a process that will move forward. To set a date certain would be foolish. But make no mistake about it—the conversations that we’re having are important. They’re putting the opportunity to complete the denuclearization in place. And we will continue at every level to have those conversations. Some of them you will all be aware of; some of them you won’t know are taking place.”

Russia’s Defense Minister Shoigu on Israeli Responsibility for Downing of Russian Ilyushin-20

Sept. 24 (EIRNS)—In a hard-hitting briefing this morning, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised to take “adequate” measures to increase the security of Russian airmen after the Israeli Air Force used the Russian II-20 electronic surveillance plane as a shield, which led to the Syrian anti-aircraft striking of that plane.

Shoigu announced that Russia will deliver its S-300 air defense system to Syria within two weeks, according to Sputnik.

“It is capable of intercepting air threats at a range of more than 250 km and simultaneously hitting several aerial targets,” Shoigu said, stating that it will significantly boost Syria’s combat capabilities. He also announced that Syrian air defense command posts would be equipped with the “automatic system” (up to now supplied only to the Russian air forces) that would ensure the centralized management of all Syrian defense forces, monitoring the situation in the airspace, and prompt target designation, and ensure the identification of all Russian aircraft by Syrian defense forces.

Shoigu sent a warning to Israeli, and other foreign military aircraft operating illegally in Syrian airspace, saying Russia “will jam satellite navigation, onboard radars and communication systems of combat aircraft, which attacks targets in Syrian territory, in regions over the Mediterranean Sea bordering on Syria.”

Shoigu very pointedly said that Moscow had halted the delivery of S-300s to Syria back in 2013 at Israel’s request, but now that situation has changed “through no fault of Russia.” Shoigu said four Israeli F-16 jets used the Russian II-20 aircraft as a shield, which resulted in the downing of the Russian plane and the deaths of 15 Russian airmen. He said that if such measures fail to cool “hotheads, we will have to respond in line with the situation.”

As of this writing, the Israeli Embassy in Russia has failed to respond publicly to Shoigu’s statements. Earlier this week, Russia’s Defense Ministry accused the Israeli Air Force of providing misleading information about the area of planned airstrikes on Syrian targets, thereby violating its agreement with Russia, and, shortly afterward, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel would continue its military operations against Iran’s presence in Syria despite the downing: “We won’t let Syria be turned into a main Iranian military facility against the Israeli state. We continue to act.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Saudis Plan To Invest in Gwadar Port, the Sea Access for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Sept. 22 (EIRNS)—According to Pakistan Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhry, who had accompanied Prime Minister Imran Khan to Saudi Arabia last week, Saudi investment in the southernmost point of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is likely. A Saudi delegation, including the finance and energy ministers, will visit Pakistan in the first week of October to lay the foundations for “big financial cooperation” between the two countries, Chaudhry said, the Times of Islamabad news agency reported. He said that a high-level advisory committee, proposed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, has been constituted to work out details of the initiative.

Pakistani media pegged the value of the Saudi assistance package at $8 billion, and suggested that the scope of work would include a major petroleum complex at the port of Gwadar.

CPEC, the focus of the earliest major projects of the Belt and Road Initiative, involves road, rail, electrical and port investments which will transform Pakistan and the region. Saudi investment will be beneficial for its implementation, as the participation of a third party, such as Riyadh, will obviate criticism that Islamabad has undermined Pakistan’s sovereignty by agreeing to allegedly “unfair” deals with China.

Also, Saudi involvement will weaken the anti-China Islamists within Pakistan who consider the CPEC, a project formulated by the non-Muslim nation China, as a potential threat to Pakistan’s Islamic credentials. Riyadh’s direct involvement in the project means endorsement of CPEC by a major Islamic nation.