EIR Daily Alert Service, TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019

TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019

Volume 6, Number 169

EIR Daily Alert Service

P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

  • British Central Banker Launches ‘Green’ Assault on the United States and on the Dollar
  • Trump Softens China Trade-Attack, China Seeks ‘Calm Negotiations’
  • Conditions for a Trump-Rouhani Meeting Created, States G7 Host President Macron
  • Four Powers and Other Spacefarers Feed Moon Fever
  • Japan Developing Spacecraft for Lunar Orbit Supplies
  • Prime Minister Abe Emphasizes Stabel U.S.-China Relations Are Key for Global Economy
  • Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal Trips Through the Trillions
  • Saxony Minister President Reiterates Argument To End Anti-Russia Sanctions
  • Israel At War Against Iran in Three Different Countries

EDITORIAL

British Central Banker Launches ‘Green’ Assault on the United States and on the Dollar

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—The governor of the Bank of England came to the Federal Reserve’s bankers conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last week and said the U.S. dollar should be replaced, in trade and investment, by a digital world currency. Mark Carney spoke highly of the “Libra” digital currency proposed to be issued by Facebook—which the U.S. Congress is trying to stop. But Mark Carney said the global digital money would better be controlled by the Bank of England and other big central banks. He thus made Facebook’s “Zuck bucks” into his stalking horse.

The value of the dollar, Carney complained, is making it harder and harder for his Bank of England, the Fed and other central banks to keep bailing out City of London and Wall Street and Tokyo megabanks, as they’ve done for more than 10 years since the 2008 global financial crash. Even “quantitative easing,” even negative interest rates, don’t work any more, and another financial crash is looming.

Carney blamed this on governments, and especially the U.S. dollar. He got support for his British imperial arrogance from the huge ($6.5 trillion) Wall Street private equity fund BlackRock LLP, which went to the Wyoming symposium with a proposal to transfer control of government budgets to the central banks such as the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve. These would simply print the money and have their “experts” tell governments how to spend it, proposed BlackRock.

And the spending would be “green,” throwing trillions at backward “green” technologies like huge solar farms, while shutting down coal and oil power with heavy “carbon taxes.”

That would finish off what remains of American industrial strength, already dragged down by decades of British free trade agreements, “deindustrialization,” drug epidemics….

It should be understood that the American System economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche would not have stood for Mark Carney’s arrogant imperial demands for one minute. He was the great adversary of British imperialism—financial and geopolitical—for half a century. If President Donald Trump would open the way to posthumous exoneration of the falsely prosecuted Lyndon LaRouche, the Bank of England’s Carney and BlackRock would have to eat their words.

In fact, the dominant role of the U.S. dollar in international trade and investment—such an obstacle in Mr. Carney’s view, to central banks running the world with their digital world currency—is today the only remnant left, of President Franklin Roosevelt’s successful Bretton Woods credit and monetary system. Bretton Woods allowed stable currencies and strong growth in productivity and production in the United States and Europe for 30 years after World War II.

Richard Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods system in 1971 under pressure from London banks, giving them the speculative casino of “floating currency rates” they wanted, with $5.5 trillion per day in currency trading, 99% of it just speculation.

LaRouche proposed to restore a Bretton Woods system, this time with credit for developing countries as well, for basic infrastructure and industrialization—much as China is providing Asia and Africa under its Belt and Road Initiative. He said this New Bretton Woods could be launched by the four powers which today don’t kowtow to “green new deals”—the United States, China, Russia and India.

Leading with Moon and Mars space missions and new nuclear and fusion technologies, those nations and others that join them can revolutionize the powers of the human species and the creative vistas of human beings. Let Mr. Carney turn green.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Softens China Trade Attack, China Seeks ‘Calm Negotiations’

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—U.S. President Donald Trump dialed back his attack on China’s trade policies after Chinese negotiators contacted the U.S., seeking more talks over the weekend, according to the South China Morning Post today.

Today President Trump called China President Xi Jinping a “great leader,” after recently labelling him “a U.S. enemy.” Trump had threatened to order all American businesses to leave China by invoking an emergency law used mainly against rogue states, SCMPreported.

This morning, President Trump praised President Xi in a Twitter message, “Great respect for the fact that President Xi & his Representatives want ‘calm resolution.’ So impressed that they are willing to come out & state the facts so accurately. This is why he is a great leader & representing a great country. Talks are continuing!”

Asked about Trump’s about-face, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he could not confirm the U.S. President’s comments about further negotiations.

Earlier today, top Chinese trade negotiator Vice-Premier Liu He said “We are willing to resolve the trade dispute with the U.S. through calm negotiations,” speaking to the Smart China Expo in Chongqing, Sichuan province, reported SCMP. Liu told the audience, “We resolutely oppose the escalation of the trade war, which is not beneficial to the U.S. or China. It is also not beneficial to the world.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Conditions for a Trump-Rouhani Meeting Created, States G7 Host President Macron

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—French President Emmanuel Macron stated at the closing of the G7 meeting in Biarritz today, that “the conditions for a meeting” between U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had been created,” The National, a newspaper serving the U.A.E., reported.

French President Macron said that he hoped that the meeting could take place in the next few weeks: “Nothing is for sure; things are eminently fragile.” He further stressed: “Two things are very important for us: Iran must never have nuclear weapons, and the situation should never threaten regional stability.” Macron said that Rouhani had told him he was open to meeting President Trump.

President Trump said the timeline proposed by Macron—the next weeks—was realistic, and that he believed that Mr. Rouhani would also be in favor: “I think he’s going to want to meet. I think Iran wants to get this situation straightened out.” Presidents Trump and Rouhani are both expected to be in New York City to attend the UN General Assembly in New York, where 74th General Debate begins on Sept. 24

Trump said the G7 countries had “great unity” in their discussions of Iran and appeared to leave the door open to diplomatic talks with it. European countries, which opposed the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 JCPOA agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, have tried to mediate in the past.

President Trump said: “I knew he [Zarif] was coming in, and I respected the fact that he was coming. … And we’re looking to make Iran rich again. Let’s let them be rich. Let’s let them do well, if they want, or they can be poor as can be. They can be like they are now,” Trump said. He recounted his interchange with President Macron: “Macron…spoke to me [about inviting Zarif to Biarritz]. He asked me. I said, ‘If you want to do that, that’s okay.’ I don’t consider that disrespectful at all, especially when he asked me for approval,” Trump said at a Monday morning meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Foreign Minister Zarif left the summit in France for China.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the “firm will to talk” was a sign of progress, and said it was positive that there was support for a political solution.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Four Powers and Other Spacefarers Feed Moon Fever

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—As International Observe the Moon Night (Oct. 5) approaches, the spacefaring powers are concentrating on Moon missions which can lead to Mars.

The U.S. space agency NASA is adding space propulsion speed and power by expanding a program to develop nuclear power for space. On Aug. 20 President Donald Trump issued “Presidential Memorandum on Launch of Spacecraft Containing Space Nuclear Power Systems.” Its “Sec. 2. Policy,” says, “The United States shall develop and use space nuclear systems when such systems safely enable or enhance space exploration or operational capabilities. The Secretary of Energy shall maintain, on a full cost recovery basis, the capability and infrastructure to develop, furnish, and conduct safety analyses for space nuclear systems for use in United States Government space systems. Executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall seek to ensure that safe application of space nuclear systems is a viable option for Federal Government and commercial space activities.”

This program has been authorized $125 million for Fiscal 2020, more than NASA requested for it. During the Aug. 22 Space Council session, Administrator James Bridenstine stressed not only cutting the time of travel to Mars in half with nuclear propulsion, but also defending Earth from asteroids with nuclear-powered “directed-energy weapons.”

India’s Chandrayaan-2 is now two weeks from a first-ever landing on the lunar South Pole, and has sent back its first picture of the Moon from about 1,600 miles. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) reported: “Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to enter its final circular orbit around the Moon on Sept. 1, 2019. This orbit will pass over the lunar poles, one of which will be the landing site for Vikram—Chandrayaan-2’s lander that aims to soft-land on the Moon’s South Pole. The orbiter will orbit at 62 miles (100 km) distance from the Moon’s surface for a period of one year, making a pass over both of the Moon’s poles with each revolution.”

ISRO’s budget has doubled in the past five years to $1.45 billion, according to a long article in U.A.E. daily, The National. India’s space program is at the stage, familiar with the U.S. Apollo program and its predecessors, that it is beginning to create industrial spinoffs and great secondary employment.

“We’re expecting about 150,000 high-skilled jobs to come up in the space industry over the next five years, including jobs for engineers, scientists, and data analysts,” the daily quotes Chaitanya Giri, at Mumbai think-tank Gateway House.

Japan is developing a heavy-lift rocket to be able to take cargo to the new space station(s) orbiting the Moon, whether the American Gateway station or a Chinese one.

Roscosmos, for its part, announced that the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft with a robot onboard will make a second attempt to dock to the International Space Station on the morning of Aug. 27.

Japan Developing Spacecraft for Lunar Orbit Supplies

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to develop an unmanned transport spacecraft to have a larger transport capacity than the unmanned supply ship, H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), which is currently transporting goods to the International Space Station (ISS). JAXA is aiming to conduct the first flight of the new spacecraft in fiscal 2021, reported Asahi Shimbun.

In a new manned Moon exploration project planned under the initiative of the United States, a space station will be constructed to be put in orbit around the Moon. From the station, astronauts will descend to the Moon’s surface and return to the station. The station is also expected to serve as a jumping-off point for a mission to Mars in the future. NASA is aiming to start constructionof the space station in 2022 and realize manned Moon landings in 2024, at the earliest.

The new spacecraft to be developed, the HTV-X, is based on the HTV. However, it will have greater electrical power than the HTV as its solar panels are larger, and its communication speed will be faster. The HTV-X will be able to transport about 5.8 tons of goods, 50% more than the HTV.

With the aging of the ISS, its operations in and after 2024 are unclear. Therefore, JAXA has examined the HTV-X’s transportation capabilities based on the assumption that it will also carry goods to a space station other than the ISS. Japan has yet to announce that it will participate in the new manned Moon exploration project. If it joins the project, JAXA will make it possible for the HTV-X to transport goods to the new space station to be constructed in orbit around the Moon.

The ministry earmarked about ¥3.8 billion in the budget for this fiscal year for development of a successor to the HTV. (The Japanese fiscal year runs from April 1 to the next March 31.) Now, it is aiming to increase the amount drastically to ¥10.8 billion in the budget for fiscal 2020. The current HTV will be decommissioned after the launch of its eighth and ninth generations. The eighth is already scheduled to be launched on Sept. 11. The HTV-X will replace the HTV from fiscal 2021.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Prime Minister Abe Emphasizes Stable U.S.-China Relations Are Key for Global Economy

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo declared at the G7 summit in France today that U.S.-China relations are “very important” for those two economies, but also for the world economy, Reuters reported. After the G7 Summit, Abe told a news conference: “I hope there will be good results from the U.S.-China trade negotiations that will help stabilize the global economy.” He further stated, “We will guide economic policy with an eye on the impact [the U.S.-China trade tensions] could have on Japan’s economy.”

President Donald Trump praised Abe at a joint press conference yesterday with Abe in Biarritz, saying, “And one of the things that Prime Minister Abe has also agreed to is we have excess corn in various parts of our country, with our farmers, because China did not do what they said they were going to do. And Prime Minister Abe, on behalf of Japan, they’re going to be buying all of that corn. And that’s a very big transaction. They’re going to be buying it from our farmers. So the deal is done in principle. We probably will be signing it around UNGA,” referring to the period in late September when the UN General Assembly, takes place, with most heads of state or government in New York.

Abe said he also agreed with Trump on speeding up work, so that a bilateral trade deal could be signed by the end of September. In the press conference yesterday, the Japanese Prime Minister announced, at President Trump’s prompting, that Japan would be buying, as Trump put it, “hundreds of millions of dollars of corn—existing corn—that’s there, that you’ll be buying.” Abe elaborated, “So with regard to the potential purchase of American corn, in Japan we are now experiencing insect pest on some of the agricultural products. And there is a need for us to buy a certain amount of agricultural products. And this will be done by the Japanese private sector. That means that Japanese corporations will need to buy additional agricultural products,” according to the White House transcript.

Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal Trips through the Trillions

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wild, $16.3 trillion, 10-year Green New Deal plan issued Aug. 22, is generally being reported as fantastical. It certainly is, proposing immediately to increase the total federal budget by about 50% (doubling the discretionary budget overnight). The gargantuan costs calculated by Sanders’ staff are characteristic of every plan which claims to make any area of the world run on “100% renewable energy by 2030,” as the “climate emergency” ideologues demand.

So, like the earlier Ocasio-Cortez/Markey Green New Deal resolution, it will be quickly set aside. But its basic elements will not, as they are “baked in” to any big Green boondoggle to come from the Democrats and—whether or not they admit it—from Wall Street.

Those elements include a very heavy tax on carbon (coal, oil, airlines, perhaps livestock raising, with “wealth taxes” thrown in); and much higher electricity prices. The purposes: 1) to kill off oil and coal mining, and fossil fuel-fired power; 2) to provide “infrastructure money”; and 3) to build vast solar and wind “farms.”

The Sanders plan, which lists many more or less incredible sources of government income or savings, only implied what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made explicit: The Federal Reserve can print the money for it.

Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, had acknowledged that her Green New Deal resolution was aimed at fundamentally changing the U.S. economy, not the environment. Sanders’ promises to “generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society.” The “transformation” would be back to a life and culture, for the reduced population which remains, characteristic of the dark age before the European Golden Renaissance.

Saxony Minister President Reiterates Argument To End Anti-Russia Sanctions

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—In an interview with the Tag24 journal, Michael Kretschmer (CDU), Minister President of Saxony, who is confident to receive the mandate for leading the new state government after the elections on Sept. 1, said he is sticking to what he has stated several times before, namely that the Russia sanctions should end. He said that he “has received a lot of support on the sanctions issue. All eastern German states have been positive on that, also Minister President Stephan Weil of Lower Saxony [among the western states], and German industry. It was necessary that someone start this discussion with commitment.”

Quite in contrast to Kretschmer: Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) rejected President Donald Trump’s initiative to reinvite Russia to the G7; she insisted that Russia’s suspension from the group should stay in place, along with the sanctions, for as long as Russia did not change policies on Ukraine.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Israel at War against Iran in Three Different Countries

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—Over the last three days, Israel has admitted to or is suspected of being responsible for air strikes on Iran-related targets in three countries: Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Whether they admit to the attacks or not, the Israelis claim that Iran is arming and running groups and, in the case of Syria, also deploying its own forces, to attack Israel, therefore Israel has to strike first. “If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first,” Prime Minister, and Defense Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in English on his Twitter account on Aug. 24, quoting a Talmudic passage. In Lebanon, it’s Hezbollah; in Syria, it’s the IRGC and proxy forces; and in Iraq, it’s elements of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Shi’ite militias that fought ISIS and have been incorporated into the Iraqi Defense Ministry.

The ever-expanding Israeli campaign has been linked, in some reports, to President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, but is also occurring in the midst of Netanyahu’s campaign re-election on Sept. 17. In Syria, Israeli officials have previously acknowledged Israel’s campaign of hundreds of air strikes over the past two years, targetting what they say are Iranian military assets. Yesterday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) openly announced that it was responsible for a series of air strikes in a neighborhood in Damascus that it claimed thwarted an imminent Iran-directed drone attack on Israel. In Lebanon, an air strike on the camp of a Palestinian group allied with Hezbollah was attributed to Israel less than 24 hours after two drones crashed in Beirut, damaging Hezbollah’s media headquarters building. In Iraq, an apparent drone attack on two vehicles belonging to a brigade of the PMF in Anbar province, about 15 km from the border with Syria, was at least the fifth attack against PMF elements attributed to Israel in the last two months. That attack killed one Iraqi and wounded another.

Predictably, the attacks are drawing threats of revenge from the intended victims. In a speech on Sunday, Aug. 24, following the drone incident, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed that Hezbollah will respond to the Israeli attacks somewhere in southern Lebanon in the next few days. “What happened in Syria and Lebanon last night is very, very dangerous,” Nasrallah said, referring to the drone incidents in Beirut overnight Saturday-Sunday. He warned that Netanyahu “would be mistaken if he thinks that this issue can go unnoticed. The time at which Israeli war jets used to strike targets in Lebanon while the usurping entity in Palestine kept safe has ended. From tonight, I tell the Israeli army on the border: wait for our response, which may take place at any time on the border and beyond the border. Be prepared and wait for us.”

In Tehran, Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani said that the recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Syria indicated the end of Israel. “There is no doubt that these insane operations will be the last struggles of the Zionist regime,” reported Fars. According to Israeli news reports, the IDF holds Soleimani responsible for the drone strike that it says it prevented with the strike in Syria.

Reach us at eirdailyalert@larouchepub.com or call 1-571-293-0935

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