EDITORIAL

There Is a Whole Continent To Be Organized Into the New Paradigm

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—The central question in history right now is: Can we get the U.S. to join with the efforts underway internationally to organize a New Paradigm to replace the bankrupt British Empire’s system of looting and geopolitics, along the lines specified by Lyndon LaRouche’s call for a New Bretton Woods? That is the big picture that emerges, Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated today, from reviewing the strategic battlefield in the aftermath of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

“If one reviews the results of the mobilization to get a Four Power agreement among the U.S., China, Russia and India to launch a New Bretton Woods credit system, which would usher in a New Paradigm of international relations to replace geopolitics,” Zepp-LaRouche said, “one can say that we are still in a completely dual dynamic.”

On the one hand, the old system’s forces are continuously trying to exert maximum pressure and disruption to prevent the new system from emerging. Prior to the G20 meeting, the British Empire launched the double action of the provocations by Ukraine in the Black Sea, and the escalation of the attack by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on President Donald Trump, with the plea-bargain deal struck with attorney Michael Cohen. “All of this was designed to prevent the summit between Trump and Putin,” Zepp-LaRouche stated, “and one can say that they were partially successful—but only partially.”

They did succeed in sabotaging the planned Trump-Putin meeting—which, given the strategic tensions, is really most unfortunate. But on the other side, there were positive developments which occurred at the G20 summit which were of strategic significance. The G20 itself—which should have been the body addressing the issue of the danger of a new financial collapse, and for building a new system—naturally could not be expected to do so, given that there are some countries in it which are dead-set opponents of any new system. But, nevertheless, on the sidelines of the G20 there was the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, which both sides described as very successful.

“Perhaps even more significant,” Zepp-LaRouche continued, “was the fact that, on the request of Putin, a tripartite meeting took place among Xi, Putin and India’s Modi. And they agreed to hold such meetings of the RIC (Russia, India, and China) on a regular basis. Now obviously the fourth country that is missing in that is the United States. And that remains up to us to really organize to make sure that happens.”

President Trump clearly has renewed his friendship with Xi, and he also tweeted yesterday about the perspective for a meeting among himself, Putin and Xi to discuss the question of strategic stability. “So that is clearly his intention,” Zepp-LaRouche said. “But that does not necessarily mean that everyone in his administration is of that opinion.” The whole British apparatus remains on a total offensive to prevent such a Four Powers understanding at all costs.

“There is no way that the current system can continue. The danger of a financial crash leading to chaos, leading to war, will absolutely be with us every moment until that system is replaced,” Zepp-LaRouche said. She pointed to the upcoming U.S. Schiller Institute conference in February as an occasion where Lyndon LaRouche’s policies for a new global economic system will be discussed, emphatically including the need for a classical cultural renaissance as part of this.

The U.S. must be internationally oriented in this way, to work with China, Russia, India and other nations for these policies. This is not a new or alien idea, Zepp-LaRouche stressed. This is the very basis on which the United States was founded, on doing the Good for others. It is the legacy of Franklin, Quincy Adams, Lincoln, FDR, and many others. And it is what makes Lyndon LaRouche the quintessential American.

“There is a whole continent to be organized into the New Paradigm,” Zepp-LaRouche concluded. “The big question in history right now is: Can we get the U.S. to change in this way? We can make the difference.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Xi Tells G20, ‘Risks Are Rapidly Building Up, World Economy Facing Another Historical Choice’

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—In his Nov. 30 address to the G20 summit meeting in Buenos Aires, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the gathered world leaders that the causes of the 2008 global financial crisis have not been resolved, and that “the world is facing another historical choice.” Xi’s very first words delivered this message:

“It’s been ten years since the global financial crisis broke out and the first G20 Summit was convened. Today, the global economy, while maintaining growth on the whole, is still not free from the underlying impacts of the crisis. Old growth drivers are yet to be replaced by new ones. Various risks are rapidly building up. The new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation are triggering profound changes, the wealth gap keeps widening, and social contradictions are growing. The world economy is facing another historical choice.”

The Chinese President said that there had been progress since the 2008 crisis, and that “the ever growing and expanding industrial chain, value chain and supply chain have boosted the flow of production factors across the world and led several billion people out of poverty and toward prosperity”—most of which was achieved by China—and that “countries are increasingly becoming a community with shared interests, shared responsibilities and a shared future. Going forward, win-win cooperation is the only choice for us, be it in good times or bad. This is dictated by the law of economics, and it is in keeping with the development of human history. Facing various challenges, we must have a stronger sense of urgency, be rational in approach and look beyond the horizon. We must fulfill our responsibility and steer the global economy in the right direction.”

Xi then laid out specific proposals, forcefully emphasizing the role of innovation and technology: “We should stay committed to innovation and create new momentum for growth. The global economy is embracing the trend of digital transformation, and the new round of industrial revolution will reshape human society in profound ways. We should encourage innovation and leverage the role of the digital economy in growing the real economy… We should give priority to achieving development through fully tapping our innovation potential…. I propose that the G20 carry out an in-depth study on the application and impact of new technologies on a priority basis to explore new thinking and new ways of cooperation in this area.”

Xi stressed that this is the basis for creating win-win cooperation globally: “We should stay committed to win-win cooperation to promote inclusive global development … [and] endeavor to deliver a sense of fulfillment, happiness and security to our people We should continue to support Africa’s development by helping Africa with its infrastructure and connectivity building and new industrialization.”

Xi concluded that “In the years since the global financial crisis, China has contributed over 30% of global growth. China is firm in its resolve to eradicate poverty. Our goal is to eliminate absolute poverty as currently defined by 2020, and we have every confidence to meet this target.”

William Black Warns Threat of ‘Deutsche Bank Crimes’ Could Set Off ‘Next Global Crisis’

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—“Deutsche Bank (DB) poses as what is called a ‘National Champion’ bank and the largest bank by far in Germany, but it’s actually the largest criminal enterprise in Germany,” William Black, a former banking regulator at the time of the S&L crisis in the 1980s and associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com news analysis site, in a Dec. 2 post. “It is insane that we allow Deutsche Bank to go from fraud to fraud to fraud.  They cheat on everything else you can possibly imagine and, typically, they are getting caught, which is also not a very good sign in terms of their competence even as thieves. Even in the United States, there has been reluctance to crack down on Deutsche Bank”

“When the New York Commissioner tried to crack down, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the premier banking regulator, actually sought to impede that,” Black said. “He disparaged the New York folks and said there really wasn’t that big of problems and such, and all of that proved to be lies.

Deutsche Bank is one of the leading TBTF banks, Black says. “This is going to continue until something dramatic changes. Eventually, they can cause the next crisis.” Predictably, the German government will bail out Deutsche Bank, “but that could help trigger another economic crisis. When the largest bank in the third largest economy in the world is completely dysfunctional, then the German economy is more likely to go into recession as well. That is one of the potential sources of the next recession, and you can see lots of people warning that there are signs that a serious recession is pretty likely relatively soon. Relatively could be two years.”

Black’s well-known book is titled, The Best Way To Rob a Bank Is To Own One.

French Government Offers Crumbs in Concessions To Contain Wrath of ‘Yellow Vests’

PARIS, Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—Following the scenes of pre-insurrection at the Champs Elysées on Saturday, Dec. 1 in Paris, as well as in a few larger cities in the provinces, generally organized by provocateurs; following especially the very large participation of the simple forgotten men and women—close to 300,000—in the peaceful blockades and other actions launched by the “Yellow Vests” throughout France on Saturday, the government finally decided to make some concessions.  Crumbs in reality, said former French presidential candidate Jacques Cheminade, given the extent of this crisis, which, in reality has been building up for 30 years. Too little, too late, in a situation where other sectors are joining the protests in their own name. Cheminade called for a rise in the minimum wage to a net €1,400 per month (the Yellow Vests were demanding €1,300), and for the state to take back control of its finances and launch productive activities.

The sequence of events leading to these concessions was first, that upon his return from the G20 summit, French President Emmanuel Macron immediately went to the Arc de Triomphe and surroundings, to get a first-hand view of the extent of the violence. A meeting of the whole government was then organized, and later, Macron asked Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to consult the heads of the parties at the National Assembly and representatives of the Yellow Vests movement.

Following those consultations, Philippe announced the following measures: 1) an immediate suspension for six months of the planned increases of the carbon tax on diesel and gasoline and the increase in taxes on diesel used by companies (not in vehicles); 2) a temporary, six-month renunciation of the tightening of conditions for the delivery of the technical control of vehicles to be applied next year; 3) the promise that there will be no increase in the electricity rate until May 2019.

Spokesmen for the Yellow Vests movement also characterized those concessions as crumbs, and announced that protests will continue. Benjamin Cauchy, scheduled to participate in the consultations with Prime Minister Philippe, ultimately refused to attend because the concessions were, he said, only a first step. The French people don’t want crumbs; they want the whole baguette. He called for a general consultation on fiscal matters, for a new distribution of wealth in France, and for the possibility of holding regular referendums on key social issues. Laetitia Dewall, another protest spokeswoman characterized the concessions as a single peanut, and a Yellow Vests Facebook group of 6,000 in the Bordeaux area said nothing has changed, that there’s no measure of improvement.

The same response came from the opposition parties: The spokesman for the majority right-wing party in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, said the proposals are way below the Vests’ demands, i.e., the outright cancellation of those taxes. Ségolène Royal, a former ecology minister, said it was insufficient and called for an increase of the minimum wage. Marine Le Pen also stated it was insufficient, even though she is not favorable to an increase in the minimum wage. The far-right Nicolas Dupont Aignan called on the Vests to pursue their movement peacefully in the provinces and halt all deployments in Paris, which only hurt their credibility.

In the meantime, other sectors have joined the fight: Nurses who work more than eight hours a day in heinous conditions for an average €1,800 net wage, were demonstrating, offering Macron giant Q-tips to clean his ears in order to hear the demands of the people. Some 600 ambulances partially blocked the Place de la Concorde yesterday, to demand withdrawal of a new law setting up an Uber-like deregulation of ambulance services. Yesterday, 200 Parisian high schools were blockaded by students opposing the Macron university reform, considered to be elitist. The largest farming organization, FNSEA, announced mass protests next week because of a real downgrading of their living standards and social status. The truckers union in the CGT federation have also announced strike actions next week, as have the public works companies, which are suffering from the rise of energy prices.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Kremlin’s Peskov Bluntly States, If U.S. Withdraws from INF, ‘Russia Will Be Forced To Take Steps’

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday discussed the cancellation of the Trump-Putin meeting, and its potential consequences, reported TASS. He said that the cancelled meeting would have included discussion of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and other critical issues of global strategic stability. Speaking on Dec. 3, the eve of the NATO foreign ministers meeting focussed on attacking Russia, Peskov was blunt in stating Russia’s concerns:

“We expected this meeting between Putin and Trump, who could have discussed the process and outlined ways to a potential dialogue on that topic [INF Treaty]. But, regrettably, as you know, the meeting never took place.” Peskov said that if the U.S. does actually withdraw from the INF Treaty, the “consequences can be very bad. If the Americans ultimately withdraw from that treaty, there is a high risk, although now they deny it, that they will deploy these [intermediate-range] missiles in Europe. It means NATO’s expansion towards our borders. If missiles are deployed in Europe, Russia will be forced to take steps to ensure parity,” Peskov said, and stating that such “steps” would mean “targeting these missiles.”

He continued: “That is, European territories will be in the crosshairs of our missiles. So, here we are back in the glorious 1970s. It is illogical. It is dangerous since, instead of discussing development goals, we will find ourselves back in a situation of armed confrontation. It is very bad and that is why we are trying to initiate negotiations with the Americans, sending these or those signals, to see no reciprocity, due to various reasons.”

Peskov directly countered the idea that a new INF Treaty could be negotiated de novo, under current conditions: “It is impossible to create an alternative to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in the current political conditions. There is room for improving the document. But it can be improved only on the basis of something concrete, because in the current political situation it is next to impossible to produce such a complicated document if it is leveled to the ground. It is possible to use it as a basis but it is absolutely impossible to start from scratch.”

“The best option is the U.S. non-withdrawal from the treaty,” the Kremlin spokesman stressed. “It is a difficult problem and there is no alternative to dialogue between the two countries’ experts and political will from their leaders. You know about our leader’s political will. And the U.S. leader is yet to announce his.”

As for a possible future meeting between Putin and Trump, Peskov said that a meeting in Washington is out of question in the current situation, and stated, “De facto, the easiest option is to meet on the sidelines of international multilateral forums. The next such event will be held in Osaka. It will be the next Group of Twenty summit, in six months. And it is an untenable pause both for our bilateral relations and for international security and stability.”

Pompeo To Russia: It Has 60 Days ‘To Return to Compliance’ with INF Treaty, or Else

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today that Russia has 60 days to come back into compliance with the INF Treaty, or the U.S. will pull out of it. After the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Pompeo told reporters that “the United States today declares it has found Russia in material breach of the treaty and will suspend our obligations as a remedy effective in 60 days unless Russia returns to full and verifiable compliance.” Only Russia, he claimed, can save the treaty. “If Russia admits its violations and fully and verifiably comes back into compliance we will, of course, welcome that course of action. But Russia and Russia only can take this step,” he said.

The only Russian response, so far, has come from Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova who confirmed, after Pompeo’s announcement, that “Russia scrupulously abides by the provisions of the treaty, and the U.S. side knows this,” TASS quoted her as saying.

Pompeo Tells Europe, ‘Liberal International Order’ Means Attacking China, Russia, and Other ‘Bad Actors’

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech to the George Marshall Foundation today in Brussels, titled “Restoring the Role of the Nation-State in the Liberal International Order,” which was an all-out defense of that dying “liberal international order” against “bad actors” such as China, Russia and Iran, which are out to change it. Pompeo packaged his argument as a supposed defense of the “nation-state” and “sovereignty”—a transparent effort to use that rhetoric to substitute his defense of purely British Empire geopolitics for the policy President Donald Trump presented at the UN General Assembly in September, which included an important defense of the nation-state.

Pompeo argued that “nations” should reform the multilateral institutions set up after World War II to defend the liberal order (including that “indispensable institution,” NATO), because they have failed to keep out “bad actors [which] have exploited our lack of leadership for their own gain.”

The number-one “bad actor” Pompeo named was China, whose “economic development did not lead to an embrace of democracy and regional stability; it led to more political repression and regional provocations. We welcomed China into the liberal order, but never policed its behavior.”

Iran, similarly. And Russia, Pompeo insisted, which “hasn’t embraced Western values of freedom and international cooperation.” (His list of Russia’s violations was long, and very British.)

Pompeo questioned the African Union as not representing “nation states”; and the Organization of American States for not attacking Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. The IMF and World Bank also have to be reformed, he argued, so that they “halt lending to nations that can already access global capital markets countries like China.” Likewise, “taxpayer handouts” to other development banks should be reduced.

In short, Pompeo stated, “international bodies must help facilitate cooperation that bolsters the security and values of the free world, or they must be reformed or eliminated.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Xi Jinping’s Ongoing Visit to Portugal Infuriates Diehard Atlanticists

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan to Lisbon this afternoon, with great honors in front of the beautiful St. Jeronimo Monastery. After President Xi there laid a floral wreath upon the tomb of Portugal’s greatest poet, Luís Vaz de Camões, famed as the poet of the nation’s seafaring discoveries, the two Presidents began discussions at the Belem Palace. From the outset both Presidents made clear that Xi’s visit, which continues tomorrow, will include some formalizing of Portugal’s presence in the Belt and Road Initiative. According to initial news reports of their remarks before their meeting, President Xi said that “Portugal is an important hub in the land and maritime silk routes,” and De Sousa spoke of Portugal’s Port of Sines as “the symbol of a partnership which we want to continue to build,” citing Portugal’s strategic position on the Atlantic vis-à-vis the Americas and Africa.

Days before President Xi arrived, Portugal came under threats from the Atlanticists telling Lisbon not to cooperate with China on the Belt and Road Initiative, especially after Spain and China agreed to cooperate with the Belt and Road during President Xi’s visit to that country on Nov. 28.

Philippe Le Corre, a former French Defense Ministry advisor now operating out of Harvard Kennedy School and Carnegie Endowment, churned out articles in English and Portuguese barking orders that Portugal will have to choose between its relations with China and the BRI, and NATO and the EU. In a Nov. 24 article in The Diplomat Le Corre discussed the proposals for incorporating Sines Port into the BRI and growing Chinese investment in Portugal, to then ask: “Does this mean that Portugal is willing to remain an active member of the European Union and NATO while becoming an ‘aircraft carrier for Chinese investments in Europe’?”

Today, Associated Press (“Portugal Fetes China, Risking Tension with Western Allies”) and France’s AFP (“Xi Heads to Portugal as China’s Influence Worries EU Partners”) regurgitated the same line. Both wires specified “concerns” over plans for the China Three Gorges Corp. to increase its current 24% control over Portugal’s public electricity company, EDP, and national electrical grid operator, REN, to a controlling share. The European Union and the U.S. are trying to scuttle the deal on grounds that EDP operates in these countries, and therefore their regulations apply. U.S. Ambassador to Lisbon George Glass has reportedly been vigorously protesting, on grounds that EDP is the third-largest provider of clean energy in the U.S.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Praises Roger Stone’s Refusal To Lie for Mueller

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—“ ‘I will never testify against Trump.’ This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about President Trump. Nice to know that some people still have guts!” President Donald Trump tweeted yesterday.

As opposed to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who had the chutzpah to ask the judge for no prison time, in return for his singing off Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s script—a plea which constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley commented “borders on lunacy.” Or as President Trump summarized the import of Cohen’s plea in two Twitter entries yesterday: “You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.”

In his second tweet, the President wrote: “Bob Mueller (who is a much different man than people think) and his out of control band of Angry Democrats, don’t want the truth, they only want lies. The truth is very bad for their mission!”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

China Is Lighting Up the World

Dec. 4 (EIRNS)—China’s Belt and Road Initiative is both literally and figuratively lighting up the places where it is building new infrastructure, especially in Africa, according to a report from AidData research laboratory at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, cited by a reporter at the Dec. 4 press briefing of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. When asked about the report, which has not yet been reviewed by EIR, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that the Chinese government usually does not comment on the viewpoints and reports by media, think tanks, experts and scholars. However, it does welcome “objective and unbiased reports and comments made by media and research institutions on cooperation between China and Africa, as well as between China and developing countries,” Geng began.

“I want to point out that more and more data and evidence have shown that such mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the developing countries including those in Africa has provided a strong boost and made significant contributions to local economic and social development. The China-Africa cooperation outcomes have won the unanimous approval of African governments and acclaim from African people,” Geng said. “China and African countries will work together to advance the implementation of the eight major initiatives announced by President Xi Jinping at the FOCAC [Forum for China Africa Cooperation, Sept. 3-4] Beijing summit. China also stands ready to make more efforts with other cooperation partners worldwide to advance Africa’s cause for peace and development.”