TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Volume 6, Number 224

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• World in Turmoil: A Moment for Decisive Intervention, If Viewed From the Highest ‘Fast Sea-Land Link’ to Europe
• Serbia and Bulgaris Celebrate the Opening of New Sofia-Nis Highway
• The Fed’s ‘Not QE’ Is Not Only QE, But Also QE for Pure Speculation
• Francophone Africans Want Currency Independence From French Central Bank, Euro
• Homelessness Increasing in Germany, Thanks To Hartz IV
• Trump, First President at New York City Veterans Day Parade, Cites 1776 Defeat of ‘British Armada’
• Ambassador Terry Branstad Affirms U.S. Welcomes Chinese Students

EDITORIAL

World in Turmoil: A Moment for Decisive Intervention, If Viewed from the Highest Level of History

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—The world is in turmoil, as seen most dramatically in the many mass protests—from Chile, to Lebanon, to Iraq, and violent deployments into Bolivia and Hong Kong by agents of the dying neo-liberal geopolitical system.  At the same time, this is a moment for decisive intervention for the good, if people stand ready with the programs and methods of working together to lead the way safely ahead.

In reviewing current events, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche today stressed the need to inspire ourselves and everyone to view things from the highest vantage point of history. That way, one is not caught in a flat, two-dimensional, false reality of being manipulated to “take sides,” and face doom.

Zepp-LaRouche used the comparative example of the systemic crisis in 1989, when from 1989-1991 the whole communist party system came to an end, in comparison to the present day, when the neo-liberal financial/economic system is coming to an end. In the case of 1989 through the 1990s, the positive alternative was thwarted. But today, we can act to see that that does not happen again.

Look at the method of collaborative thinking expressed today in the Mediterranean by Chinese President Xi Jinping, meeting in Athens with Greek leaders. Xi spoke of the new Asian-Europe relations leveraged by Greece, as it serves as the transshipment point for expanding two-way trade and mutual development. Xi and his Greek hosts personally toured the Port of Piraeus.

Meantime, the situations are very dangerous in Bolivia and Hong Kong, where the “Maidan” model is in play, involving outside intervention by joint networks of fascist squadristi and Whitehall/State Department operatives. There has been unprecedented violence in Hong Kong in recent days. In Bolivia, there is a total power vacuum, with no formal government at all. The Santa Cruz faction of Bolivia’s fascist operative Luis Fernando Camacho are killing and rampaging wantonly, in the name of “divine justice.” The Organization of American States and the U.S. State Department are complicit in the process, welcoming the “professional” role of the corrupt Organization of American States, which proclaimed the Oct. 20 elections to be fraudulent, setting the stage for the violent uprising that led President Evo Morales to resign Nov. 10.

Zepp-LaRouche stressed that the “geopolitical mindset” must be overcome. The touchstone in the U.S., are the presidencies and outlooks that have gone before: George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and the historic contributions of Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and Lyndon LaRouche. The American System is the critical heritage. People have to rise up and take responsibility on a world-historical level.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Fascists and State Department Team Up To Stage ‘Maidan’ Coup in Bolivia

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—As occurred with the 2014 coup in Ukraine, in Bolivia the U.S. State Department has teamed up with avowed fascists to bring down the government of President Evo Morales, creating another “Maidan”—this time in South America.

Since he took power in 2006, Morales has been a thorn in the side of the now-collapsing, colonialist and neo-liberal old order. His dirigist policies have ushered in an era of economic prosperity, impressive poverty reduction, and application of advanced science and technology to create enormous pride and optimism among the population.

For those imperial financiers in the City of London and on Wall Street, Morales had to go. Through the combined forces of the fascist Catholic leader of the Pro-Santa Cruz civic committee, Luis Fernando Camacho, who promotes the independence of Santa Cruz because of its “whiteness,” and the intervention of the State Department to guide the process every step of the way, Bolivia has now been thrown into complete instability, with a total power vacuum, no government to speak of, and continued terror attacks on the population by fascist hordes.

The State Department has systematically worked for Morales’s ouster. After the Oct. 20 elections, it expressed its “deep concern over the irregularities” in the vote counting and demanded an “accurate accounting of the votes … or a second round that is credible and transparent.” On Nov. 6, Michael Kozak, Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, threatened in Congressional testimony that if Bolivia didn’t respect the vote of its citizens, “we’ve made clear that there will be serious consequences in their relations with the region.”

After the Organization of American States (OAS) delegation carrying out the vote audit in Bolivia announced its preliminary findings Nov. 9 that “the team can’t validate the results of the current elections,” due to “grave irregularities,” on Nov. 10, prior to Morales’s resignation, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gushed over “the professional work” of the OAS technical mission, called for new elections, and told the OAS to send a new mission to Bolivia “to oversee the new electoral process.”

As of this writing, Jeanine Anez Chavez, a member of the opposition from Santa Cruz, who is second vice-president of the Bolivian Senate, has announced she will form a government, provided enough legislators show up to vote on Morales’s resignation and agree to form a transitional government. Many legislators from Morales’s MAS party fear for their lives if they show up in public, as Camacho’s shock troops have targetted Morales’s supporters, former cabinet members, and government employees for violent attack, burning their homes, threatening and beating their family members. Morales’s home in Cochabamba was burned and looted. Camacho, meanwhile, is justifying persecution of former government employees and MAS members as “divine justice,” not vengeance. He has manically tweeted that there is an arrest warrant out of Morales—which the head of the police has denied—warning that Morales and his Vice President Alvaro García Linera will be put on trial and punished.

Escalated Violence in Hong Kong, as Executive Carrie Lam Urges All Society To Back Security

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—In Hong Kong, some of the worst violence in five months of protests took place in the last 24 hours. This morning, Chief Executive Carrie Lam held a special press briefing, describing protesters as the “enemy of the people,” and calling on “the whole of society” to condemn their widespread violence.

In one instance, a police officer shot an activist in self-defense, during a scuffle in which the officer, outnumbered and under assault, tried to aim his weapon free of people. The wounded protester is reported to be in critical condition in hospital. In a second instance, a middle-aged Hong Kong resident, expressing his view to the protesters, that “We are all Chinese,” was doused with a flammable liquid by them and set afire. First reports are that he is in critical condition in hospital.

Today’s Global Times reported that the escalated violence involved damage to rail lines, and attempts to force strikes by workers at critical points such as schools and hospitals, among other actions. Protesters hit shopping malls, to vandalize stores said to be operated by pro-Beijing residents. Police arrested nearly 90 people on various charges, including criminal damage, packing a dangerous weapon, as well as wearing masks. Today, police used water cannon on one of the college campuses, to disperse an unlawful protest.

Carrie Lam concluded her statement to the press today: “Finally, if there is still any wishful thinking that by escalating violence the Hong Kong SAR [Special Administrative Region] government will yield to pressure to satisfy the so-called political demands, I’m making this statement clear and loud here: That will not happen. Violence is not going to give us any solution to the problems that Hong Kong is facing. Our joint priority now as a cityis to end the violence and to return Hong Kong to normal as soon as possible.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Xi Jinping’s State Visit to Greece Includes Trade Deals, Boost for ‘Fast Sea-Land Link’ to Europe

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Athens in the evening of Nov. 10 to begin his official visit and was received at the airport by Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on behalf of the Greek government and by Secretary General of the Presidency Giorgos Gennimatas on behalf of Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos who had invited Xi to visit.

On Monday, Nov. 11, President Xi was received by President Pavlopoulos at the presidential mansion, during which Xi stated that the relationship between Greece and China was a “cooperation of two great civilizations” and not just cooperation between two countries.

Pavlopoulos agreed: “Real civilizations do not clash. This is because they are, by their very nature, destined to be chosen and to serve humanity and peace. In other words, real civilizations build bridges of communication, they do not erect walls of separation.”

Xi met then with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Prime Minister’s official Maximos Mansion, which was followed by a luncheon, that included leading Greek business people. Afterward, Xi and Mitsotakis toured the COSCO container terminal at the Port of Piraeus.

It was also announced that the two leaders signed a joint statement on strengthening partnership in regard to the Belt and Road Initiative, adding to the many partnership agreements they have signed in the past. They also signed 16 trade deals. Xi and Mitsotakis signed a memorandum of understanding, stating their mutual will to overcome any obstacles in the implementation of COSCO’s investment in Piraeus. COSCO wishes to turn Piraeus into the largest commercial port on the Mediterranean, if not in Europe.

“We want to strengthen Piraeus’s transshipment role and further boost the throughput capacity of China’s fast sea-land link with Europe,” Xi said after meeting Mitsotakis.

Xi stated that China also wanted to expand its investments in energy, transportation, and banking. China’s State Grid expressed interest in taking part in the €1 billion plan by the Greek power grid company ADMIE to build an undersea power cable linking the island of Crete to the mainland by 2023. The Chinese company already holds a minority stake in ADMIE.

“We need to strengthen the China-EU integrated strategic relationship and the 17+1 [China-Central and Eastern European Countries] mechanism,” said President Xi. “We want to demonstrate the positive synergy of our cooperation for positive growth. We have also decided to work more closely on international affairs for the multipolar world and for peace. Confucius said that virtue is not left to stand alone. And Aristotle said that the true friend is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. These things unite our two great countries: equality, mutual respect, cooperation, an open mind, inclusive growth and a determination to move forward in the future,” the Chinese President concluded.

President Pavlopoulos hosted a dinner Monday evening. On Nov. 12, Xi and Pavlopoulos will tour the Acropolis Museum, after which the Chinese President will depart for Brazil to attend the BRICS summit.

Parallel to Xi’s visit, the Greece’s central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras, met with executives of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which has requested to set up a representative office in Greece. Bank of China Europe had set up a branch in Athens earlier this month.

Serbia and Bulgaria Celebrate the Opening of New Sofia-Nis Highway

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Serbia and Bulgaria celebrated the opening of the new Sofia-Nis highway connecting the Serbian city of Nis and the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, on Nov. 9. This forms one of the east-west forks of the strategically important north-south Trans-European Corridor Ten, which begins in Budapest, and passes through Belgrade, Serbia and Skopje, North Macedonia, and terminates in Thessaloniki, Greece. The completed Nis-Sofia fork continues northwest to Zagreb, Croatia, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and on to Salzburg, Austria.

The opening ceremony for this four-lane highway was attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, along with government representatives of the two countries, foreign creditors, and companies that worked on this section of the road.

Proudly, Serbian President Vucic addressed the event: “Happiness is a word not strong enough to describe how I feel today. When we started changing our country a few years ago, this was what I wanted. The dream was hundreds of miles of modern roads. This is a miracle. We have done more miles than in the previous 40 years. We have made them in order for our citizens to use to return from Europe to our country, to make economic progress, to open new factories, to protect our citizens.

“We have worked hard and fought hard, and we are making rapid progress. We are celebrating these 87 km that divide Nis from Gradina, and note that the last section of Corridor 10 is finished. We can now reach the border with Croatia in less than 4 hours. This is a transit corridor from Central Europe to Turkey, and farther to the Middle East. This will mean a lot for our people, because we lost more people in the Sicevacka Gorge than in the wars of the 1990s,” Vucic said, referring to the high accident rate on the previous roadway.

Urging young Serbians who had left the country, to consider returning, he told them that this was their country, and that they should return “to make our Serbian dream come true.”

For his part, Bulgarian Prime Minister Borissov said, “The Bulgarian industry will use this highway as a whole to market its goods to Europe. Let Serbia be happy, I want you to use it in health.” He stated that Serbia now has direct access to Bulgaria’s Black Sea ports. The two leaders then warmly embraced.

The slopes around one of the tunnel entrances where the ceremony was held were festooned with banners declaring, “Serbia connects Europe,” “Responsibly towards the goal,” “Building towards the future,” “The path of victory,” “The path of success,” etc. Citizens carried Serbian flags and a large banner, “The Future of Serbia.”

The entire fork from Nis to the Bulgarian border includes 87 bridges and five traffic loops. The tunnels are equipped with state-of-the-art safety systems, and managed by a technical and operational center. The road cost around €476 million, funded in part by the EU’s European Investment Bank. The construction of the eastern fork of Corridor 10 had begun in 2010.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

The Fed’s ‘Not QE’ Is Not Only QE, But Also QE for Pure Speculation

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Neither Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell nor the New York Federal Reserve Bank were telling the truth when they insisted that the Fed’s new $60 billion/month asset purchase program had merely a short-term purpose of increasing large banks’ “excess reserves” on deposit at the Federal Reserve. This is proven with detailed charts of recent and current Federal Reserve asset levels, by the blog “Econimica” on Nov. 8.

These excess reserves are supposed to allow these banks to provide liquidity to the banking system in a crisis. The current crisis in the interbank lending market since mid-September makes clear the big banks are not providing that liquidity. Powell’s statements on the new asset-purchase program claimed that the Fed was simply going to correct by buying $4-500 billion in Treasury and other securities from the Wall Street banks, providing them with that much additional cash, which they would keep on deposit at the Fed and use to provide liquidity to the system. These cash purchases would show up on the Fed’s balance sheet as new assets. And so would the daily “repo” loans the Fed has had to make since mid-September, to the extent those very short-term loans were rolled over repeatedly and began to become long-term loans.

The Federal Reserve’s assets have in fact increased by $300 billion to $4.04 trillion since Sept. 17, according to Econimica’s charts from Federal Reserve data.

But the excess reserves of the megabanks on deposit at the Fed are lower than they were at the beginning of 2019, and slightly lower than they were in August.

That means that more than $300 billion has simply been printed by the Federal Reserve in two months, and is new currency which has gone through the Wall Street and big European banks and straight into speculation in stocks, bonds, debt securitizations, market indices, interest rate derivatives, and so forth. Much of it has gone through the “repo” loans to hedge funds and other non-banks in the so-called liquidity crisis.

Based on these data, this is essentially a rate of quantitative easing of $1.5 trillion/year or more, far more than any previous “QE” program by the Bank of Japan, Bank of England, European Central Bank or the Fed. And the claim it is “building up excess bank reserves, not going into the economy”—used since Ben Bernanke to assure that QE would never cause hyperinflation—does not apply.

Francophone Africans Want Currency Independence from French Central Bank, Euro

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Francophone nations in West Africa, former French colonies, want more control over the management of their currencies and plan to move some reserves from France, said Benin President Patrice Talon.

The eight member-nations of the West African Economic and Monetary Union “unanimously agree” on ending a decade-old model whereby their foreign-exchange accumulation is kept at the French Treasury, Talon said in a Nov. 7 interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI). Their currency, the CFA franc, is pegged to the euro, and its convertibility is guaranteed by the former colonial ruler.

Established after World War II, the CFA franc’s use frequently triggers debate about the region’s continued economic dependence on France and the view that the currency is artificially strong and curbs the region’s competitiveness. Its supporters cite the region’s low inflation and the currency’s stability relative to thoseof other African nations as reasons for its continued use.

“I can’t give you the date, but the willingness of everyone is already there,” Talon said in response to a reference to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire’s openness to a reform of the currency. “Psychologically, with respect to sovereignty and managing your own currency, it’s not good to have this model continue.”

The regional central bank will manage the reserves and distribute them to partners around the world, including Japan, Europe, China, and North America, said Talon.

Ivory Coast, with an economy of about $40 billion, is the biggest among the users of the CFA franc in West Africa. In addition to the eight West African nations, six other nations in the Central African Economic and Monetary Union also use the same model.

Homelessness Increasing in Germany, Thanks To Hartz IV

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Germany now registers some 678,000 citizens as being homeless, which is an increase of 4.2% year-on-year against November 2018; fully 8% of these homeless are children. However, as charity organizations point out, there are an unknown number of homeless people who are not registered, individuals and families who live entirely on the sidelines of society.

Many of the homeless have been driven into this precarious situation by the Hartz IV social welfare and unemployment pay cuts decided by the SPD-led government 15 years ago. Whereas the SPD leaders hysterically deny any responsibility for the rise of poverty and homelessness, the issue was prominently addressed at the SPD national convention in Wiesbaden in April 2018: There, Flensburg Mayor Simone Lange charged the party with having triggered mass poverty with its Hartz IV project, and she demanded the party change views and also apologize for this major blunder. In 2004 under Hartz IV, individuals considered long-term unemployed (out of work for 12 months) would receive a maximum of €345/month, and otherwise had to sell all assets—homes, cars, real estate, equities—to live on; and accept any job offered, or be able to prove that continued unemployment was not their fault.

The issue will come up again at the SPD national convention in early December when none other than Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, a staunch defender of the Hartz IV policies, wants to be voted in as new party chairman.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump, First President at New York City Veterans Day Parade, Cites 1776 Defeat of ‘British Armada’

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—This morning in New York City, President Donald Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, became the first President of the United States to attend the New York City Veterans Day parade in its 100 years, the biggest in the nation. The solemn ceremony at Madison Square Park involved the President’s short remarks, and the Marine Corps honor guard laying a wreath to the Navy hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong To Save.”  The ceremony closed with the playing of Taps.

In his presentation, Trump thanked the military, including naming certain individuals for their bravery. In his review of key moments of valor, in which he discussed World War I and II, it was notable that he began by citing the British as the enemy: “Since the earliest days of our nation, New York has exemplified the American spirit and has been at the heart of our nation’s story of daring and defiance.

“On July 2nd, 1776, the British Armada sailed into New York Harbor, numbering more than 400 ships and carrying more than 30,000 men. The British came here to snuff out what they thought was just a minor American Revolution. Didn’t turn out to be that way. But the Redcoats … didn’t know that New York would meet them with the fearsome power of American patriots.”

Taking his history through Sept. 11, 2001, he spoke of the “unwavering spirit,” and “resolve deeper than oceans” of the American people.

Ambassador Terry Branstad Affirms U.S. Welcomes Chinese Students

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Writing in the Chinese-language newspaper China Youth Daily, the U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad said that Chinese students are welcome in American universities, emphasizing that the U.S. has made no changes to its visa policy, and even offering advice to Chinese students on how to navigate the bureaucracy.

This marks the second time in as many months that the Trump Administration has sought to counter the neo-con subterfuge against his multilateral foreign policy. Last month, in comments to China’s Vice-Premier Liu He, President Donald Trump himself had said, “We want all the people that want to come over from China. We have the greatest university system in the world, and we’re going to keep it that way.” Although not quoted in the Chinese newspaper, he concluded, “And one of the reasons it’s great is we have a lot of students from China.”

In its English-language coverage as reported in People’s Daily, China Youth Daily commented, “It bears important significance in relieving tensions between the two countries in certain fields, and China welcomes it.”

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