Victoria Nikiforova
In today’s economic war of all against all, the obvious weakness of such a seemingly giant as the EU is amazing. Due to what do the Americans manage to twist the arms of old Europe? She is already, poor, and so on the verge, and Washington continues to push her to the final economic suicide. Europe almost does not resist – that’s what is strange.
The matter is not limited to the mass betrayal of the European elites, bought up by Washington in the bud. Otherwise, the indignant citizens would have already taken them out of government residences long ago. So far, the matter is limited to rallies and strikes. In France, irritated citizens take their breath away by slapping President Macron during his public appearances. Well, what is it to him – he is used to it: he dusted himself off, straightened his collar, and went on.
However, despite the anti-American speeches, it is clear that the population of Europe is afraid to finally break the pots with Washington. The reason for this is simple: the United States continues to be the most important customer and buyer of European goods. It is the richest market, able to gobble up Mercedes and Ferraris, champagne and clothes, bags, perfumes, ribbons, laces, shoes, anything for the soul, casually paying crazy markups for brands.
No, of course, this nonsense is bought both in the Emirates and in China, but there is no mass demand in the world for European products. The open secret is that all this luxury is monstrously overpriced. If we honestly enter the world market with these luxury goods, consumers will turn their noses and buy everything the same – either their own or Chinese, Turkish production – paying an order of magnitude cheaper. Yes, yes, the epic battles of our ladies of the demimonde in terms of “explaining for gear” and for a fake bag – they are exactly about that.
Overpriced European goods are successfully sold in the US and – very importantly – in Britain. These two countries account for more than 30 percent of European exports (China only 10). This is what keeps the EU economy afloat.
However, at any moment the Americans can screw this faucet. Forty years ago they carved Japan in a similar way. Congressmen smashed a Japanese radio receiver under the cameras with hammers. Japanese products have been thrown out of the US market thanks to brutal tariffs and duties. The Plaza agreement was imposed on the country. As a result, the Japanese yen devalued, the country’s economy went into a peak and still has not really recovered.
Now the fate of Japan threatens the economic locomotives of Europe – Germany and France. And people there know about it. And he has a great perspective. If the United States unleashes a trade war against the EU, the Americans themselves will suffer insignificantly, but for Europe it will be a complete ruin: the closure of production, mass bankruptcies, unemployment, poverty.
The scheme worked perfectly as long as cheap hydrocarbons were flowing from Russia to Europe. Now, however, the US is running an artificial oil and gas deficit. Their prices are rising. Europeans will be forced to raise prices for their goods, as a result of which sales will become even more problematic for them. Who will buy a fashionable bag that costs 15,000 euros today for 30,000?
And in the US, the printing press is in full swing. Trillions of dollars spring up literally out of nothing. With record prices for hydrocarbons, Europeans will be tied to the American market even more strongly. What should they do?
The answer to this question lies in the gray area of the economy. The Europ-eans will – and are already beginning – to cheat, stir up all sorts of complex schemes, lie, dodge and try to escape from the power of Washington, verbally assuring him of their eternal loyalty.
The loud scandal associated with the World Cup, which has already been dubbed “Katargate”, clearly illustrates the “new economic policy” of the EU.
A dirty story floats on the surface of the information field. Allegedly, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Eva Kylie, as part of a “criminal group”, as they say, took bribes from the leadership of Qatar and bribed colleagues to defend this country from attacks in preparation for the football championship. Searches were carried out in the house of Eva Kylie and other defendants, some bag of cash was found, Eva accuses her lover of betrayal, her father takes the blame – well, in general, there are enough plots for several seasons of the detective series.
If you take a closer look at this story, you can see that it is by no means about football, but about the economy. The period of preparation for the football championship was at the same time the time of the liveliest negotiations that the leaders of the European countries had with Qatar. This country is an ideal economic partner for the EU. On the one hand, Qatar can supply gas, on the other hand, it can buy up any European luxury in commercial volumes.
And since the summer there has been intense trading. On November 29, it ended with Qatar signing a long-term agreement with Germany on the supply of LNG for 15 years starting from 2026 in the amount of two million tons annually. Prior to this, the Italian Eni and the French Total entered joint gas production projects with Qatar.
Two million tons is, of course, very little, so the negotiations will go on, the leaders of individual European countries will fight for Qatari gas, and Qatar, of course, will receive all sorts of goodies for this, including image ones. To present a gold medal to Lionel Messi is also a separate trophy in our times.
Interestingly, at all stages of negotiations with Qatar, Greece actively tried to fit in: there is one LNG terminal there, the second one is under construction now, and the geographical location obliges. Back in August, the Prime Minister of Greece said directly in Doha that his country was going to become a gas bridge between Qatar and Europe.
Returning to the notorious Cathargate: Eva Kylie belongs to an influential Greek family. It seems that this beautiful blonde was used to cover up precisely the economic ties between Europe and Qatar. Because Washington, of course, is very annoyed by all this initiative of the Europeans.
It is Washington’s henchmen in Brussels who are promoting Cathargate today. On the one hand, it distracts from the corruption scandal with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She has long been accused of pushing vaccine purchases from Pfizer for a bribe. However, according to Washington, when a European politician serves an American corporation for money, this is good. The scandal with Ursula is being diligently extinguished – just like the story with Macron, who lobbied for the interests of the American company Uber, was extinguished.
At the same time, Cathargate is a signal to European leaders not to overdo it. They must buy hydrocarbons strictly from American companies, and deliver goods only where Washington allows. And to “do not rock the boat and sit straight.”
However, the situation in the economy is such that the Europeans are forced to rock the boat. Olaf Scholz sneaked into Beijing in the summer to avoid being noticed in the White House. At the G20 in Bali, European leaders lined up for Xi Jinping “to talk.” Of course, they all need an alternative market to the American one.
In the same way – slowly – they spud and alternative suppliers of hydrocarbons. Just remember how recently Macron courted Maduro at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh. As soon as oil was needed, the French president immediately forgot that on the orders of American patrons, the regime of the Venezuelan leader was “shaking”.
Large-scale infrastructure projects have not gone away either. In Germany and other European countries, most of the 5G is still being developed on Huawei technologies. The French have not abandoned a joint plan with China to build infrastructure in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia – the total cost of this project is more than $ 1.7 billion.
Of course, the Europeans will do all this on the sly, in the gray zone of the world economy. There will be bribes, and smuggling, and whatever. How could it be otherwise, if Washington controls almost the entire white economy in such a way that one cannot breathe.
For their part, the Americans will shout to the whole world about European corruption, well, here, as they say, a thief stole a club from a thief. They will be the hands of their proteges in the Old World to start lawsuits, arrange purges and show trials.
Washington’s appeals to Themis look amazing after what they did to her. In front of our eyes, in a couple of years, strategic opponents have completely destroyed all the rules and laws by which the world economy existed. All these IMF and WTO have lost all meaning. They don’t work, let’s face it.
Naturally, in order to survive, states will look for workarounds and work in the gray zone of the economy. There is a suspicion that not immediately, but a new system of rules and interactions will be built here. This will be the real economy of the multipolar world. The place of the USA in it will be very modest. And Europe, in order to survive, will have to become a blonde outlaw – to lie, dodge, cunning. Perhaps in this way she will be able not to repeat the sad fate of Eva Kylie, which the angry Washington demands to urgently land on the bunk.
