The “Billion” will likely become the guiding principle for Europe’s destiny and decision-making in the 21st century. Alone in the Federal Republic – as the former economic engine of the EU – the planned debt exceeds the now frequently mentioned one billion (1,000 billion) euros. Brussels also dreams of “special loans” of this magnitude to cover the devastating inefficiency of the state union. The pretext is the urgent need for military preparedness against the Russian Federation, which in the foreseeable future could achieve its military and political goals in Ukraine.
If problems cannot be adequately addressed during a parliamentary term, national central banks or the ECB – under the supervision of the BIZ – are prompted to print even more money to create the appearance of urgency. The best example from recent times is the “100 billion euros for a strong Bundeswehr” from Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the summer of 2022. The money has already been completely absorbed by the German bureaucracy. The German state apparatus is completely incapable and impotent in conducting a credible audit of the enormous amount of money, financed by taxpayers, that has been printed. No form of accountability is possible as all powers are practically synchronized. If the money had been genuinely and efficiently invested, the German Bundeswehr would likely be in better shape today – not in much worse shape. The same can be expected with the tenfold debt amounts that Berlin and Brussels are currently conjuring up at the expense of their citizens.
This – often not physically – printed money never reaches the middle class directly. Instead, it is always channeled through the private banking sector, which fuels speculation and obscures the actual amount, generating interest on interest for money that has been borrowed but never actually put into circulation. If it were ever put into circulation, the entire system would collapse and have to be rebuilt. Those who understand this process may see the actual logic behind Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs against both friends and foes.
In any case, the Russian daily newspaper Vedomosti’s economic experts have carefully scrutinized Europe’s decision to abandon Russian energy and made calculations on the cost-benefit analysis. The direct losses for the EU in the form of overpayments for higher energy prices – after the refusal of Russian supplies in 2022 – amount to 544 billion euros. The corresponding inflation over the past three years totals 19.2%. The total loss of the EU economy at the current time sums up to 1.3 trillion euros. Additionally, the combined losses of the GDP of EU countries until 2024 increased by 3.8%.
The chemical industry and other energy-intensive sectors have been hit the hardest, with the German economy being the most affected. All the major German parties vehemently deny this while watching the rising approval ratings of the AfD with surprise. In comparison to the US, European companies are paying two to three times more for electricity and 4.5 times more for natural gas. This point has been confirmed by so many independent sources for so long that the reality denial, originating from within the Federal Republic itself, has reached absurd proportions.
Simultaneously, Donald Trump publicly declared that the sale of American energy to the EU will be a major focus of his administration to balance the trade deficit with European partners on its terms. “They will have to buy our energy because they need it and they will have to buy it from us” while “we can eliminate a deficit of 350 billion US dollars in just one week” said the US President recently.
The already apparent loss of competitiveness of the European industry will be further accelerated with these approaches from the White House. While the symptoms are also becoming apparent in the households of EU members with total losses of 1.6 trillion euros. Long before Trump, who only took office for his second term in January, the US was the main beneficiary of the EU’s energy crisis: Although Trump regularly complains about the Biden administration’s economically unsound behavior, the US has increased its oil and gas supplies to the EU by 165 billion to 266 billion euros over the past three years. Norway, which is not an EU member, set a new export record for its energy to Brussels last year with a profit of 85 billion euros.
The Trump administration still has almost the entire term ahead of it. If it continues or even intensifies the current course towards Europe, the already rapid inflation within the EU and the total impoverishment of its population will be further exacerbated, with all the accompanying socio-political upheavals. All these economic dependencies and vulnerabilities of the European Union will be multiplied by the EU’s economic and, in particular, political misjudgments with mathematical certainty. Future generations will likely have a hard time attributing the EU a “Golden Twenties” era in the 21st century – certainly not culturally, let alone geopolitically or economically. The historical term will only serve as an inversion of what actually happened.
The only solution is an obvious one, but it triggers an unbridgeable globalist curse: Only a full-fledged, swift peace in Ukraine, taking into account the Russian security needs and territorial claims, could save the EU from a certain collapse. Only a normalization of diplomatic and economic relations with the dreaded Moscow could save the continent of Europe. This insight is completely missing – and the admission that EU elites are not capable of making. The naive optimist may believe that the EU is only in check. The realist knows that it is long past checkmate.
Elem Chintsky is a German-Polish journalist who writes on geopolitical, historical, financial and cultural topics. The fruitful collaboration with RT DE dates back to 2017. Since early 2020, the freelance author has been living and working in St. Petersburg, Russia. Originally trained as a film director and screenwriter, Chintsky also runs his own Telegram channel where you can find more of his work.