“To some people, the European Central Bank seems like a fire department that is letting the house burn down to teach the children not to play with matches.”
So wrote Jack Ewing in the New York Times last week. . . .
“The E.C.B. has a fire hose — its ability to print money. But the bank is refusing to train it on the euro zone’s debt crisis.
“The flames climbed higher Friday after the Italian Treasury had to pay an interest rate of 6.5 percent on a new issue of six-month bills . . . the highest interest rate Italy has had to pay to sell such debt since August 1997 . . . .
“But there is no sign the E.C.B. plans a major response, like buying large quantities of the country’s bonds to bring down its borrowing costs.”
Why not? According to the November 28th Wall Street Journal, “The ECB has long worried that buying government bonds in big enough amounts to bring down countries’ borrowing costs would make it easier for national politicians to delay the budget austerity and economic overhauls that are needed.”
As with the manufactured debt ceiling crisis in the United States, the E.C.B. is withholding relief in order to extort austerity measures from member governments—and the threat seems to be working. The same authors write:
“Euro-zone leaders are negotiating a potentially groundbreaking fiscal pact . . . [that] would make budget discipline legally binding and enforceable by European authorities. . . . European officials hope a new agreement, which would aim to shrink the excessive public debt that helped spark the crisis, would persuade the European Central Bank to undertake more drastic action to reverse the recent selloff in euro-zone debt markets.”
The Eurozone appears to be in the process of being “structurally readjusted” – the same process imposed earlier by the IMF on Third World countries. Structural demands routinely include harsh austerity measures, government cutbacks, privatization, and the disempowerment of national central banks, so that there is no national entity capable of creating and controlling the money supply on behalf of the people. The latter result has officially been achieved in the Eurozone, which is now dependent on the E.C.B. as the sole lender of last resort and printer of new euros.
The E.C.B. Serves Banks, Not Governments
The legal justification for the E.C.B.’s inaction in the sovereign debt crisis is Article 123 of the Lisbon Treaty, signed by EU members in 2007. As Jens Eidmann, President of the Bundesbank and a member of the E.C.B. Governing Council, stated in a November 14 interview:
“The eurosystem is a lender of last resort for solvent but illiquid banks. It must not be a lender of last resort for sovereigns because this would violate Article 123 of the EU treaty.”
The language of Article 123 is rather obscure, but basically it says that the European central bank is the lender of last resort for banks, not for governments. It provides:
“1. Overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility with the European Central Bank or with the central banks of the Member States (hereinafter referred to as ‘national central banks’) in favour of Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States shall be prohibited, as shall the purchase directly from them by the European Central Bank or national central banks of debt instruments.
“2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply to publicly owned credit institutions which, in the context of the supply of reserves by central banks, shall be given the same treatment by national central banks and the European Central Bank as private credit institutions.”
Banks can borrow from the E.C.B. at 1.25%, the minimum rate available for banks. Member governments, on the other hand, must put themselves at the mercy of the markets, which can squeeze them for “whatever the market will bear”—in Italy’s case, 6.5%.
The Real Reason Eurozone Countries Are Drowning in Debt
Why should banks be able to borrow at 1.25% from the E.C.B.’s unlimited fountain of euros, while the tap is closed for governments? The conventional argument is that for governments to borrow money created by their own central banks would be “inflationary.” But private banks create the money they lend just as government-owned central banks do. Private banks issue money in the form of “bank credit” on their books, and they often do this before they have the liquidity to back the loans. Then they borrow from wherever they can get funds most cheaply. When banks borrow from the E.C.B. as lender of last resort, the E.C.B. “prints money” just as it would if it were lending to governments directly.
The burgeoning debts of the Eurozone countries are being blamed on their large welfare states, but these social systems were set up before the 1970s, when European governments had very little national debt. Their national debts shot up, not because they spent on social services, but because they switched bankers. Before the 1970s, European governments borrowed from their own central banks. The money was effectively interest-free, since they owned the banks and got the profits back as dividends. After the European Monetary Union was established, member countries had to borrow from private banks at interest—often substantial interest.
And the result? Interest totals for Eurozone countries are not readily accessible; but for France, at least, the total sum paid in interest since the 1970s appears to be as great as the French federal debt itself. That means that if the French government had been borrowing from its central bank all along, it could have been debt-free today.
The figures are nearly as bad for Canada, and they may actually be worse for the United States. The Federal Reserve’s website lists the sums paid in interest on the U.S. federal debt for the last 24 years. During that period, taxpayers paid a total of $8.2 trillion in interest. That’s more than half the total $15 trillion debt, in just 24 years. The U.S. federal debt has not been paid off since 1835, so taxpayers could well have paid more than $15 trillion by now in interest. That means our entire federal debt could have been avoided if we had been borrowing from our own government-owned central bank all along, effectively interest-free. And that is probably true for other countries as well.
To avoid an overwhelming national debt and the forced austerity measures destined to follow, the Eurozone’s citizens need to get the fire hose of money creation out of the hands of private banks and back into the hands of the people. But how?
Governments Cannot Borrow from the E.C.B., but Government-owned Banks Can
Interestingly, Paragraph 2 of Article 123 of the Lisbon Treaty carves out an exception to the rule that governments cannot borrow from the E.C.B. It says that government-owned banks can borrow on the same terms as privately-owned banks. Many Eurozone countries have publicly-owned banks; and as nationalization of insolvent banks looms, they could soon find themselves with many more.
One solution might be for the publicly-owned banks of Eurozone governments to exercise their right to borrow from the E.C.B. at 1.25%, then use that liquidity to buy up the country’s debt, or as much of it as does not sell at auction. (The Federal Reserve does this routinely in open market operations in the U.S.) The government’s securities would be stabilized, keeping speculators at bay; and the government would get the interest spread, since it would own the banks and would get the profits back as dividends.
Taking a Stand in the Class War
In a November 25th article titled “Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over,” Paul Craig Roberts writes:
“The European Union, just like everything else, is merely another scheme to concentrate wealth in a few hands at the expense of European citizens, who are destined, like Americans, to be the serfs of the 21st century.”
He observes that Mario Draghi, the new president of the European Central Bank, was Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International, a member of Goldman Sachs’ Management Committee, a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank, a member of the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements, and Chairman of the Financial Stability Board. Italy’s new prime minister Mario Monti, who was appointed rather than elected, was a member of Goldman Sachs’ Board of International Advisers, European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission (“a US organization that advances American hegemony over the world”), and a member of the Bilderberg group. And Lucas Papademos, an unelected banker who was installed as prime minister of Greece, was Vice President of the European Central Bank and a member of America’s Trilateral Commission.
Roberts points to the suspicious fact that the German government was unable to sell 35% of its 10-year bonds at its last auction; yet Germany’s economy is in far better shape than that of Italy, which managed to sell all its bonds. Why? Roberts suspects an orchestrated scheme to pressure Germany to back off from its demands to make the banks pay a share of their bailout.
Europe is in the process of being “structurally readjusted” by a private banking cartel. If its people are to resist this silent conquest, they need to rise up and, using the ballot box and public banks, throw out the new banking hegemony before it is too late.
_____________
Postscript, November 30: The Euro and the stock market rallied today on the news that the Federal Reserve and five other central banks had agreed to lower the cost of emergency dollar funding for European banks. But what does it really mean? As noted on the CNBC website:
In essence, the US central bank, or Federal Reserve, agreed to provide cheaper dollar funding to the European Central Bank–which can then provide cheaper dollar loans to cash-strapped European banks. . . .
The participation of the central banks of Canada, England, Japan and Switzerland is more of an effort to show that all the central bankers are working together than any expectation that there will be lots of dollar borrowings under their facility.
It was good news for the banks, but again it didn’t do anything for EU governments. To participate in the benefits showered on banks, they need to have some public banks that qualify for this largesse.
—————-
Ellen Brown is an attorney and president of the Public Banking Institute, http://PublicBankingInstitute.org. In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she shows how a private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Her websites are http://WebofDebt.com and http://EllenBrown.com.
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary |
WEB OF DEBT BLOG 
The ECB, like the Federal Reserve, is a crime syndicate specializing in massive and deadly monetary fraud. This is a law enforcement issue, not an economic or political one. Self-defense is our highest unalienable right and needs no justification or permission.
Awesome, Ellen. Thank you!
Italy … http://bit.ly/uKFeoW
GREAT ARTICLE.
Anyone and everyone that reads this. ? Please endorse and post worldwide.
Thanks. Difficult subject! The market is celebrating for the wrong things I think.
[…] Brown Web of Debt Share this:FacebookStumbleUponRedditPrint About Ellen BrownEllen Brown is an attorney, […]
[…] He observes that Mario Draghi, the new president of the European Central Bank, was Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International, a member of Goldman Sachs’ Management Committee, a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank, a member of the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements, and Chairman of the Financial Stability Board. Italy’s new prime minister Mario Monti, who was appointed rather than elected, was a member of Goldman Sachs’ Board of International Advisers, European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission (“a US organization that advances American hegemony over the world”), and a member of the Bilderberg group. And Lucas Papademos, an unelected banker who was installed as prime minister of Greece, was Vice President of the European Central Bank and a member of America’s Trilateral Commission.Source: wordpress.com […]
It is interesting to note that what was once “conspiracy talk” is now front and center. “Tinfoil hat” has always been a polite way to discredit a courageous writer’s attempt to explain this reality.
An issue we need all watch closely is the media. There is a belief on the part of many that the “alternative media” and the so called opposition media are allies of the truth. All media private and public has kept this system in place and I see very little changing.
Ellen Brown has spoken in measured terms about the truth of this thoroughly odd engineered banking crisis. She remains consistent explaining what people can actually do to alter this banker’s hegemony. Money is a commodity. With adequate electrical supply all residents and businesses can function. Without adequate supply or, repeated interruption, there is suffering.
I have read no other writer who avoids the fear inspiring pronouncements of Goldman Sachs engineered austerity disasters that in retrospect just sound like this weekend’s Hollywood disaster flick at the bijou.
What we are watching in Greece and in our home town’s pension crises is just another media packaging job of our banker’s empty machinations. Global warming and terrorism aren’t even in section A of the paper anymore. They have drifted back to somewhere among the advice columns and holiday recipe recommendations. ” We are all gonna starve to death and soon…!” has become the only thing that matters to any TV news producer or newspaper editor. Shame on me for hoping that any of these people would act responsibly.
As we acknowledge the latest phony crisis being foisted on humanity, I ask only one thing, when the handcuffs come out and trials begin, there better be just as many New York Times, CNN and Fox news employees as there are Chase bank and central bankers swearing “to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth” Good Lord! Could that ever happen?
The Alien Registration act or Smith act
(18 USCC 2385)
Of 1940 is a United States federal statute that makes it a criminal
offense for anyone to knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or
teach the duty, necessity, desirability propriety of overthrowing
the government of the United States or of any state by force or violence
or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises
or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association.
(I would assume that this, along with treason are the applicable federal statutes)
Excellent, enlightening article by Ellen Brown and it should be mandatory reading for every European and American voter! We are definitely ordering Ellen’s The Web of Debt today!!! Thank you.
I’m reading L. Randall Wray’s “Understanding Modern Money”, published in 1998. He says that Europe is treating the ECB like
the FED and the countries like our States. Our states’ governments
cannot create currency, and neither can the governments of the EU
create currency. But the sovereign being able to create currency and raise taxes is what gives currency value. What will happen to the EU
he says is what Godley (1997) wrote:
“If a government does not have its own central bank on which it can
draw cheques freely, its expenditure can be financed only by
borrowing in the open market in competition with business, and this
may prove excessively expensive or even impossible, particularly
under ‘conditions of extreme emergency’… The danger, then is
that the budgetary restraint to which governments are individually
committed will impart a deflationary bias that locks Europe as
a whole into a depression it is powerless to lift.”
Quite prescient, wouldn’t you say?
Fortunately we have a federal government that has the power to tax and create currency, which the EU does not. It just has to be
concerned with the general welfare and avoid both inflation and
deflation in the service of that. Do we have an electorate and
politicians with the knowledge to be able to do that? Judging from
what goes on in the media, that is problematic. Wray says that
the sovereign government must be the employer of last resort
to get out of deflation. It must raise taxes to curtail inflation. But
that implies that the sovereign (for us, Us) must know how to
do this and have the will to do it.
[…] …read more […]