#germany #spain #europe #EU #Russia #nostr
#stupidity #wef #communism #lockdown #freedom #nostr
#gm #religion #china #nostr #grownostr
It was just a year ago when former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi presented an investment plan intended to steer the EU—a ship languishing in the stagnant waters of recession—back onto the high seas. The Italian proposed a hefty 800 billion euros, which the Brussels central body would take control of to escape the productivity and growth trap through investments in Europe’s ailing infrastructure, technology hubs, and energy grid. This immense sum was to be managed through the EU’s established investment arms: the European Investment Bank, cohesion funds, and national and regional dependencies like Germany’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. As has often been the case in the past, a cloak of silence fell over Draghi’s latest attempt at a centralized breakthrough, and his polished “Whatever it Takes” vanished amid the media waves of the Ukraine war, Russia sanctions, and sanctimonious Trump-bashing, relegated to the drawers of Brussels’ thousand-layered bureaucracy.
Now, ironically, it is Germany—the fiscal taskmaster that, during the recent debt crisis, ruthlessly drilled its southern European partners, particularly Greece, into submission with its austerity whip, driving them to despair and thrift—that has dusted off Draghi’s plan and brought it back to the table. Though the focus has shifted—now centered on Germany’s rearmament in the face of Putin-mania and the buildup of a European arms sector—the principle remains unchanged: the central state entity secures financing through new debt, stimulates aggregate demand, and leads the old continent to an Eden of growth and gleaming prosperity. So goes the theory. In practice, of course, things look very different, veering miles away from the bureaucrats’ sunny boulevard into the swampy forests of rising national debt and the progressive crowding out of the private sector. This state gigantomania threatens to drain liquidity from the free capital market and drive up interest rates—a trend already materializing in the sell-off of European government bonds in the days following the debt program’s announcement. German 10-year bonds shot up by 40 basis points within two days, setting the tone. The market appears saturated, and Europeans are finding it increasingly difficult to place new debt.
At this moment of geopolitical shift, as the Americans gradually withdraw from European affairs like the Ukraine war, creativity is required when economic options run dry. And they are creative in Brussels when it comes to geopolitical power plays and expanding the EU’s debt scheme. After all, the goal is not just to roll over the enormous existing debts of the Union’s member states, regions, municipalities, social security systems, and state funds into the future. The growing central apparatus in Brussels, fueled by the long-discredited Keynesian thesis of economic policy and the necessity of state intervention, is increasingly absorbing the productive forces of the private sector. We currently stand at the end of a decade in the EU with no significant productivity growth—an abysmal report card for EU economic policy in light of technological progress. Grade: F! The European economy, burdened by bureaucracy and regulation, can no longer translate the macro-impulses of robotics or AI into business models or align economic processes with international standards. Here’s a figure: last year, the German economy lost 136 billion euros in direct investments, much of which left the Eurozone. Once invested elsewhere, that capital won’t return anytime soon.
Back to the creative masterpiece of the Euro-acrobats in Brussels, who have long been racking their brains over how to finance their Brussels behemoth in the future. Citizens’ cash assets are to be the solution, says Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. Trillions of euros are lying unused and idle in European citizens’ accounts, and these must now be activated, according to the CDU politician. Respect for individual autonomy and sovereignty? Nowhere to be found! The EU is ruled by collective coercion, a naive belief in the omnipotence of state regulators, and a firm resolve to transfer private capital formation—soon with digital central bank money—into the hands of the state. The initiators of this assault on our sovereignty estimate the total volume of European cash deposits at 10 trillion euros—a hefty sum to underpin a potential new investment fund with the necessary collateral and stabilize it with the creditworthiness of European taxpayers. Leading the charge and legally responsible would be the European Commission (surprise, surprise), which, if this audacious stunt succeeds, would gain an enormous boost in power. Simultaneously, the long-delayed Capital Markets Union is set to be implemented, which, alongside deeper harmonization of the European banking sector, would primarily regulate the preparatory legal steps for joint debt issuance. Because that was the goal from the start: the establishment of a European Debt Union, leveraging Germany’s still-solid credit rating to refinance and expand the EU project. The American withdrawal comes at just the right time, providing the argumentative framework to hollow out the Maastricht criteria, which until now precluded collective debt. Times have changed!
Active management is expected to be entrusted to the European Investment Bank—an institution with extensive experience in centrally controlled fund distribution within the EU. It serves as both the Brussels central planners’ “watering can” and is ready to step into the game. Cash deposits, low-interest money market products, or pension fund assets are to be tapped. The plan is to lure citizens with a savings scheme offering interest and a fixed return promise. Once the fund is filled, it will serve as the basis for bond issuances, providing valuable leverage for the initial capital. The European Central Bank would then have the honorable task of keeping these bonds liquid—a fate likely similar to that of the EU’s “SURE” bonds introduced during the COVID lockdowns. These first-of-their-kind joint debt securities are trading stably at 40 percent below par, with no volume—the market says “Nyet” to this kind of debt acceleration. At the core of the investments is the financing of military technology—drones, tanks, cybersecurity—and the buildup of the general production infrastructure for a European military sector.
This, then, is the path Brussels is now taking. Naturally, small and medium-sized enterprises are not to be left out of this investment offensive, according to Brussels. Of course not—after all, it’s precisely these small businesses that dominate the arms sector. How do we know? From the American military-industrial complex, which serves as a model for Europeans and is dominated by classic mid-sized firms like Lockheed Martin or RTX.
#eu #ecb #europe #socialism #trump #usa #bitcoin #nostr #grownostr
#bitcoin #m2 #economy #nostr
#memes #lol #gm
France trails with a hefty $72 billion in frozen holdings, followed by Japan, the UK, and Austria, each locking down substantial sums. Meanwhile, the U.S. lags near the tail end, clutching just $6 billion, mostly state-owned assets, though private Russian wealth has also been snared worldwide. The future of this vast fortune hangs in limbo as debates rage over whether to confiscate or redirect it. Always remember: the Europeans need financial collaterals to keep their credit scheme alive.
The EU’s bold expropriation of Russia’s central bank reserves and private wealth may go down as a colossal misstep. We can assume that the future of these assets will play a role in the negotiations between the Russians and the Americans. The attitude of the Europeans should be clear at this point. It does not look as if they are prepared to take a step back and approach the Russians. Trust in Western financial systems, already fragile, has been torched - potentially taking decades to rebuild. And with the EU now flirting with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and capital controls targeting its own citizens, skepticism abounds. In view of the sometimes erratic behavior of European officials and politicians, one really has to ask whether it will be possible to restore confidence in the European Union and the eurozone after the end of the war in Ukraine.
#Geopolitics #Finance #RussiaSanctions #EU #economy #bitcoin #CBDC #nostr
In this sense, the economists at Bloomberg are right when they assume that credit-financed state military spending can increase prosperity. It is wonderful when you can simply consign a whole century of Keynesian interventionist and socialist experience to oblivion so as not to fall out of your own intellectual matrix. The debt spiral continues to turn, it turns faster, and all the so-called intellectuals employed by the matrix look happily into their rainbow world. Especially the economists, the dumbest guild among the state parasites, who feel right at home in the tax-funded ivory tower of state lickspittles.
#gm #nostr #grownostr #bitcoin #eu #socialism #debtspiral
If you think that we are being showered with debt propaganda, bathed in debt-financed lifestyle tips and drowning in a status competition that is of course largely fueled by debt, it is actually hard to believe that the enthusiasm for the freedom tool Bitcoin is not overflowing.
The partial hatred that Bitcoin is met with in both the petit bourgeois and upper middle classes is appalling. Here, too, there is little euphoria for freedom, sovereignty and the individual. The stale complacency of culture bearers prevails, who do not see that they are at the beginning of a gigantic period of transformation and that it is precisely the world of debt that is now being put to the test.
#bitcoin #debt #fiat #nostr #freedom #plebchain
With the withdrawal of the United States from the Ukraine battlefield, the European Union has now found the scapegoat for something it has been planning for a long time: the consolidation of government debt in a common fund, curated by the European Commission and kept liquid under the care of the European Central Bank and its interventions on the bond market. In this way, both institutions would allow themselves an enormous increase in power, with the European Central Bank in particular virtually outgrowing itself.
However, what then presents itself here as collective collateral, as euro debt, is more than just a fragile credit substrate of the highly indebted euro states. It is highly endangered credit, as the eurozone can no longer leave the waters of recession, while the waves of geopolitics are causing the ship of state europe, if that is what you want to call this violent construct, to lurch violently.
To prevent this fiscal policy tightrope act from failing immediately, officials in Brussels and in the ECB's Frankfurt tower are openly talking about the introduction of digital central bank money, cbdc, as early as this fall. Panic is in the air, Europeans' fear of capital flight from the crisis-ridden eurozone to the United States is thickening the air in Europe to the point where you can almost cut it.
The German plan to implement the gigantic debt program proposed a year ago by former ECB President Mario Draghi to revive the eurozone economy as part of Germany's rearmament has caused panic selling on the eurozone bond markets. Much of this capital found its way into European defense companies. They now stand as a godfather for the Europeans' attempt to build their own military industrial complex, which would of course be centrally controlled and promise Brussels a last hope of stimulating growth. It is in this context that European representatives of all powers are now trying to manipulate and undermine the peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States. A peace treaty would be the worst thing that could thwart these plans. This is the hour of the anti-diplomats, of BoJo the Clown and other weirdos who represent the geopolitical interests of London and have no regard for any humanitarian successes.
The gates out of the eurozone are slowly closing, capital controls and the ECB's infamous control money are looming on a cloudy horizon. At this point, I have to take sides with Bitcoin. Bitcoin can replace this gateway for the little man at this point and help to protect his purchasing power from the encroaching functionaries from Brussels and the European capitals as well as the European Central Bank. The fact that officials from the EU and the European Central Bank keep referring either to the irrelevance of Bitcoin or to its merciless failure says more than a thousand words. It's a kind of coronation ceremony, performed by those who normally crown themselves with the crown, not realizing that they are doing the business of their mortal enemy by repeatedly pointing to it in an attention-grabbing way.
It simply fits into the picture that President Trump has announced the introduction of the strategic Bitcoin reserve and is pursuing a pro-Bitcoin policy. This time, he is not just engaging in polite rhetoric, he is actually taking action and thus underlining the seriousness of his efforts to show functionaries and central planners of the European Union their limits. Bitcoin is an excellent instrument for defending our individual freedom, especially when it comes to individual freedom or digital prison. It almost seems as if we are witnessing the resurgence of the systemic conflict of freedom versus collectivism, only in this case Europeans are openly taking sides with the devolutionary program of socialism. And the downward spiral on the old continent is spinning faster and faster.
The time to act is now, not in October!
#eu #ezb #euro #usa #trump #usd #bitcoin #news #nostr #cbdc #grownostr
#Canada #eu #globalists #wef #nostr
In the rugged hills of southeastern Attica, not far from the shimmering waters of the Aegean Sea that attract millions of tourists every year, lies a place that quietly shaped the fortunes of ancient Greece: the Laurion silver mines. Known in antiquity as Laureion, this network of underground tunnels and surface workings yielded a treasure more precious than gold (at least in the eyes of ancient kings and conquerers): silver. It was easy to coin and it fueled ancient economies, built navies, and altered the course of history. From its discovery in the mists of prehistory to its role in the rise and fall of Athens, Laurion’s story is one of human ingenuity, exploitation, and the enduring power of natural resources.
The origins of mining at Laurion stretch back evrn into the Bronze Age, around 3000 BCE, when early inhabitants of the region began exploiting its rich deposits of lead and silver. These metals, locked within the earth’s crust in the form of galena (lead sulfide), were first extracted on a small scale. Archaeological evidencelike tools, slag heaps, and primitive smelting sites suggests that the Mycenaeans and other early peoples valued Laurion’s output, though their efforts were modest compared to what would come later. It wasn’t until the Archaic period, around the 7th century BCE, that the mines began to reveal their true potential, setting the stage for their starring role in Greek history.
By the 5th century BCE, Laurion had become a cornerstone of Athenian power. The turning point came in 483 BCE, when a rich new vein of silver was discovered. Themistocles, the shrewd Athenian statesman, argued that the silver should fund a massive naval expansion—200 triremes, the sleek warships that dominated ancient seas—rather than be distributed among citizens as a dividend (a kind if ancient stimmy check). His vision prevailed, and the fleet that emerged from Laurion’s riches proved decisive at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE, where the Greeks crushed the Persian navy and turned the tide of the Greco-Persian Wars. Without Laurion’s silver, Athens might never have risen to its golden age.
The mines themselves were a marvel of ancient engineering, but they were also a grim testament to human suffering. Stretching across 200 square kilometers, the Laurion region contained thousands of shafts and galleries, some plunging 100 meters into the earth. Miners, many of them slaves from conquered regions, toiled in brutal conditions—cramped, dark tunnels lit only by flickering oil lamps, with air thick with dust and the constant threat of collapse. The Greek historian Xenophon described the workforce as a mix of slaves, leased by wealthy Athenians, and poorer citizens eking out a living. Estimates suggest that at its peak, 10,000 to 20,000 workers labored in Laurion, their sweat and blood transforming ore into the gleaming drachma coins that became a symbol of Athenian wealth.
Economically, Laurion was a juggernaut. The silver extracted there underpinned Athens’ monetary system, with the famous “owl” tetradrachm—stamped with Athena’s owl—circulating as a trusted currency across the Mediterranean. Don't trust, verify wasn't really invented yet... This wealth funded not only warships but also the Parthenon (a large part was simply robbed by Athenian 'partners' though), the cultural flourishing of the Periclean age, and Athens’ imperial ambitions. At its height, Laurion produced up to 20 tons of silver annually, a staggering output for the time.
Yet this prosperity came at a cost. The mines’ reliance on slave labor entrenched social inequalities, while overexploitation gradually depleted the richest veins, foreshadowing challenges to come.
The significance of Laurion extended beyond Athens. Its silver flowed into trade networks, linking Greece to the wider ancient world—Persia, Egypt, and the burgeoning city-states of Magna Graecia. The mines also spurred technological advances, from improved smelting techniques to the use of water channels for washing ore. These innovations reflected the Greeks’ ability to adapt and thrive, even as they wrestled with the ethical and environmental toll of their success.
As the Classical period waned, so did Laurion’s dominance. By the 4th century BCE, the most accessible deposits were exhausted, and Athens’ defeat in the Peloponnesian War (404 BCE) weakened its grip on the region. The mines didn’t fall silent, however. During the Hellenistic and Roman eras, they continued to operate on a reduced scale, their silver feeding the coffers of new powers. The Romans, in particular, valued Laurion’s lead for pipes and construction, though silver remained a prized byproduct. By the 1st century CE, however, the mines were a shadow of their former glory, their output dwarfed by newer sources in Spain and elsewhere.
Laurion’s story might have ended there, a footnote in the annals of antiquity, but history had more in store. In the 19th century, as Greece emerged from Ottoman rule, the mines roared back to life. European companies, drawn by advances in metallurgy, reopened the ancient workings to extract zinc, lead, and trace silver overlooked by earlier generations. This industrial revival peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, employing thousands and boosting Greece’s modern economy. Today, the mines are silent, their tunnels a UNESCO-protected heritage site, but their legacy endures in the region’s landscape and the artifacts they left behind.
What makes Laurion so compelling is its dual nature: a source of brilliance and a mirror of humanity’s darker impulses. It powered Athens’ ascent, giving the world democracy, philosophy, and art, yet it rested on the backs of the enslaved and the exploited. Its silver coins, scattered across museums today, are relics of a time when a single resource could shape civilizations. Environmentally, too, Laurion left scars—deforestation, polluted streams, and abandoned slag heaps—that remind us of the price of progress.
In the grand sweep of history, Laurion stands as a symbol of how the earth’s gifts can elevate and ensnare us. Its silver built fleets that saved Greece, temples that inspired awe, and an economy that bridged continents. Yet it also chained countless lives to its depths, a reminder that wealth rarely comes without sacrifice. From the Bronze Age to the modern era, Laurion’s glittering thread weaves through time, connecting us to an ancient past where ambition, innovation, and human cost walked hand in hand. As we marvel at its legacy, we’re left to ponder: what other hidden treasures, and what unseen burdens, lie beneath the surface of our own world? We are waiting for the next Heinrich Schliemann to uncover another chapter of european past.
#history #greece #laurion #nostr #grownostr #nostrlearn #plebchain #silver #culture #bitcoin #money #gold
But we have at our disposal one of the sharpest swords of all: the orderly retreat into ethics, into aesthetics, the escape from massification. The moment we become aware of the problem of massification is in fact our day of triumph, no matter what kind of theater the so-called power elites play up to us.
#gm #nostr #freedom #ungovernable #bitcoin #communism #grownostr