This article appears in the April 1, 2022 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
German Economist:
‘We All Lose’ from Ukraine War, Sanctions on Russia
[Print version of this article]
The view of the current crisis of Folker Hellmeyer is summarized here by Claudio Celani of EIR, from a video interview of Hellmeyer by the German website, “Mission Money.” Hellmeyer was chief analyst at Germany’s Bremer Landesbank for almost 16 years and is one of the country’s most distinguished economists.
March 23—Although condemning Russia’s military intervention “from a humanistic standpoint” against all war, Folker Hellmeyer said that the West should be self-critical and recognize that the West first broke international law when it broke its word that NATO would not expand eastward, and again when it violated the Budapest Memorandum. That should be kept in mind when condemning Russia for violating the sovereignty of Ukraine.
And by implementing extraterritorial U.S. law with sanctions, another breach of sovereignty is accomplished. Thus, Germany should ask how sovereign is Germany, before insisting on Ukraine’s sovereignty.
As for the economic disruption created by sanctions, Hellmeyer says that we have “a separation of world spheres similar to the Cold War, which however is hitting us more severely than during the Cold War.” In fact, he says that we have today a global supply-chain system which “is totally unprepared” for the shock. The current price inflation “is a mild foretaste” of what lies ahead. In the short term, sanctions will hurt Russia, but in the long term, European countries have acted irresponsibly. If you look at a world map to see which countries are not going along with sanctions, you have most of Asia, most of Latin America, Middle East countries—and these are countries producing raw materials and energy commodities that Europe needs. Who will they consider as reliable partners in the future: Us—with a background of regime-change policies—or China and India?
Hellmeyer points to the elements that make the strength of the Chinese economy. The partnership with Russia, provoked by America’s singling out both Russia and China as enemies, has provided China with energy supplies at a discount price relative to the world market. Through the Belt and Road policy China has secured raw material supplies, and its education system is, to put it diplomatically, far superior to the Western system, so that China is building more productive human capital.
All these factors make China a stable and growing economic power. Hellmeyer also exposes the Western arrogance, which has failed to acknowledge different cultures such as China’s Confucianism that subordinates individualism in respect to the well-being of the community.
