PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche Holds Press Conference at European Parliament Headquarters In Strasbourg
Dec. 17, 2008 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche held a half-hour press conference at the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg, France, this morning. LaRouche was accompanied by his wife Helga, who sat on the podium together with LaRouche, EIR's Claudio Celani and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Cristiana Muscardini, Mario Borghezio, Donato Speroni, and Erminio Boso. The audience included some 25-30 international journalists and MEPs. The MEPs attending included the head of the Forza Italia group and the conservative "United Europe of Nations" group in Strasbourg, as well as members of the Lega Nord and the Socialist Party of the Netherlands. LaRouche was invited by members of the Lega Nord, who are against globalization.
LaRouche was introduced as the economist who has not only forecast the current crisis, but who has exactly described its nature. LaRouche (see transcript) spoke for about 15 minutes, emphasizing the importance of banking reorganization to deal with the crisis, the worst since the 14th Century. He said that the zero interest rate policy is "folly" and is destroying the banking system, just when it is essential to protect the banking system through bankruptcy reorganization. LaRouche, whose authority has now increased in the context of the Obama presidency and the worsening world crisis, will now dedicate his efforts to make sure that Obama adopts FDR's approach to recovering from a financial collapse. Correspondents from Corriere della Sera, AP-Biscom, and El País raised several questions.
The final question, by an MEP, was about financial speculation, and LaRouche responded by blasting George Soros and particularly his pro-drug activities, which was a real revelation for the journalists there.
LaRouche was then interviewed by two Italian national news programs, TG1, and TG3, in addition to the economic press agency AP-Biscom, the news wire Radiocor (owned by the daily Il Sole 24 Ore) which called from Rome., and by the Milan branch of the Lega Nord Radio Padania.
As of this evening, both ANSA and Radiocor had issued their news reports of the press conference, which have also been picked up by other media.
Here are the translations of the coverage, monitored by EIRNS:
ANSA News
Crisis: LaRouche Calls Fed Decision To Cut Rates to Zero, Insane.
(ANSA) Strasbourg, Dec. 16—An "insane" decision, a "folly" that threatens to definitively collapse the U.S. banking system: this is how economist Lyndon LaRouche commented on the Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates to zero.
Known as being among the few who forecast the international financial crash, LaRouche, who is viewed as a Clintonian, is back in the circle of advisers to the new U.S. administration of Barack Obama and is a strong supporter of the necessity to go back to a fixed exchange rate system.
"It is impossible to think of being able to repay the mass of debt in the system,'"[LaRouche] said today during a press conference, organized in Strasbourg by Lega Nord MEP Mario Borghezio.
The only thing to do, in order to get out of the crisis, according to LaRouche, is to re-establish the "national sovereignty" of the credit system, above all in the United States, going back to separating commercial activities from speculative ones, while launching a large program of reforms at the Eurasian level, involving the U.S.A., Russia, China, and India to build infrastructure and boost demand.
Economist [LaRouche], who characterizes George Soros as a "devil" of speculation, who applies "nazi methods" learnt in Hungary during his adolescence, is nevertheless "confident and optimistic" that Obama will move along a path that will be able to overcome an unprecedented crisis, which demands, without any doubt, a new Bretton Woods.
RADIOCOR News
Crisis: LaRouche, 'The Fed decision is insane, we risk the Japanese disaster' (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor)
Strasbourg, Dec. 17—The Fed decision for a zero interest rate: "It is insane; the zero interest rate policy turned into a disaster for Japan at the beginning of the nineties and threatens to provoke a collapse of the financial and economic system before Barack Obama is inaugurated on January 20." What should be done? "Bring rates back to 4% and force the banks to remain open but under one condition: bankruptcy reorganization." What can Obama do to save the situation? "To deliver on his promise to go back to a Rooseveltian policy of state dirigism." How to reduce tensions on currency markets? "Re-establish a system of fixed exchange rates, or at least with a limited range of oscillation, to avoid a backlash from one economy to the others.'"
These are the answers by economist Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche who, in Strasbourg, gave a press conference upon an invitation by Rep. Mario Borghezio, chief of the Lega Nord delegation at the European Parlament. LaRouche stands out, in his career, for having forecast the financial collapses of 1987 and 1998. Since 1994, he has considered the current financial system to be bankrupt, and therefore sees the current serious crisis as a logical outcome of that bankruptcy. LaRouche fights for a comeback of Rooseveltian dirigist policies, within the U.S. Democratic Party, as chairman of the LaRouche Political Action Committee.
