Defaulting banks - where will it stop?

[Peter Presland]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Context is everything here.

The author, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (AEP), comes from a very spooky establishment family, and AEP spent much of the 90s writing extreme but clearly, ahem, "informed" hatchet jobs on Prez Bill Clinton for the Conservative British broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph.

AEP doth protest so loudly that something must be rattling establishment cages.....

An astute observation there Jan. I agree. I've noticed quite a few other signs of needle between German and Anglo/US establishments too. Nothing hitting the headlines but there's stuff bubbling away below the surface that's for sure.

William Blum's little anecdotes in the 'Ridding the world of the sickness of pacifism' thread illustrate the military angle.

The tensions in Central Banking circles evidenced in AEP's article and the obvious labyrinthine manoeuvring going on behind the scenes remind me of the manoeuvrings of Montague Norman's reign at the BOE between the wars - as related by Guido Preparata.

My guess is that there are similar geo-political issues - duly updated for the 21st century but in essence identical - in play here too. Viz Anglo American fear of, and determination to prevent, ANY effective alliance between Germany and Russia. With the job that much more problematical now that there is no manufactured Commie/Fascist dichotomy. Any sane person whose eyes are not firmly shut must surely be wondering just why the West appears so determined to promote the fiction that Russia is a dangerous enemy.

There's a lot of solid enlightening stuff on precisely this issue in Paul R's Halford Mackinder thread too - Post #5 being especially apposite.