I have a feeling the imperialism the US imposes on its own fellow imperialists will just keep increasing over the years. Until it reaches a breaking point. The vassals are in for a rough decade.
This was already happening since 1945. Operation Gladio? Killing Palme? Literally setting up Italy’s and Germany’s political system? The Suez Crisis? The whole “revolutions” that brought down the eastern bloc?
I pointed this out a few years ago and people would not believe me that european states are vassals. They found it laughable. Why? Because america allows (and enables) a limited form of imperial extraction? Do you think they do not benefit from it?
European century of humiliation LET’S GOOO
They’ve been doing this quietly for decades already. I get the feeling the vassals are already plotting and this new brazen open extortion is just going to accelerate the opposisiton. It will be a rough decade for sure but then it might end sooner than that.
What groups inside the vassals would be plotting such an opposition? The US and Europe are not separate things, they are just parts of the world capitalist empire. The capitalists freely move their capital and their residency between the countries of the empire, and the European politicians likewise are guaranteed cushy gigs in international organizations if they don’t rock the boat. These people have nothing to gain from loyalty to their country and trying to oppose the US, and everything to gain from just keep selling out their countries like they have been doing.
The only ones in the vassals who might get pissed about it will be the petite bourgeoise and they’ll just put that anger into fascism and blame immigrants instead of trying to dismantle empire. Based on what history has shown us when it comes to the proclivities of europeans.
Look what happened to Von der Leyen, Habeck and Baerbock. They all got very nice jobs.
Factories take years to relocate. You think VW can just pack up and move out of germany? Sure they can transfer money to another country but money is not capital.
They are already majorly cutting down jobs and closing plants. I come from the heartland of german auto industry and its GRIM. Some move to east germany, some to slovakia or romania, but most leave the country.
They don’t need to relocate factories though. Just sell their stock in VW and buy ford stocks or something. They aren’t tied down to a single company. Most of them are bought in to dozens of companies so when one is hurt another will benefit and their money keeps going up.
Again money, stocks, and bonds are not capital. Capital is name for things that capitalists have invested in in order to make and sell commodities for profit.
Financial Capital is not capital. It is not even paper. Its speculation and rent.
Saudi Arabia sells oil to america but the Saudis can’t buy whatever they want. Their money has to stay in america. They only get to buy enough american military equipment to keep their neighbors from invading and their people from revolting. The rest they have to spend on stocks (but never controlling interest.) They aren’t even allowed to buy gold bullion. Their finance “capital” is only able to produce more “capital” and nothing else. If they can’t use it for anything else it is worthless.
You can’t “just sell” stocks, there has to be someone to buy them (and they’ll get them cheap). Regardless of who owns the stocks or what they are valued at there is capital in europe and that capital has productive capacity. The owners will want that capital, whether it is factories or farmland or data centers, to work at capacity to generate maximum profit. Being subject to the whims of empire is the primary impediment to profits.
Sucking stock value from europe and injecting it into america will not make america produce more. The factories will stay in europe. All the process will accomplish is putting the economic leverage in the hands of european capitalists who are willing to stand up to the american empire.
That benefits the rich though. Because as standards of living in europe decrease they can reduce european wages and working conditions and extract more value from them. My point wasn’t that it would make America produce more just that european capitalists and european petite bourgoise do not have alligned interests in this. The truly wealthy are international billionaires who have stakes in all western nations. They’ll become more rich off this not less. Their own living conditions won’t change. So they won’t care.
If capitalists divest themselves of european based Capital they will become poorer because money alone does not generate commodities. They might get more dollars but those dollars are becoming worthless.
The value of us dollars is based only on confidence. Trumps trade wars have forced people to see the difference between industrial power and financial power and it is destroying confidence in the dollar. We are getting near the point where you cant buy rare earth minerals with dollars and you will have to pay for them with other currency and kind words to the CPC.
The capitalists in europe will not get richer unless they make a break with american imperial policy. This “trade agreement” is making that obvious to everyone. It is a direct attack on european capital and while many will turn the other cheek, some are surely plotting their resistance.
The pride in quazi-fealty is humerous.
Also, how do we know its real?
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/weltwirtschaft/zollstreit-einigung-100.html
This post and the USs coverage is literal doo doo
The agreement is not final. The EU Staates still have to vote to even let it go through, let alone let it go into effect
well merz has already announced his support. Maybe Slovakia can veto it? Or Spain.
It’s literally everywhere, it’s real.
