QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, I find it truly enlightening that you told the European Commission from the outset this idea of the euro would fail because of a faulty structural design. Do you think there is any way to save the European system now?
ANSWER: Unfortunately, I believe the entire European project is completely dysfunctional and it has turned anti-democratic in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. Sure, there are things that could be done. I could probably fix the system in 90 days or less, if not in 30 days. But you are talking about political power v economic reality and for that reason alone, no reform is possible without the crash and burn.
Politicians will not give up power willingly. It just does not work that way. I have tried to stop what we face decades ago. A two-year-old with a pocket calculator could have figured out where we are today back in the 1980s. You just cannot perpetually borrow year after year, with no intention to pay anything back, without screwing up the entire future. I met with people back during the Reagan years. They said, “Oh, no problem. They will be paying back with cheaper dollars.”
Consequently, human nature stands in the way of saving Europe. Those in government justify in their narrow minds by refusing to listen to the people quite easily. Bureaucrats (unelected) and politicians (pretend elected) live in an imaginary world where they are smarter than everyone else is and they know best. With this line of thinking, these people justify shutting down the democratic process.
The Romans overthrew their king in 509 BC, like the revolutions against monarchy during the 18th century. When it was time to overthrow the Republic that was consumed by the oligarchy, as we find ourselves once again today, we will face the danger where we have de facto kings, but using democratic pretenses. There were dictators in the Middle East who pretended to be elected. This public fraud is just human nature. They put lipstick on a pig and call her a star. On January 16, 27 BC, the Romans gave Octavian the title of Princeps (plural: principes) a Latin word meaning, “First in time or order; the first, chief, the most eminent, distinguished, or noble; the first man, first person.” They also gave him the title Augustus, from the Latin word Augere (meaning to increase), which can also be translated as “the illustrious one”, “majestic”, “the increaser”, or “venerable”, which was a title of a religious authority rather than a political one. The term Augustus became the de facto title for emperor. We can date the coinage for the emperors received each year of power, as if the senate under the old Republic had appointed them.
The bronze coinage of Rome was actually issued by the Senate, not the emperor, and display the marking “SC” meaning “Senatus Consulto“. This demonstrates the two separate monetary authorities over the creation of money that existed just as we have the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. There are some gold coins issued with “SC”, suggesting that the Senate on occasion had some supply of gold. The authority on coinage in Rome originally belonged to the consuls appointed annually by the Senate exercised by trustees who were appointed by the consuls, similar to how the President appoints his own cabinet. So in Rome, the pretense of the Republic being maintained was that the emperor became the consul, maintaining the trappings of the Republic like a dictator pretending to be elected, or those who run the Treasury, Fed etc.
Rome kept up the pretense of the Republic even though nobody voted for the emperor. This is why I warn we too can move towards freedom or authoritarianism. Our crisis in democracy will reach the breaking point. Those in government today are just openly corrupt. Police are robbing the people under the pretense of confiscation of money that “might be” tainted just by having cash. The institutions of justice have crumbled to dust on the floor and nobody pretends to be just any more.
The head of Europe is appointed, not elected. Greece can have a public election, yet Brussels rejects such an election and demands the new government abide by their demands. Europe has been pretending to be democratic; with the people electing representatives to Brussels by the unelected commission are not required to comply with the Parliament elected by the people. So we have the same pretense in place with the fall of Rome. A very disturbing outcome so far. America is not far behind.
