If you believe that peace and prosperity can continue forever, your belief is a delusion. History teaches that peace and prosperity are repeatedly interrupted by wars and economic crises. History is cyclical, bust follows boom, and peace alternates with war. The dangerous delusions of pre-1914, of the 1920s and 30s will occur again and again. Men have attempted to prevail through violence in the past, and they will attempt to prevail through violence in the future. They believed in a bubbled stock market before, and they will believe again. They trusted Hitler at Munich and they accept the Russian lies today.
If a country has experienced surprise attacks, as in the case of America (when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, or when Arab terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in 2001) there is something in the character of the country that invites a future surprise. Only today’s attacker may be more ingenious than the Japanese admirals, more bloodthirsty than al Qaeda gangsters. A surprise attack may occur when a country is laid low by financial disorders – by a futile attempt to extend prosperity through borrowing, by a futile bailout of banks by a government that doesn’t realize how close it is to bankruptcy. Even now we hanker after political candidates who tell us what we want to hear. We are told that the government can solve our problems. But as Ronald Reagan said in his First Inaugural Address, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
The government cannot prevent a market correction. The government cannot make unprofitable businesses profitable. The bubbles in the stock market and real estate must burst. This is what all bubbles do. By intervening, government merely deepens and extends the damage. What must happen, of course, is simple. Ronald Reagan, who assumed the presidency during a severe economic crisis 27 years ago explained: “It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.”
The government must stop its ongoing expansion into every sphere. Its role should be limited. During the present crisis, Washington should concentrate on three things: preserve the nuclear deterrent, maintain civil order, and prevent starvation if the economy collapses. The government cannot prevent an economic downturn. It never could do this. What is required is faith in the market, which none of our leaders apparently have. None carry forward the legacy of Reagan. Venezuela’s aspiring Marxist dictator, Hugo Chavez, mocked President Bush on Wednesday as “Comrade Bush” because the Republican president took a left turn during the present financial crisis. “Bush is to the left of me now,” Chavez joked. If the United States government can buy up banks, what possible criticism can it have with regard to Chavez?
Once upon a time we deluded ourselves with the notion that communism was dead. But ideas do not die, and ideologues do not change their ideas so easily. The ruse of yesterday sets up the comeback of today. Drunken Boris paved the way for Putin’s paw, outstretched toward Germany. What comes next in the period of “grey terror” is anyone’s guess. Perhaps it will be the bombing of a significant financial target, like the U.S. Treasury. Perhaps a metaphorical neutron bomb will be detonated on the Western financial exchanges. Recent cyber-raids on the World Bank’s data center opens the way to a crippling financial blow. It is not the KGB’s plan to merely round up Russian “oligarchs.” If you haven’t understood the Revolution as yet, I will explain it in plain language. The world bourgeoisie is to be liquidated once and for all.
Imagine if a cyber attack could wipe out the financial system by eliminating financial data from computers. Does anyone realize how vulnerable we’ve made ourselves? If Pearl Harbor was achievable by the Japanese admirals, what can the KGB accomplish today? The World Bank is said to be under a “Cyber Siege.” As Fox News reported last week, “The World Bank Group’s computer network – one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation – has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year….” In fact, the invaders had “full access … for nearly a month in June and July.” Readers of this column will remember what the Russian government was predicting in July; namely, that America was about to experience a “crisis of its existence.”
How did they know?
The sophistication of the World Bank “cyber siege” points to government-directed espionage. According to Fox News, “Investigators discovered that the intruders were using a so-called ‘cluster’ of IP addresses from Macao, China.” Of course, the real hackers spoofed the Chinese IP addresses to lead investigators astray. They would never leave an honest trail back to themselves. One casts about for some country other than China, and one country draws our attention above all others. One of Russia’s top banks is called MDM, which recently reported an almost threefold increase in net profits. While banks are crumpling in Europe and America, MDM’s has prospered. An October 10 Wall Street Journal article links MDM to the suspicious financial transactions of a Kremlin-connected tycoon. The article offers the following clue: “Bush administration officials have been growing increasingly concerned about possible infiltration of Western companies and financial markets by suspected organized-crime figures with ties to the Russian government….”
Are we beginning to catch on, at long last?
It may be too little, too late. Today’s conservative politicians – in Europe and America – are not really conservative. They do not understand economics. They do not uphold the successful traditions and practices of the past. Like Hugo Chavez, they are “comrades” at heart. One more example suffices to prove the point. According to reporters in Brussels, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday that he embraces Russia completely. “I consider Russia to be a Western country,” he explained, “and my plan is for the Russian Federation to be able to become a member of the European Union in the coming years.” In this formulation it would be more realistic to say that Berlusconi favors Europe’s role as a satellite of the Russian Federation. “I had this vision for years,” said Berlusconi.
We should not underestimate the delusional thinking of today’s “conservative” politicians. Americans tend to be naïve, and conservatives everywhere have adopted this position. They underestimate the threat from abroad. They think their country is invincible, that their prosperity is on a firm foundation. This kind of thinking, however, is subversive of genuine security and prosperity. Men must struggle for what they have, and they must struggle to preserve it. Complacency has no place in this reality, and no future. Those who only see our economic stupidities in respect of the current crisis have seen but half the picture. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were characteristic events, occurring in accordance with the national tendency of the United States to neglect its security while in pursuit of economic objectives. There are many dimensions to the current crisis, including the ideological divide which threatens our national unity. All these elements are connected, however, to the threat from abroad. All these elements can be exploited by our enemy.
