EU collapse will cause ‘pain and suffering’ equal to WWII

Europe is heading towards catastrophe as financial institutions and governments are failing to solve the EU’s economic problems, Chris Clarke from Nottingham Business School has told RT.

The senior lecturer argues that Germany will not sustain the burdens of the bloc that could lead to a rise of xenophobia o and World War II-like suffering. Clarke agrees with a recent Red Cross report which claims the EU economic crisis is causing a massive rise in poverty.

RT:The figures are pretty bleak. Why are so many Europeans – according to the report – some 120 million living in or at risk of poverty?

Chris Clarke: I think everybody in Europe will be affected by what’s coming. I do not think it has happened yet. At the moment what you’re seeing are the financial leaders, the EU, the commission, the governments all telling us how they have solved the problems when they have not done anything at all in the last couple of years to sort out any of their problems. Therefore it should not be a surprise to anybody that they will suffer as a consequence.

And I do agree with the Red Cross that we are facing a catastrophe in Europe and I think that catastrophe will happen soon.

RT:And people are being affected in the stronger performing economies such as Germany.

CC: Yeah I think so, because at the end of the day you’ve got two problems with Germany. Number one is that it has been heavily reliant on demand for its products from the rest of Europe, from its cars to electronic goods, from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, Cyprus and that’s dried up. And also if you read der Spiegel and follow what is going on truthfully in Germany, I think the Germans are getting a bit upset about the fact that they have to continuously pay for the rest of Europe to live beyond its means. 

 

RT:What about the rise in xenophobia - how much is the economic downturn to blame here?

CC: It is an absolute, ridiculous idea to tie together a bunch of countries with completely different cultures, different monetary policies, different fiscal systems, and different languages. It has never worked in history, it will never work going forward. So what you’re seeing is an economic crisis brought about by that ludicrous policy of trying to tie everything together. I mean Europe was functioning quite well until the single currency came along. When you get masses of people unemployed and when you get people in various countries feeling that they are continuously paying out to support other people in other countries, then the problem is quite clearly going to cause xenophobia.

RT:The report draws parallels with WWII, saying Europe's future is now shakier than during the war. If there is an improvement in the economy now, are we saying actually the long term impact is quite significant here?  

CC: There isn’t an improvement in the economy now. Quite the opposite, the economy is sinking at a rapid rate of knots. It is only that we’re being told by the EU and the ECB that things are improving.

RT:And they are saying that things are improving. But is it the case of too little too late in terms of the long impact?

CC: How are they going to experience the economic growth rate going forward with 30-60 percent unemployment? These problems exist in Japan, they exist in America, they exist all over the world. Where is this miraculous economic growth going to come from? So going forward, I can totally relate to comparing it to WWII, because I think the catastrophe we’ll see in Europe will absolutely be equal to, on a level of pain and suffering that you saw in World Wars. It is a catastrophe waiting to happen. And the answer is not to print helicopter money and pretend that everything is going to be alright and try to convince that everything is going to be alright when it is not.