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.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.