by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
It is not so much a currency war but a trade war against Germany (and the EU) and it was not started by Trump but by Obama.
Does anyone really think that the so-called VW emissions scandal, which also seems to have been, somewhat extended to other German and European car makers had really anything to do with cheating in the emission tests. It was known for a long time that that was going on and American car makers cheat better than all of them. It has nothing to do with that but all to do with the fact that Americans, in the eyes of the US government, have higher sales figures in the US than American ones. And that had to be stopped. Enter the emissions scandal.
On the financial front the attack on foreign, and again a German bank, namely Deutsche Bank, in the forefront, plus some British ones, with regards to cheating and other issues, runs along the very same lines. Also not started by President Trump but by the previous US government, under President Obama. But how could the Nobel Peace laureate be at fault. So, attack the new man. Especially as he is not liked by the neoliberal elite, to which Obama belonged and the candidate that lost, Hillary Clinton.
The US, under Obama, was working very hard on undermining Europe and the European economy, by a variety of ways and actions.
Let's look, for an example, at which European brand of cars is sold in the largest numbers in the US. It is Volkswagen (VW). So, in order thus to attack the German (and EU economies) you find a way of attacking the manufacturer of the particular make that you have an issue with, and create an issue that is not the issue you actually have with them. Telling the truth in that department could go against WTO rules, for instance. I guess the reader is getting the idea now from which direction the wind really was blowing.
As far as the USA were (and probably still are) concerned the EU, with Germany in the lead, are dangerous to them as far as the economic power is concerned and that has to be curbed. But it was not the current President who started this, even though the neoliberal media and their paymasters, the neoliberal elite, in Europe (and elsewhere) want us to believe that without questioning. But questioning we must everything that the media and the elite, and that includes our very own respective governments, presents to us, and that more so now than before.
It is also for that very reason that the EU was pushed to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation, with Germany, alas, leading the push for those actions, being a good vassal to the USA, as is her place.
Those sanctions hurt the economies in the EU countries, affecting, in Germany especially, the small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), while US companies continue to do business unabated with Russia. Not, necessarily, officially sanctioned but nevertheless not being stopped either.
This, and I know I am repeating myself, is a trade war, not a currency war, and it was not started by President Trump but by former President Obama. That's something that we have to get right and understand. It was started by the neoliberal elite in Washington (and the US per se) and aided and abetted, to some extend, by the same kind of people in Europe, not even realizing (or do they?) that it could destroy their own SMEs, and very much in the agricultural and food sector, but also in other sectors.
© 2017
