Economist Dr. Alain Parguez at Italian MMT Summit 2012

March 15, 2012

MEDIA ROOTS — Recently, Max Keiser

discussed on RT the MF Global pillaging scandal, the USA’s eighth largest bankruptcy, and how

the Occupy Movement has remained largely silent on the potential rallying-call issue due to a

lack of financial literacy. Fortunately, Max Keiser, Dr. Michael Hudson, Dr. Richard Wolff, and

others have been speaking at Occupy Movement convergences. Perhaps, in the USA, we may

learn to head off the banker fascism austerity now looming over the Eurozone. Media Roots

considers the benefits of our increased collective interest in the dynamics of political economy

and international relations, impacting our global regions. In this spirit, we present the second

broadcast from Pacifica Radio’s Guns and Butter, featuring excerpts of the introductory remarks

from radical economist Dr. Alain Parquez at the recent Italian Modern Monetary Theory Summit

in Rimini, Italy, February 2012.

Messina

***

GUNS AND BUTTER — “Real wages will collapse. And what we have in mind is a total

collapse of the share of labour income in the French society and how to get that by the Treaty of

Maastricht and the creation of the euro system.” — Dr. Alain Parquez

“I’m Bonnie Faulkner. Today on Guns and Butter: Alain Parquez. Today’s show: The Birth

of the European Central Bank: Its Real Agenda. Alain Parquez is Emeritus Professor of

Economics, Ist Class, Université de Franche-Comte at Besancon, France; Faculty of Law,

Economics and Political Science. He has written extensively on monetary policy, crisis theory,

and economic policy, including articles and books on the impact of austerity measures, which he

believes are the cause of the world crisis. He is currently writing a book on the general theory of

the monetary circuit and its economic policy implications.

“Today’s show features introductory remarks by Alain Parquez at the first Italian grassroots

economic Summit on Modern Money Theory in Rimini, Italy, February 2012, produced by

Italian journalist Paolo Barnard. The five speakers were Stephanie Kelton, William Black,

Alain Parquez, Michael Hudson, and Marshall Auerback.”

Dr. Alain Parquez (c. 2:00): “Yes, when I look at this audience, I am ashamed to be French

because such an event would be impossible in my own country for two reasons. The

government would have tried to forbid it. And the economy and society is in such a state of

total disaster that people, even young people, are completely despaired. So, again, Italians

are the sole hope of Europe. [Applause]

“Contrary to what happens in France, you try to fight the total coup d’état which has been

planned a very long time ago, and enshrined into the European monetary union. I shall try to

explain that the so-called ‘sovereign crisis’ of sovereign debt is a lie. [Applause] But it has been

carefully planned by those who build the European system. What they had in mind was the

creation of a new totalitarian social order destroying democracy, all kind of social

legislation. And now the new treaty imposed by our French president, who makes Berlusconi a

saint, deprived the states of any kind of sovereignty, imposed permanent deflation. So, yes, my

colleague was right. You are what the European ruling-class is afraid of—mobilisation of

the people. They want to rule by fear and ignorance. And, at least, thanks to Paolo and thanks

to you, there is hope that fear and ignorance will defeat what should be deemed techno-fascism,

which is the existing tradition of the European monetary union. So, thank you and hail Italy.

[Applause]

(c. 6:23): “Well, I am here to speak of a very dark and tragic story. You already

understood that the euro is a monster, contradicting all the rules of both modern money,

modern economy. So, the problem is why is such an absurd system exists at all. I was told that

in your country, like in mine, some people believe that if we get rid of the euro, Italy or France

should be back to the state of the poorest part of Africa—Zimbabwe. But the real economy in

the Eurozone is already in the state of Zimbabwe. For instance, some short data on France

because the French invented and imposed the Eurosystem a very long time ago. In France, the

true amount of unemployment is around 60% of the active people, which is obviously

enormous. And we have a true rate of inflation of 7% or 8%. So, we don’t have full

employment and we don’t have price stability. It means that all official data in Europe are

lies.

(c. 9:38): “So, I shall start my true speech by a quotation from the Chief Executive of the

French Ministry of Finance—by the way, is a monk of the Order of Santo Benedict and the

Chief of the French Opus Dei; and by the way the European Commission is entirely controlled,

like the French government, by the Opus Dei. So, I try to discuss with him. He told me, ‘Yes!

The French economy is dead, but not enough.’ He told me, ‘Professor, you should understand

why the European system exists. What we want is to destroy, forever, the people. We want,

forever, to create a new kind of European people, accepting sufferance, poverty, which could accept wages lower than in China.’ And it will be the core of my intervention.

“The Eurosystem was never planned to be a monetary union. It was not even planned as a

neoliberal agenda. The neoliberal economics, American style, was and is still completely

ignored by the ruling European elite. What you think that even for the leader of the French

Socialist Party, President Obama is a Marxist.

“So, what is the euro? A new totalitarian social order, which was planned a long time ago in

the interwar period and completed by the regime of Francois Mitterrand. In the new order there

will be no more sovereign state. The state has to vanish, at least the state rooted into

democracy, parliament, republic. In the new order, power should be entirely transferred to

those who deserve it, which means some elite capitalist class technocrats enjoying absolute

power of control.”

Bonnie Faulkner (c. 14:49): “You’re listening to economics professor and author Alain

Parguez at the Summit on Modern Money Theory in Rimini, Italy. Today’s show: The Birth of

the European Central Bank: Its Real Agenda. I’m Bonnie Faulkner. This is Guns and Butter.”

Dr. Alain Parquez: “And, in the first part of my interventions, I shall try briefly to explain the

story of the planning European monetary union. It started in the interwar period in the most

reactionary, traditionalist, part of the French ruling-class with some support from an Italian

philosopher, Julius Evola, the very one who accused Mussolini of being too soft to the people

and who accused Adolf Hitler of being too soft on poor people.

“In a second part, I shall try to explain that the so-called sovereign debt crisis is obviously an

event who never happened in history. But such a crisis has been carefully planned by the

architects of the European system. What they had in mind was to privatise the state. And

since they believed that the state, at least the state with democracy was always wasting real

wealth. It’s obvious that the state being forced to borrow money, the state debt should be looked

at as bad debts and, thereby, the state should be completely enslaved to the so-called bonds

market, which is exactly what is happening now.

(c. 18:37): “In [the] last part, I shall try to prove that there is not the least way of amending the

system because as a social order it has its logic in those who control the system will never

accept any kind of change. Especially, any kind of intervention of the European Central

Bank, only, indeed, if those interventions aim at increasing the banks’ wealth. So, the sole

possibility of saving the European society is to get rid of that system. The private sector,

capitalist sector, in Europe is now dead. To quote Michael Hudson, [the few public] leaders of

the capitalist sector are no more interested into the real economy. They are rentiers. So,

European capitalism is dying. [] is for five or six years in France minus 3% or 4% a year.

(c. 21:12): “As for the euro, it’s as I wrote. Thanks to an invitation by my colleague Stephanie

Kelton. A long time ago, on false money, I wrote an article ‘False Money Against the Real

Economy.’ And, indeed, it destroyed the real economy. But first let us, briefly, explain the

origin of such an absurd system. There are two stages into the planning of the Eurosystem. The

first in the interwar period and during 1940-1943. And the second stage, the achievement of the

system was, I must say, the masterwork of the regime of Francois Mitterrand. So, we start in the

mid-‘30s, which people like Schuman, Jean Monnet. Schuman wrote that in 1927 we need to

create Europe as a new order rooted into tradition saving Europe from decadence. Decadence

for the poor Europeans means socialism, revolution, Protestants, Jews, and Marxism, free access

to health and education, abortions, homosexuality, etcetera, etcetera.

(c. 24:20) “And which is extremely interesting for the early poor Europeans was which was a

system completely opposed to the United States society they hated. And the Europe elite was

more hating the United States society of consumption shopping malls than they hated U.S.S.R.

And now it is exactly the same. So, what was required to build Europe, to abolish the state,

to force a permanent deflation by squeezing and squeezing public expenditures. It could

help to transfer the power to a super class of technocrats on a supranational scale. But for those

early Europeans, what meaned Europe? It mean a condominium between France/Germany and a

colonial empire, including Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. They were absolutely explicit

on this problem.

“But how could we suppress the state? By depriving the State of any power on money. All of

them were fanatical followers of Friedrich Hayek, the most right-wing Austrian economist

of that time. So, Europe should rely on a supranational currency, entirely controlled by a

sovereign central bank enjoying absolute power to ration the state. Indeed, there finally was

which

Bonnie Faulkner (c. 28:35): “You’re listening to economics professor and author Alain

Parguez at the Summit on Modern Money Theory in Rimini, Italy. Today’s show: The Birth of

the European Central Bank: Its Real Agenda. I’m Bonnie Faulkner. This is Guns and

Butter.”

Dr. Alain Parquez: “Of the Treaty of Maastricht, was written by a French economist François

Perroux in 1943 with the full support of a treaty passed between the [] government and the

French [] regime of that time. And the new treaty, which has been decided by President Sarkozy

and Madame Merkel, is exactly the blueprint of François Perroux 1943.

“Those people were against the traditional gold standard because they believed that the gold

standard had not allowed a total abolition of the power of the state to spend. So, Europe

should be a super gold standard. So, it was a first stage. But, for some time, the European

project was maybe in the backwards because all his supporters were more Hitlerian than Adolf

Hitler himself.

“So, we had to wait. The regime of Francois Mitterrand, I could speak on this question because I

had been conscripted by the Chief Advisor of Francois Mitterrand, who by the way was a

fanatical right-winger hating the modern world, hating the United States, a monarchist, who

said, ‘I hate the poor.’ So, Jacques Attali was, de facto, the Prime Minister of France. And

Attali was in charge with a lot of former Marxists, turned to supporters of the new regime of

drafting more sustainable version of the Eurosystem. But they had in mind the same vision: We

must destroy shopping malls, consumption. Shopping malls were, for them, a pure infamy.

People should accept to be poor.

(c. 33:18) “I remember debates at the secret commission who was in charge of the campaign of

Mitterrand. Mitterrand had to win the support of the then-Party Communist. France had a

communist party; now, no more. So, I was charged to write some modest [condition]; I would

say modern money programme. But Attali was asked by those who funded Mitterrand campaign

and who was the major funders [of] the Chase Manhattan Bank and two other American banks.

But we never gave you money to get a programme of full employment. Attali said, I have the

commitment of our dear future president, as soon as we could we will destroy, we will cut, we

will deflate the economy. Real wages will collapse. And what we have in mind is a total collapse

of the share of labour income in the French society. And how to get that? By the Treaty of

Maastricht and the creation of the Eurosystem.

“I shall end this intervention by emphasising first the lies. It happened that I was quiet close to

Francois Mitterrand. He was some long time ago, some boyfriend of my mother before the war.

My mother told me, Francois lies so well that it could [be] believe[d] that he is for the people.

So, Francois Mitterrand during the sole debate on the Treaty of Maastricht dared to say,

answering a question from a student, I can swear there is not the least independent central bank

in the Treaty of Maastricht.

“The second point. The core principle of the European treaties was the privatisation of the

state, was to oblige the state to borrow money by selling bonds to private banks. So, the

state, like any corporation, but a corporation with a very pure reputation had to beg money to

banks at the rates of interest decreed by banks. So, finally, the Treaty of Maastricht and the

following Growth and Stability Pact, a very weird name. The true name should have been

Destruction and Instability Pact. So, the true words I had in mind was that, finally, the State

will be completely enslaved to private banks. And, so, will be obliged to cut and cut and cut

expenditures. And it is exactly what happened. And, finally, lies continue. To be brief, the

share of state debt is the assets of major French/German banks is below 5%. Banks are losing

money, not because of state debt, but because of the total collapse of the real economy.

(c. 40:50) “And, second point, I am horrified when people say, Oh, poor banks. The Greek

government lied. But it is absurd; everybody was aware of the true state of the Greek economy.

90% of the Greek debt is held, like the Italian, by French and German banks. So, everybody

knew. And, by the way, what is happening now sought to the new treaty is—if it is, indeed,

finally endorsed—a total abdication of states, of fiscal policy, and any kind of social policy.

And, indeed, the dream of the new order will be achieved.

“So, now, the problem of rulers of the system is how to maintain the control of society; of this,

they are afraid because there is no debate. Official economists in Germany, France, most

European countries, are completely corrupt. If I dare say they are official prostitutes financed by

grants of institutions; so, they never debate the infamy and collapse of European system. Thank

you. [Applause]"

Bonnie Faulkner (c. 43:47): “You’re listening to economics professor and author Alain

Parguez at the Summit on Modern Money Theory in Rimini, Italy. Today’s show: The Birth of

the European Central Bank: Its Real Agenda. I’m Bonnie Faulkner. This is Guns and

Butter.”

Dr. Alain Parquez (c. 44:08): “You see, let me [now], for a while, [two different], the

European Central Bank and banks because ultimately who has created the ECB? Who is

imposing the European Central Bank policy? The states themselves. Even if the European

Central Bank decided to finance state expenditures, the French Government and the

German Government will say no. They absolutely are rejecting any kind of policy of saving

the economy. Everybody knows that.

(c. 45:14) “First, the European Central Bank is a weak oligarchy of 17 central banks de

facto ruled by the French Central Bank and by the German Central Bank. But everybody

also knows that the central banks of France and Germany never do anything without the full

advice, consent, and support of the new axis ruling in Europe—Paris/Berlin. Thereby, it is

exactly the same for banks; governments from France and Germany imposed policies of

detritions all over Europe. And now the economy is in such a state of disaster that we need an

enormous increase in expenditures. So, it is much more than a job guarantee programme when

the majority of the population is forever unemployed. So, my solution is let us support any

movement to get rid of the euro. There is no other way. Give back full monetary

sovereignty to the states. [Applause]

(c. 47:25) “I was told that this event is for the chair of European commission and abomination;

and your prime minister was asked to prevent it. At least the luck for Italy is that you have a

weak state, whereas in France we have a very strong state.

“Second point, I do think that what is at stake is to impose a change of politics, people

accepting—as learned audience—are living in a world of lies. And you are absolutely right; the

share of labour income, including pensions in France/Germany is at its lowest level since the

interwar period or the Nazi period. In France, in the span of 20 years, the share of labour

income collapsed by at least 30% or 40% percent. And, yes, more and more people are

committing suicide in France because of labour conditions. People who are still employed are

living in firms who are more and more acting as some kind of Soviet forced labour

concentration. Never have people been so productive. The productivity in France/Germany

[and] is in Italy, one of the highest in the world. But, at the same time, real wages collapsed and

people are not aware of this scandal. But now in most parts of France, the shopping malls are

empty. A large part of the country is going back to some kind of middle age, an item for

Germany. And this is a scandal we must try to make the people know the truth, to oblige the

media to reveal the true situation. Everybody knows that the euro is grossly over-and-over-

valued. The euro rate of exchange is maintained by a lot of artefacts, including permanent

swaps with the Federal Reserve System.

(c. 51:49) “And now, some thought of France and Germany to get an inflow of dollars from

Saudi Arabia and even China. So, the real value of the euro is absolutely nothing. After all,

Italy, like France, always survived and prospered in a global environment. Without the euro,

Italy was a highly competitive country, as Marshall said. And, so, if I could assure you that

Stephanie was right, the euro can’t survive, only if Italy decides to remain in the system. All

major banks in France and Germany are already trying to compute the effect of the end of the

euro system. It is a dying system. So, the effect could be a benefit for Italy if it retains its

monetary sovereignty, reconstruct the economy.

(c. 54:08) “The very option of the United States of Europe had been rejected since the start

because those who intended to abolish the state at the national level did not intend to create a

state at the European level. We’ve reached a state of the society where the sole option is to leave

the system. And, by the way, banks do not want to be reimbursed. It is a point I should

address more. The French and the Germans created a system, installing some kind of

eternal debt for European people. What banks want is income. And if Italy decided to leave

the Euro, the system would collapse. The real value of the euro is nothing. And it is a fact

that France and Germany, and mainly the French, are afraid of this point.”

Bonnie Faulkner (c. 55:55): “You’ve been listening to economics professor and author Alain

Parguez. Today’s show has been: The Birth of the European Central Bank: Its Real Agenda.

Alain Parquez is Emeritus Professor of Economics Ist Class, Université de Franche-Comté at

Besancon (France); Faculty of Law, Economics and Political Science. His main academic title is

that of Docteur d’Etat Es Sciences Economiques, Université de Paris 1. He is a member of the

Eastern Economic Association in the United States. Courses he has taught during the last eight

years include, Principles of Macroeconomics, Theory of Economic Policy, Financial Economy,

International Economic Relations, and Theory of Distribution. Visit his website at

www.neties.com. Or google: Alain Parquez. Visit the website for the first Italian Summit on

Modern Money Theory at www.DemocraziaMMT.info.

“Guns & Butter is produced and edited by Bonnie Faulkner and Yara Mako. To leave comments

or order copies of shows, email us at blfaulkner@yahoo.com . Visit our website at

www.gunsandbutter.org.”

Transcript by Felipe Messina for Media Roots and Pacifica Radio's Guns and Butter

***