Germany in turn currently pretends to be the leading light of fiscal responsibility (its not there in reality, hence they have to propagandise it), whilst having tried some truely jaw dropping manuevers in an attempt to avoid payment or allowing markets to smell blood. They are in default! Yet they have covered it up like this:
It started in the 1920’s when Germany issued series of bearer bonds in the USA for revitalisation of its economy following the devastating effects of WWI. Acting as trustees, financial institutions such as JP Morgan and Lee Higgins & Co. produced and sold bonds in America raising funds that would be invested in Germany.
These bonds corresponded to Agricultural Loans signed by 14 German banks and guaranteed by the German government. Of these 14 banks four are still active and are part of the troika mechanism.
From 1933, Germany defaulted on interest repayments to Bondholders, as the new Nazi leadership considered the debt that Germany faced following WWI as illegal and issued a moratorium on bonds owed to foreign investors.
In 1953 following years of German debt crisis, the London Debt Agreement restructured Germany’s debt to be sustainable by the agreement of its creditors.
The way this deal would function was to provide the option to the bondholders of German debt, to either accept the repayment terms of the LDA, or to forego attempts to claim their debt until 1993. The rationale being, that you can cash in today from a weak Germany, or wait for a full settlement after 40 years of German growth and development.
Assenting Bondholders: For bondholders who wanted to cash in their bonds immediately, they could receive partial payment, and new bonds, with a discount on the value of their bonds (depending on the issue, between 20% - 60%). For this to be implemented correctly, a procedure of Validation was set up to ensure that anyone presenting bonds for payment, could prove that they were indeed the beneficial owner. This would guarantee that all of the disbursements paid went directly to Germany’s creditors in the correct manor.
Non Assenting Bondholders: For bondholders who chose to wait for full settlement by their next generation in the future, their course of action was to maintain the debt instruments (the bonds) safely, and not request a settlement until the 40-year grace period had expired.
Validation boards were established in the three US states (where the bonds were initially sold) to carry out the compliance requirements for the bondholders who chose to accept the option presented in the LDA. Having performed their role, these boards were subsequently closed a few years later.
By 1993 the German government had succeeded in revitalising its economy and began to respond to requests for payment. Unfortunately, they chose not to honour their debt. To the surprise of many bondholders, Germany would receive payment applications with the physical bonds attached, perforate the bonds, and stamp them as invalid.
The reasons given by the German Government and its subsidiary bodies are: Germany has compiled a list of Bond serial numbers that Germany considers stolen, and hence invalid. The procedure of validation must be complied with.
The German government claims that during WWII Russian soldiers looted the Reichsbank vault, where many bonds were kept, and that these bonds were reintroduced into the market for payment. The simple problem with this claim is that the only bonds that were in the German vault, had already been paid off or pledged, for which there is a public record, and no active bondholders had their bonds physically in Germany. Furthermore, the building which housed the Reichsbank had been completely destroyed, the contents of which had been removed by Germany before the arrival of Russian soldiers to Berlin.
The bonds were “bearer” instruments, and bondholders would cut off the coupons from the papers for their interest repayments. This claim however, was acceptable in the few years immediately following the war, as it was obvious bondholders would not be able to recover their principal or interest at the time, and was the reasons for the Validation Procedure outlined in the London Debt Agreements.
The so-called ‘Validation Procedure’ which was intended to apply to bonds that would be submitted for payment in 1953 added additional security requirements for the bondholder to comply with. Not only was it clear in the legislation that this only applied to Assenting Bondholders in 1953, subsequently indicated by the closure of the Validation boards, but it would be simply impossible for any bondholder to comply with them 40 years later.
When bondholders and creditors have asked to see this list, the German government categorically denied access, stating that it is not in their national interest, and has classified this list as a “national secret”.
What followed was a series of lawsuits in the US where German legal defence has never denied the liability for its debt, but has systematically used technical issues and delayed court cases, to the point that many bondholders have paid millions more in legal expenses. Many of these claims continue today, by some of the surviving bondholders, and the acquirers of that debt, and will be making appeals to the European Courts in the near future.
There is no question in the minds of the many experts in banking and law, with substantial knowledge of international financial instruments, that these bonds represent unpaid debt of the German government and its subsidiary bodies.
Germany has an impressive ability as a state, to escape its obligations. For over three generations the same sovereign debt has been postponed and avoided. The inheritors and purchasers of this debt have been obliged to adopt expensive and cumbersome avenues, to force the German government's hand to respect and honour its obligations, a fundamental of our modern European society.
German economic historian Albrecht Ritschl argued in 2011 that Germany was ‘the biggest debt transgressor of the 20th century’. “During the 20th century, Germany was responsible for what were the biggest national bankruptcies in recent history. It is only thanks to the United States, which sacrificed vast amounts of money after both World War I and World War II, that Germany is financially stable today and holds the status of Europe's headmaster. That fact, unfortunately, often seems to be forgotten,” he said.
The undeniable truth is that authenticated bank bearer bonds worth $9,750,000,000, that’s nine billion seven hundred and fifty million US dollars according to the gold price of today, owned by just one Cypriot company, issued on the back of German sovereign debt that remains unsettled. As do many other bonds from the same agreement. Germany's harsh terms over Cypriot bank deposit raids start looking more interesting from this perspective.
Germany likes to eat at the top table, and espouse how great its production is, what a rich country with great living standards it is, and to be smug to other smaller struggling EU nations.
One must consider that its easy to look like one of the big dogs when you don't pay your debts, and loot and steal wealth on a vast industrial scale.
Germany cleverly keeps the majority of its trades by-the-book, so most people never become wise to this pilfering pirate of a country. But make no mistake, Germany is taking control of banking and tax accross the whole of the EU, and because of that has no intention of paying these large debts to the 'Untermenschen' states.
Good luck claiming that money back when you don't have a sovereign bank anymore. Germany (last week) even suggested a property tax be forced on the southern Euro states, largely for German coffers! A country which denies money over decades, still owed to these Euro states from the last time Germany stole or burned everything that wasn't bolted down (and a lot which was).
This fits neatly with her little plan to crash capitalism - no more markets to shun Germany for defaulting. Its the perfect way of using capitalism itself as the very weapon with which to destroy it. Germany runs up huge debts on trust, stash the cash, default. Rinse and repeat x3.
Indeed Germany largely caused the Great Depression by purposely running up such a massive credit pyramid, that when she decided to default it collapsed the whole world financial system. They don't care about default - it means they can steal huge amounts of money from their enemies, and restart with a competitive advantage - starve their population, no problem. This is Clausewitz Total War theory in action.
This is also good news.
Germany is weak right now, twice as leveraged as the US and with huge war debts still to pay out. It needs to be done fast, as once Germany has decimated Europe financially again, there will be no getting those debts back, and market attacks will have no impact, as she will not be part of free market capitalism - she will be part of a European command economy.
If markets woke up to that, Germany could find herself in a Weimar situation sooner than she thinks...
Chase the war debts, and you are messing with their whole business model of theft and not paying (obfuscating payment demands for decades until the next write-down - Then start again, but with everybody else's money on top of everything your own economy produces).
THERE IS NO "ECONOMIC MIRACLE". IT IS A CONJURING TRICK COVERING NOTHING MORE THAN CLASSIC THEFT AND NON-PAYMENT OF DEBT.
Germany's current cooked-books debt to GDP ratio does not include the hundreds of billions in legally correct and due war debts.
One must consider that is why Germany really wanted the EUro. It was not a straight jacket for them, it was a crutch for Germany to raid everyone else's banks and secure their safety from huge debts due. It is there to make the rest of Europe pay for Germany.
Germany could crash, with a little push...
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