A simple murder started one of the greatest wars in history. World War one began as follows, and if you have never heard about the total absurdity of it all, here’s a brief synopsis. On June 14, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, which led to a frantic month of diplomatic maneuvering between Austria-Hungary, France, Britain, and Russia. What were they arguing about? I have no idea, but almost instantly, Austria-Hungary declared war in Serbia on July 28th, causing Germany and Russia to mobilize their armies on July 30th. Germany declared war on Russia August 1st, Germany declared war on France July 3rd, Germany attacked Belgium August 4th, causing England to declare war on Germany. This was the first time the Brits declared war on Germany, and I have no idea of why. The second time was in 1939, and I also don’t know why. Do the Brits enjoy declaring war on Germany, when all the action occurs elsewhere? All this nonsense caused European stock exchanges to close. What did this have to do with the United States? Nothing, but all this world wide confusion, caused the U.S. stock exchange to close between August 24th to December 12th. Stocks plunged around the world, including the American stock exchange.
That war and its aftermath, probably had something to do with the 1929 crash in America. The American President, Woodrow Wilson, tried to keep America out of the war, even though popular opinion held that Germany was responsible for it. America sold lots of guns, planes and various armaments to Britain, and American banks loaned billions to Britain. This provoked Germany to sink the British passenger ship Lusitania in 1915, which was secretly carrying arms for Britain. By 1917, Germany seemed to be winning the war, and was sinking American merchant ships in the Atlantic with their U-Boats. (“U” stood for ‘untersea,’ in German). Wilson finally asked for an official declaration of war on Germany, and it was declared on April 6, 1917. Hundreds of millions of military and civilians died in that “War to End All Wars,” as it came to be known. The end of the war came on the 11th day of the 11th hour of the 11th month of 1918, and it came to be known as “Armistice Day,” subsequently known as “Memorial Day,” and now “Veteran’s Day,” when it is custom to decorate graves of deceased members of the armed forces. My Dad was drafted and had to go into the army in 1917, at age 18, even though he never went overseas nor was he injured. If America had not participated in WW I, and Germany had won, what would the world look like today? Would there have been a WW II? American loans and shipments of arms to Britain didn’t seem to help. Did America want Germany to win? Would she have eventually lost had not America gotten into it? Who knows?
After the war, the Treaty of Versailles was formulated, although Germany, Austria, and Hungary were not invited, nor did they sign. The results of that treaty, the victims of which were not present to give their side of the matter, were that (1) Germany had to accept total blame for starting the war, and were made to pay for the damages they caused, which had never happened before or hasn’t since. (2) Germany was not allowed to join the newly formed League of Nations, which was founded to promote peace in the world. (3) Sections of land which Germany used to own, and which spoke only German, were taken from them, and (4) Germany was prohibited from having a large army, nor any U-Boats, or an air force. Germany was broke and had no money, so the presses started, causing a loaf of bread to eventually cost a wheelbarrow full of German reichsmarks. Without doubt, the Treaty of Versailles caused the rise of Hitler and World War Two. Is it fair to say that one murder, caused not only World War One, but even World War Two? I think so. Just thought you might want to know what “Armistice Day,” then “Memorial Day,” and now “Veterans’ Day” is celebrating!
China
As I have been writing for months, China will eventually go totally bust. There have been books and columns in the Journal for a long time, illustrating China’s precarious economic position, and last Thursday, on the front page, the Wall Street Journal’s headline read, “China Embraces Bankruptcy, U.S. style, to Tackle Debt.” China partially latched onto its version of capitalism, after getting rid of Chairman Mao, and it worked for a while, but China is a communist state, and freedom does not sit well with them, as witness Hong Kong. While it semi worked, it took thousands of American factories and hundreds of thousands of American jobs and technologies. Until Donald Trump, no U.S. president or congress did anything about it or even seemed to notice. The socialistic-communist state of China, is now going to go the way of the Soviets, in my opinion. I think it will crash suddenly as do all bankruptcies, when the debts are much higher than assets, and currencies are going down in value due to futile efforts of governments to stem the obvious inflation, by printing even more. All socialistic-communist outfits invariably end in worthless currencies, absurd government controls, and all other anti-capitalistic operations tried…like the Democrats now advocate. China’s version of ‘capitalism,’ has state run businesses, state run banks, and of course the whole mess is tottering on the brink of falling off the economic cliff, possibly taking China into a Soviet style national failure. The Journal story has a picture of a 21 storey apartment building which was never finished, and the hoards of people who plunked down huge down payments to own an apartment. Sorry, the builders ran out of money, and you don’t get your money back. The story doesn’t mention the whole cities China built, which are uninhabited, but it does mention the 10,000 corporate bankruptcy filings in 2018 alone, undoubtedly from companies which were subsidized or even owned by government, profitable or not. It mentions the Bohai Steel Company which collapsed under a $28 billion dollar debt, and the state-owned Fushum Special Steel Company, which went the same way. There are tens of thousands of unemployed now in China, as the result of plant closings, and more to come. In China, individual bankruptcy is not permitted, only corporate and business. I am certain millions of Chinese are in dire straits currently. China seems to be washing its national hands of the mess it has created, by establishing specialized courts, which are handling the bankruptcies, but since the whole economy has been government ruled, subsidized, and totally devoid of profit and loss, of what value they will be is unexplained. China made a mess, and is now walking away from it like a puppy who has pooped on the floor. Heaven help the Chinese citizens who will suffer mightily…eventually. don@coloradogold.com.