Introduction
"What we do in life echos in eternity." ~ Marcus Aurelius
By Catherine Austin Fitts
This week, it is my great pleasure to announce a new quarterly series, Via Europa, from Vanessa Biard-Shaeffer. Via Europa will cover European politics and culture and connect trends in Europe to what is happening in the United States.
Vanessa wears many hats. A successful real estate broker in Paris, some of you know her from her political analysis and commentary on French TV and Internet. As a result of her leadership role in the Institute of General Semantics, she has significant cross-cultural experience with Americans and the United States. Some of you may also know her as the person who translated my online book Dillon Read & the Aristocracy of Stock Profits into French—a formidable task given the financial and legal complexities discussed.
Vanessa has a nose for the "trim tabs" that drive events, which others often do not notice. On a large ship, the trim tab is the rudder's rudder. Turn the trim tab and you turn the rudder, which turns the ship. I am always interested in hearing Vanessa's take on events—it invariably brings a fresh perspective. I also love watching her occasional TV panel—a group of commentators will be in the grip of the latest "spin" and then Vanessa shifts them back into the authentic in an unexpected way.
Vanessa chose the name Via Europa inspired by the ancient Roman road system that made a lasting contribution to Europe. The Romans built 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) of roads "extending from Britain to the Tigris-Euphrates river system and from the Danube River to Spain and northern Africa" (Encyclopedia Britannica). Built initially for military purposes, the Roman road network eventually allowed trade, communication, culture, and connection to flow and flourish.
In her introductory video, Vanessa addresses the recent municipal elections in France. In a second video, she offers a charming cultural tidbit to refresh our spirits.
I am delighted that Vanessa has agreed to offer Via Europa on The Solari Report. To live a free and inspired life, it is invaluable to build actionable intelligence globally.
You can post questions or comments for Vanessa below. I would encourage you to offer your insights regarding what you would like her to cover in Via Europa.
Subscribers can e-mail or post questions and story suggestions for Money & Markets for this week and find current financial charts and our Let's Go to the Movies offering here.
Hi Catherine,
I hope the Via Europa series will continue. It was a wonderful Hoverview. It is useful and incredibly important to get insights of what is going on in the EU. When will another episode be available?
Thanks!
For those who don’t understand the video, they are saying that Brussels has far exceeded f its authority because of the Covid crisis and given money to the nations who are economically weak. They do not have the right to do this according the EU constitution, so it expands the authority of the unelected officials in Brussels. Right now EU economies are not united, in spite of the single currency or the euro, but this is a step toward consolidating the power of bureaucrats in Brussels illegally. It’s a gradual erosion of sovereignty, which I believe was always in their planning. The stronger northern EU nations are always being weakened by this, but the numbers used to bring countries into the EU in the first place were falsified. That’s why the Greece crisis happened a number of years back. This should help them orchestrate the collapse that they need to produce the reset here. The bail-in laws are already on the books.
Vanessa, Looks like EU is doing some kind of Leverage buyout too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzjf9leUN8w
As of 3 August, many French cities are implementing mandatory masks outside. Back in the Spring, the “Droits de L’Hommes” a human rights org, said that outdoor masks are a violation of human rights and stopped government from imposing this. There is of course the fact that there is no scientific evidence that they prevent the spread of Covid19 and some thought that they could actually make it worse.. There is also a heat wave going on this week so a very strange time to mandate outdoor masks. In Germany thousands are on the streets protesting the masks, social distancing vaccines etc. In Italy, the famous opera singer Bocelli has spoken to the Parliament against the severity of the restrictions and explained the need for children to live in a normal world where they can play and hug etc. France is interesting because prior to shutdown there were several years of protests both by “gillet jaune” yellow vests and by all the units who were losing retirement benefits. Now in the face of these extreme measures there is very little opposition. Not only will people have decreased pension, but now due to shutdowns, many businesses will go under. One would think that there would be more opposition at this time. I am not French just an observer. If Vanessa has any comments or insights I would welcome them. I have asked many people but not gotten a satisfactory explanation. France is enforcing all of these measures with fines and used the same threat to keep people in their homes for months, with the exception one hour a day with an attestation. . The amount of the fines seems minimal in contrast with the lost wages and potential bankruptcies. The sprit of the French Revolution seems to have died, perhaps due to a lack of second amedment rights like USA has? The French revolution was quite bloody so I’m not advocating for that, just wondering how people have lost their sense of freedom and are so willing to submit to ridiculous mandates that have no proven benefit, imposed by a bunch of politicians who have no scientific background, but a high need to control the population.
The protests in Berlin were large – 800,000 to 1.3 Million was the estimate.
‘The media is saying 15,000 so trying to play down the seriousness of the protests.
Vanessa Posted and I am having trouble getting to show, so reposting:
Vanessa Biard
biard@hotmail.com
88.120.232.254
French people can react violently, but it takes a lot of time before they start to move on. It’s like an old volcano that has never been quiet dead. Takes time.
It’s true that the Yellow vest movement had been the phenomenon from the end of 2018 up to the beginning of 2020, with big transportation strikes from Nov 2019 through January 2020.
How dit it start off? The government had increased the tax -in 2018- on gazoline that made difficult for countryside people and commuters to make ends’ meet. A similar movement had arisen a couple of years ago when the government under Hollande, wanted to tax highways users using a camera system that would identify trucks automatically. The Britons -West of France- launched a major protest and the government backed down.
The strikes at the end of 2019 were triggered by the reformation of the retirement system, when it seemed there was no emergency reforming this system.
You can see that the first motive wasn’t linked to Human Rights or any fight for individual freedom even if in its own ways, the yellow vest movement logically eventually expanded to cover these themes.
As for now, I think you will find that a part of the population is really worried and think Covid 19 is very dangerous, given the media propaganda that has been and still is, intense. Another part of the population is just trying to come back to “normalcy” and limit the cost of the lockdown, keeping their focus on their job or trades. Now, this being said, thanks to the unemployment benefit system -which is private that means, to which employees contribute at a high level- the economic consequences are not yet felt to the full. A lot of employees have received partial or complete unemployment benefit. So it will take some time before the true economic and financial consequences show. I expect that for next fall earliest, next spring the latest. And I expect the government to use the Covid crisis to limit the movement of people.
Also, it seems that the French regulation hits people hard with mandatory wearing of masks. The law is more subtil. French have to wear masks in public and shops – that is, closed areas. Some cities have made it mandatory to wear them in the open air, in the streets. Actually, cities don’t have the legal power to implement such policy. I have noted that the Prefect -the government local emissary since Napoleon- can implement such policy locally, I am waiting to see what will happen next… if they do and how.
Now, I feel that in many places people are pretty relaxed and don’t look at each others with scare if one is not wearing a mask. It’s like people sense that something is going wrong but don’t want to make a fuss out if it. For instance, in a little countryside town I know, they have organized a “moving band” that plays at different places in the city where people can come and if they keep their distances, don’t have to wear masks. People are adapting in the hope it’s not going permanent.
My feeling is that it’s silence before the storm. And the storm I expect coming when the financial and economic consequences will start to show. When people are truly tired and exhausted, things will be more problematic. My worry is that another lowdown would then follow, in a way to stop social movements. I think the whole issue for many countries is how to control people when you strip their assets off? Or when you prevent people from getting their income?
VBS
Interesting Vanessa, because one woman told me that they didn’t have to pay rent for three months but they still owe it and she seemed genuinely worried and angry because she has no idea how they will pay it back. . Another told me that she has 4 years to retirement but also seemed worried that more bad things would happen. I asked her the same question as I asked here and she said, the problem is when the french finally do react, it could get very violent. My MD who is in Belgium sent a video which is interesting. I’ll look to see if there are any english translations for the other subscribers to Catherine’s site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC9q4N7roA0&feature=youtu.be
Yes, I live in one of those areas where the arbitrary mask rules are being imposed, supposedly because of an increase in covid 19 among young people. It looks like the governments are incrementally increasing restrictions and yes, some people do genuinely believe the propaganda about illness. One policeman told me young people are being hospitalized because they are going back to the bars. When I tell people, next step is probably a vaccine not a mask, they look at me and say, “I will never take that” to which I reply, “and if you can’t go to your supermarket or bank etc?” At this point, there is a disconnect. Only a small percentage of people have really thought this through completely.. As you pointed out many are trying to figure out survival with the new normal or just enjoy Summer with their kids.
Many do not realize there are laws on the books that allow EU to bail in their bank accounts, and when I tell them they are beta testing a project between Gates Mastercard and Gavi in W. Africa that will create a digital identity, cashless banking and the vaccine all in one neat package, they suddenly get it because the current bank card was beta-tested in Africa before it was used in France.
The true statistics about the virus are being exaggerated of course, and I was told by a reliable source whose family member runs labs in Paris that the tests were contaminated with Covid,19 the swap tests, so God only knows how many people were infected this way. Most do not believe that hydroxychloroquine is dangerous and think the move to surpress it is about profits. I’m hoping the movement of doctors using the protocol successfully in US becomes so painfully obvious that Europe cannot ignore this.
There is no homeschooling movement here, so all children will be forced to have vaccines to be in the mandatory school system. In the US some avoid vaccines by homeschooling their kids.
There is a decent size Jewish population here. Whenever I can, I just remind them that a short 75 or so years ago, people were ignoring signs like this in Europe and constructing their own walls. The Germans seem to get it. Making aliyah, moving to Israel is not going to improve their situation since according to friends Israel has just as harsh measures as they do in France. For the N.Africans places like Morocco have been even stricter than France as well, so the annual flow back and forth of people visiting family during holidays etc, is not happening.
Trying to wake up the few people that I can here in the South, hoping some will get it before it’s too late. They have brought police in from other regions to deal with gang violence, but also have the mercenaries, that walk around all day in uniform with machine guns supposedly to protect everyone from terrorism. It seems a number of people are perfectly willing to turn on their own if they are not “obeying” the rules. Hoping and praying that some of the more freedom loving types rise up, but at the moment it looks bleak. The worse thing I heard from someone who is a doctor and is close is ,”Oh if they get a vaccine, I will vaccinate everyone.”. He has not looked at the vaccine and has no idea how it works..
Our number one obstacle is mind control, the number one obstacle to overcoming mind control is that the majority of people don’t know it exists. Hard to protect yourself against something when you don’t even know it exists.
Spaking of that today there were some bizarre loudspeaker boxes on the street announcing the need to wear masks. Some of the mind control is not very subtle.
What a delight. I have spent some time imagining what people in other countries are experiencing and wondering how they feel. Ask and the answer will come.
I look forward to seeing her again.
Thank you very much for the French update. I am Belgian and our elite is very much tied to the French one. So much so I consider Belgium nothing but a fiefdom owned by France.
I live in the flemish part that is way more right centered. Good to be forewarned no big changes are coming for the forseeable future politically. That green deal seems to have to run it’s course a little longer.