An unexpected development has surfaced in the current financial struggles in Europe’s Euro-zone. As readers know, Greece has elected a leftist Prime Minister who demands that Greece be given a better deal from banks in the Euro-zone regarding debts owed by Greece and its banks. Meetings have been held among top leaders in Europe, and they seem to have produced nothing to resolve this crisis. There are frequent speculations that Greece will renege on its debt and leave the Euro-zone–going back to its Drachma currency and starting over. Germany’s Angela Merkel has been particularly insistent that there will be no more debt renegotiations with Greece.
Russia and Greece have thrown a monkey wrench (or “spanner” for British-zone readers) into the whole Greek debt issue. Russia, no doubt angered by Europe’s involvement in the Ukraine-Russian crisis, has demanded that modern and wealthy Germany should now pay Russia 4 trillion Euros in war reparations for damages the Nazis caused to Russia in World War II (first link). Greece, no doubt angered by Germany’s refusal to be flexible on the issue of Greek debts, has demanded that Germany pay Greece 162 billion Euros for damage done by the Nazis to Greece in World War II (third link). Germany has flatly refused to pay anything in war reparations to Russia or Greece (second link), but these links note that Germany’s refusal is weakened by the fact that it has already paid $60 billion to Israelis/Jews in World War II reparations. If Germany has already acknowledged the need to pay war reparations to the Jews/Israelis, why should reparations payments not be paid to other nations vastly damaged by the German Nazis as well?
I suspect that Greece is positioning itself in international eyes to justify a unilateral write-off of half of all its Euro-denominated debts to German banks as part of its price for staying in the Euro. Greece’s new anti-austerity administration cannot face its voters without “doing something” to ease the economic pain in Greece due to the austerity measures imposed by the Euro-zone nations and banks. It is likely to write-off what it feels is Germany’s damages inflicted on Greece in World War II whether Greece stays in the Euro-zone or not. Russia could decide to withhold gas shipments to Germany to start compensating Russia for Germany’s Nazi-era inflicted damage on Russia.
This development could, literally, spell disaster for the stability of the Euro-zone and the Euro itself. Now that Russia and Greece have demanded war reparations from Germany, what is to stop other European nations from doing the same thing? If this trend accelerates, the Euro-zone could fly apart and European stability could be a thing of the past.
Let’s consider the issue of war reparations for a moment. The allies imposed war reparations on Germany after World War I, even though Germany did not start World War I (an assassin in the Balkans did that). Why not impose reparations on Germany after World War II as well? I think there are two answers to that question. The first is that historians have generally agreed that the war reparations imposed on Germany after World War I were too harsh and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the unleashing of World War II. The second reason is obvious. After World War I Germany was still an intact nation with intact cities and factories. War reparations were possible. After World War II, Germany’s cities and factories were obliterated, the nation was divided into four occupation zones and it had no economy to pay anything to anyone. Now, however, Germany could easily pay reparations to other nations as Germany is very prosperous. I’d bet Germany never anticipated this issue being raised in the Greek debt renegotiations. It is also certain that since Greece has raised this issue, other nations in Europe are now making secret calculations about what Germany should owe them in war reparations too.
This development means that things could get really ugly in Europe this year. It also adds one more trigger of instability to the global financial/monetary world and the global banking system. Think of the consequences that could happen if Greece and other nations tell Germany that they are deducting assigned German war reparations to outstanding debts whether Germany likes it or not. This would have immense and immediate effects on the balance sheets of European/German banks and raise all kinds of counter-party risks in many types of investments. This could be one more burden placed on the current system of world finance that will lead to the collapse of the current global monetary/banking system as we know it. This would fulfill the prophecy of Revelation 17-18 that such a collapse is certain to occur in the latter days. What Revelation 17-18 does not tell us is the year it will be fulfilled or the trigger(s) that will suddenly cause its downfall. If you have not done so, I urge you to read my post from May 18, 2014 entitled: Will the Year 2015 be Biblically-Significant?
2015 is already shaping up to be a year of wrenching events and developments, and it has barely started.
- http://www.newsweek.com/russian-parliament-set-request-eu4-trillion-wwii-reparations-germany-304163
- http://www.businessinsider.com/r-germany-rejects-greek-claim-for-world-war-two-reparations-2015-2
- http://rt.com/news/230479-greece-tsipras-germany-nazi/
