General

Ernst Wolff on Corona crisis, financial crash, profiteers, the WHO and Bill Gates’ role


by AcTVism, 16 April 2020. Summary and translation, Milena Rampoldi, ProMosaik. Ernst Wolff, b. 1950, has been following the links between economy and politics since four decades. His most recent book is entitled “Finance tsunami: how the global finance system threats us all”. In this interview, we talk with him about the economic impact and the profiteers of the corona virus. We ask how capitalism, especially the financial sector, affects health care. We also go into the history and politics behind the World Health Organization (WHO) and talk about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s role and about potential solutions such as a universal basic income, political activism and the importance of independent media in these troubled and dangerous times.


Summary of the interview
Actually, our current economic system and all actors profiting from it need a scapegoat to explain the collapse of the system.

One and the same politicians who now express their worries about the well-being of their population have been advocating the dismantlement of the health care in the recent years.

If people continue to watch by keeping silent, the whole thing will result in a reset which will be detrimental to the great majority of the population.

The corona crisis is a historical situation that we have never seen before.

We have an average-sized pandemic. However, there have never been so strong reactions to a pandemic in the whole history of mankind.

Reactions of this kind are only known in fascist regimes.

Our freedom of assembly is restricted.

The state issues prohibitions we cannot even imagine in normal democratic systems.

The question of the context arises.

We have to ask ourselves who profits from this situation.

We have to look at how the financial and economic system has developed during the recent years, and how it has elevated itself above the real economy.

Today, economy does mean finance. This situation goes back to the 1970s, when the bank rules were set aside. In this manner, the finance industry was offered opportunities it had never had before. As a result, in the financial sector, the risks have continued to grow. The first crisis of this system occurred in 1998. However, the banks joined their forces. They purchased the hedge fund to prevent the total collapse of the financial system. However, the system was not changed, but was just kept going. The next collapse followed in 2007-2008. This time it affected much higher amounts of money. The banks were overwhelmed. So, the states intervened. The banks were saved with tax money. Money was lent out cheaper and cheaper. The central banks pumped huge amounts of money into the system to keep it going. The markets grew for 11 years by creating bubbles. Now, the result is a global recession. In addition, the largest world economy China had a lockdown. Suddenly all stood still. The supply chains and flows were interrupted. The third catastrophe then followed in March 2020 when the oil price crashed. Saudi Arabia is turning away from the OPEC by producing unlimited amounts of oil. The oil price is falling. This has a major impact on the USA and their fracking economy. Our system is not able to cope with the combination of these three crises.

The system, which has been artificially driven for 12 years, is now going to pieces. At this point, the virus is the perfect scapegoat for the collapse of the system.

During the recent years, the concentration of wealth has been increasing enormously. The wealth of the richest one percent of the world population has increased by 25 percent. And the wealth management of these people simply consists of hedge funds. These funds were permitted 30 years ago, in the course of the deregulation process. The hedge funds are nothing more than the wealth management of super-rich people. These funds have the permission to work like banks without being subject to bank regulations. All the businesses the banks are not allowed to carry out, are permitted to the hedge funds. We are thus dealing with a global economy where very few players have ever increasing their own financial strength by acting in the background. And these players are interested in the breakdown of the system because they will profit from it. They prepare their own good starting position when the lockdown will be over. And people are told that the virus is responsible for this economic crisis. The middle class is hardly able to survive. The small businesses are in the same position. Many SMEs will disappear. In the background, the hedge funds will take over the entire system. Among others, the profiteers of the crisis carry out uncovered sales. In this manner, they enrich themselves at the victims of the corona crisis. Companies are bought up, enlarged, ruined and then bought up again at an extremely cheap price. The market is manipulated by share buybacks which have been permitted since the deregulation. Before that time, they were not allowed. It is precisely the large corporations that receive the money during the corona crisis.

Today, we have the greatest redistribution from the bottom to the top which has ever taken place in history.

Social inequality is currently exploding at a level the world has never seen before.

The media play a crucial role in the corona crisis. They publish their reports about China. They show the lockdown. They show how people drop on the street. Of course, the people get scared.

About the WHO I can tell you the following: The deregulation and privatisation affected the WHO as well. In the 1980s, private donations were allowed. This way, in particular, the influence of pharmaceutical companies and foundations of the large industry increased. The foundations play the role of do-gooders. However, they only help the rich to save taxes. Just think of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. One goal of this foundation is to alleviate the suffering of people worldwide through vaccinations. The main objective are mass vaccinations in Africa. However, the people in Africa do not need vaccinations, but food and better hygienic conditions. People need clean toilets.

In this whole system, Bill Gates’s role is particularly striking. He pursues two main targets: the vaccination campaign and the abolition of cash payment. He benefits from it with Microsoft. In addition, he holds large share packages from pharmaceutical companies he profits from financially.

Regarding the corona virus, it can be noted that the statistics are not correct. They speak of people who died with Corona and not because of Corona. 10-15% of the people carry this virus in their bodies. This results in the falsification of the number of deaths because the statistics include every person dying with Corona.

This way of dealing with statistics just makes people hysterical. Fears are created and people get running scared. A narrative reflecting the interests for the big players is spread. The same people who made us afraid of the swine and bird flu are now leading the current discussions about the Corona virus. You become sceptical when you see the connections between the pharmaceutical industry and the organizations and physicians leading the official discussions. The Robert Koch Institute is also not independent since it thrives on donations. Science, politics and pharmaceutical companies are tied to common interests. Especially the politicians who express their deep worries about the well-being of the population today, are exactly the same ones who pursued an austerity policy in the past. And it is exactly this austerity policy that has reduced the health care step by step, as it has happened, for example, in Italy, Spain and Greece. In the last economic crisis, the Germans had put pressure on Italy and other countries to dismantle their health care. The credit granting was tied to this requirement. This casino capitalism has a huge impact on our healthcare system. Politicians said that we have to save money. However, there were no savings in payments to the huge companies in order to boost the financial markets.

Now, the health care system is exclusively subject to financial interests. It is a network of exploitation in which physician and patient have to act. The big private equity firms make their huge profits in the background. The citizens are the big losers in this crisis.

The unconditional basic income will never be introduced. Perhaps something called unconditional basic income will eventually be sold to us as such. However, that has a different background. And this has to do with the enormous concentration of wealth, resulting in a huge impoverishment of the population. People no longer have purchasing power. And to push this power, people will be given money. However, this is only done to keep the system alive. Money is simply transferred to people.

In this manner, consumption is boosted. However, this results in an increasing inflation. The prices increase, and people have to get more money. All this results in a hyperinflation like the one occurred in Germany in 1922 and caused the system collapse. It is a debt world. And only the big players benefit from it. In this system, the largest debtors are exempted from their debts. This helicopter money then starts the inflation again. The normal citizen is driven to ruin. Income always lags behind the inflation rate. The unconditional basic income sounds good, but it is not feasible under the current conditions.

After the lockdown is lifted, changes will occur in a way we have never seen before. We will not return to normal life. The life we know has already ended. Many measures, such as the ban on assembly, will not be lifted. There will be major innovations in our financial system after a big crash. Perhaps there will be a currency reform that will be announced all of a sudden. There will be major geopolitical changes as well.

During the last weeks, we have seen changes that we never thought would be even possible. We would never have said that we would be banned from contacting people all over the world and the people would have been forbidden to go to work.

This is why at the moment there are probably no limits to the imagination.

At some point a reset will come. We must not remain silent, but we must rise up against the system. The mainstream media are in the hands of the major players.

However, alternative media are becoming more and more important. And they increase in number.

Right now, people have to be ready to look for new information.

The main chance offered to humanity in this crisis is that many people will recognise the true nature of this system.

We have to recognize the true nature of the system.

We have to understand the meaning of what is happening in the background, without allowing ourselves to be dazzled.

We have to ask ourselves who is behind this system, what are the interests behind it, and who holds the reins. We have to join our forces and defend ourselves.

We have to oppose to the ban on demonstrations.

Today people are put in psychiatric hospitals, and silenced.

It is very crucial for the future of our children that the alternative media gain influence by pushing back the mainstream media.