Aug. 27—Consider first the following reports from Russia and China—the two nations designated by Western so-called “leaders” as “autocracies” which threaten “our values”—on ongoing national problem-solving.
Russia is mobilizing to save and advance its economy under the brutal conditions created by Western economic sanctions. On Friday, Aug. 26, President Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with Sergei Aleksandrovsky, CEO of Aeroflot, the country’s leading commercial airline and national carrier. Russia is the largest country in the world, its territory covering 11 time zones. Lacking a high-speed rail grid, domestic air flights are a strategic question for national unity and functioning. Hence the government has paid close attention to the defense and development of all aspects of the national aviation industry. For Aeroflot, whose international operations were slashed by sanctions, the Russian government committed 50 billion rubles (about $850 million) for the company, over 10 billion rubles ($170 million) of which were disbursed in April and May to subsidize passenger services and cover operating expenses.
Aleksandrovsky reported where things stand: Aeroflot now flies to 111 destinations, 18 more than in 2021; it has significantly increased the number of flights on certain routes; and the government support allowed the airlines to drop its airfares by up to 10% over 2021 levels, 29% over 2019’s. As a result, passengers per flight have increased “considerably.” Plans are underway now to contract 323 aircraft (of various types), which will be equipped with Russian-made engines and other parts coming online as a result of the national drive to build up national production to substitute imports banned by the sanctions. For that, 3,500 new pilots will have to be trained, and eight full flight-simulators purchased to train them. Aleksandrovsky reported that this is a joint effort between the airline and the aviation industry; Putin noted such a large order will be a serious impetus for the development of that industry.
Now to China, which is suffering its worst heat wave and drought since 1961, affecting one-half of its territory. One of the measures taken, is the mobilization of a huge cloud-seeding operation across 10 provinces. Cloud-seeding to deepen clouds (thus cooling temperatures) and induce rainfall is not a new technology, having been developed in the United States in 1946. Work on enhancing such weather modification methods is being done also in various U.S. states, also facing record droughts and heat waves, but China is mobilizing nationally as a concerted effort. Zhou Yuquan, chief scientist of the China Meteorological Administration, reported on Friday, Aug. 26 that between Aug. 1-25, China had deployed 91 cloud-seeding flights, with a cumulative flight time of 260 hours, and launched 116,000 rain bombs and 25,000 rain enhancement rockets, and ignited 2,000 flares by devices on the ground. Scientists from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are watching and studying the results.
This being China, we can be sure other, more experimental approaches being worked on before the current crisis hit, are now being given greater support.
The reports cited do not represent game-changing action; they simply exemplify the proper principle of government. Facing existential problems, the governments of these nations have stepped up, mobilizing the businesses, people, credit and scientific capabilities required to resolve them. Let Twitter denounce it as “state-sponsored leadership,” but this is, in fact, the essence of the American Constitutional system, which is organized around the principle that government of, by, and for the people is formed in order to defend the General Welfare of the current generation, and those to come.
Compare this to the chaos called the United States today. Faced with an existential drought, hyperinflation, industrial collapse, and an out-of-control military-industrial-intelligence complex, President Biden, his administration, the U.S. Congress and the vast majority of both parties, have abdicated all responsibility for governing, handing power over instead to Wall Street and its Federal Reserve, as has the succession of U.S. governments since 1971.
This past Friday, the Chairman of Wall Street’s Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, announced to the annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming gathering of central bankers, financiers and their economist servants, that the Federal Reserve intends to keep raising interest rates and imposing crushing austerity, come what may. The media reported his promise of “some pain” to come. What they didn’t report as widely, is that he invoked the example of former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker’s “successful” model of (supposedly) lowering inflation, launched in 1979.
This is no small threat. Volcker advocated the Trilateral Commission’s policy of inducing the “controlled disintegration” of the U.S. and world economy. The succession of usurious interest rate hikes he launched starting on Oct. 6, 1976, reaching at their height a 20% baseline interest rate, succeeded in fulfilling his statement to the congressional Joint Economic Committee that “the standard of living of the average American has to decline.”
Then-Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche issued a call for the prompt impeachment of Paul Volcker. He warned:
“In earlier public statements, Mr. Volcker has stated himself to be a supporter of a doctrine of ‘controlled disintegration’ for both the United States and the world economy. Now, under the semantic pretext of ‘anti-inflation’ ‘fiscal austerity,’ Volcker has abused his powers as Federal Reserve chairman to implement measures which constitute an efficient effort to plunge the U.S. economy into misery, chaos, and confusion of the sort ultimately worse than the conditions experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In light of the evidence of a conscious intent behind Mr. Volcker’s attempts to ruin the U.S. economy, his conduct in office must be regarded as no better than treasonous in character, if not formally treason by the strict language of the U.S. Constitution.”
LaRouche emphasized two Constitutional measures immediately available to reduce inflation, while building up production in and the productivity of the United States economy. The first involved adjusting the value of U.S. gold reserves through negotiations with relevant economic powers at the time; the second, forcing the Federal Reserve to implement selective credit-flow controls so as to ensure adequate credit for maintaining the operating capital of business employers. “This would not solve our nation’s problems, but would give us breathing-room for developing a comprehensive, long-term set of monetary and investment-incentive measures. A depression is not necessary. Any official who adopts a policy of ‘controlled disintegration’ of the United States economy is engaged in a treasonous undermining of our nation’s overall security at this juncture,” LaRouche wrote.
LaRouche was a physical economist, statesman and true leader who always went to the American people and told it “like it is,” and they would respond. LaRouche understood the power and morality of the human mind when mobilized, and he conveyed the once-great American spirit, that there is no problem that cannot be solved if the people put their minds to it.
Join us in celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth at a Sept. 10-11 international Schiller Institute conference, led by his wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche and committed to the adoption of LaRouche’s policy in the U.S. and globally.
