NOTEBOOK “ι” (“IOTA”)

ARTICLE: “FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS AND THE WAR DEBTS OF EUROPE”

The Economist , February 13, 1915. Article: “Financial Arrangements and the War Debts of Europe”....

| | ...“The more one looks into the financial and polit- ical future of Europe after the war the darker and more obscure do its problems appear. But that is all the more reason why independent men with knowledge and penetration and foresight should exercise their minds upon the political economy of this war. Never has there been such a collision of forces, never so much destruction in so short a time. Never has it been so difficult or so necessary to measure the calamity, to count the costs, to foresee and provide against the consequences to human society. Philanthropists profess to hope that the peace settlement will bring with it a great international reduction of armies and armaments, which will enable the nations to support their new war debt, and so to avoid the bankruptcy court. No doubt the fear of bankruptcy will count for something; otherwise the peace settle- ment might be expected to breed another series of preparations for another series of wars. But those who know the forces which really control the diplom- acy of Europe see no Utopias. The outlook is for bloody revolutions and fierce wars between labour and capital, or between the masses and the governing classes of Continental Europe”. (End of article.) |