EBITDA

 

 

There's a cold wind blowing outside, and it's not just at "Riverbend" but also coming from Islamabad where talks between the US and Iran have ended. No Chamberlain-style "Peace in our time"-waving of any sort of declaration, just 'Fini!' - but no 'Fini la guerre!' The beat(-up) will go on!

And yet, the US military said two of its warships had passed through the Strait of Hormuz and conditions were being set to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied any US ships had transited the waterway. I guess it'll be too early for the Donald to rename it the Strait of Trump.

Even with some agreement, it wouldn't have fixed the badly damaged infrastructure, nor would the oil fields have miraculously produced oil again. Then there’s the acute shortage of refined products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, and don’t even get me started on those fertilisers.

So what will the market do tomorrow morning? The market had been "overhedged for chaos" for some time and therefore unable to crash, and it's unlikely to change - unless the missiles start raining down again.

EBITDA? I guess it all comes down to the anthropic part of the equation.

 

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An old version of Windows

 

 

Before I left my parental home to stand on my own two still-mid-teenage feet, first as "Lohnbuchhalter" for a construction company that built Germany's famous "Autobahn", and then to seek my fame and fortune in Australia, I had to pass this pre-internet chat room every time I left home and every time I came home.

And not just pass but pass muster because that woman who was always leaning out the window by the entrance to the house wanted to know where I was going when I left, and where I had been when I came back. It's now almost sixty-five years ago, but I still remember her name, Frau Stache, although I never saw more of her than her top half as I can't remember ever seeing her anywhere else but leaning out that window.

I was easy prey to her investigative skills, but even the grown-ups could not escape her, which meant that she always knew where everyone was going and where they had been when they came back, which she would relate to everyone else who was leaving or coming home. She was the  facebook  and the  Instagram  of the sixties, and every house had one.

Incidentally, the above photograph is not of Frau Stache who had looked far more forbidding. In more recent years, I had asked my very first girlfriend in my old hometown to take photos of the house where I had tried to grow up. Of course, Frau Stache's window was no longer open nor was there still a Frau Stache, but her memories live on with me.

 

The yellow cross on the second floor indicates our kitchen window. On the ground floor below was that era's version of Windows, Frau Stache's window.

 

My very first girlfriend who took those photographs - click here - passed away in 2022, which not only made me feel sad but also suddenly very old. You know you're very old when your first girlfriend dies before you.

 

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“My Dream Is of a Europe Which Consists of 1,000 Liechtensteins.”

 

 

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is an Austrian school economist and libertarian/anarcho-capitalist philosopher. Here he appears on SERVUS TV for a discussion "On State, War, Europe, Decentralization and Neutrality." The following English translation was prepared by Leonhard Paul, a law student from Germany.

Interviewer: I would like to welcome our second guest in the studio. It is the philosopher and economist with an international range Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Nice to meet you, Mr. Hoppe. The dream of a united Europe, the eternal longing of the empire. Do you also dream this dream?

Hans-Hermann Hoppe: No. I don’t dream of this dream at all. My dream is the dream of a Europe, which consists of 1,000 Liechtensteins. I will also try to explain this. First of all, you have to realize that there is a difference between states and private companies. States are organizations that do not earn their money by producing something that people want to buy voluntarily or by offering services that people want voluntarily. States live from compulsory levies, taxes and from printing their own money. For this reason, states are institutions of exploitation. Economists have called them stationary bandits for this reason.

I.: Stationary bandits?

H.: Stationary bandits. They stay in one place. There are also roving bandits who would be …

I.: … would be highwaymen. Institutionalized highwaymen, so to speak, that’s the state?

H.: Right. They’re institutionalized. And, of course, states as bandit organizations have an interest in increasing their loot. They, including the entire public service, live at the expense of productive people. But when this exploitation becomes too severe people tend to migrate to other regions. Therefore, states have a tendency to expand their territory. One way they will try expand is by waging wars. After all they can pass on the costs of war to the populace, whereas a private person or a private organization would have to bear the costs of aggression themselves. So states are by nature more warlike than private law organizations.

I.: If I may, Mr. Hoppe. You are basically calling for a Europe of a thousand Liechtensteins. Switzerland is probably already too big for you.

H.: Too big.

I.: Too big of an organism. We are, so to speak, the imaginary superpower now in this paradigm. But isn’t this atomization of Europe just an invitation for the predator states, which also have predators in their coats of arms? Like Russia, for example, with a double-headed eagle with claws that can grab terrain on all sides. Isn’t this parcellation, this fissuring of Europe through the thousand Liechtenstein an invitation to the potentates who unfortunately have always existed in history?

H.: Then the answer would be that we can only defend ourselves against these big states by becoming a big state ourselves.

I.: Exactly.

H.: But then wars would become really big wars. Small states wage at most small, relatively harmless wars. Large states that have emerged from wars wage war the way we see them today.

I.: You have lived in the USA. You now live in Turkey. You know big states; you also know the logic of great powers. Be honest now: The great powers have always lied about a reason to conquer small countries. They have made metaphysical or ideological systems out of whole cloth. So isn’t it precisely this disintegration, this fragmentation of Europe, that is the most dangerous thing in the present situation?

H.: Even large states have to make sure that they have support within their own population for the wars they undertake. You have to be able to somehow explain the cause of the attack clearly to your own population. It has been emphasized not by chance that the biggest problem for Putin is probably not the immediate military events, but the fact that Russia is a country where there are few children. The mothers who are now losing their children in the war will ensure that support in their own country will continue to decline.

I.: And your point supports the argument that Putin can’t say anything or even must forbid calling this war a war, because he is afraid to lose support at home.

H.: Therefore, one must advise small states to pursue a strict policy of neutrality. Of course, they should arm themselves. It should not be without cost to attack them. Nevertheless, if you know there is no chance to win a war against a foreign power, you have to consider surrendering, because you see that only one corrupt gang is exchanged for another corrupt gang. For example, the Ukraine war: It is not the case that Ukraine has been an exemplary democratic Western state. On corruption indices they were worse than Russia. The economic productivity per person in Ukraine is lower than the economic productivity per person in Russia. The leaders in Ukraine are corrupt.

I.: Yes. I can follow you in the principle: power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the greater the power, the greater the corruption. There’s the principle of small is beautiful, so maybe a smaller country is easier to govern. But let’s stay with this willingness to defend at the moment. How are the small ones supposed to defend themselves when a big power-drunken ideology-drunken state suddenly has the feeling that it can roll over certain areas? How do they defend themselves?

H.: One answer would be that we also have to form a large state. But a large state exploits its domestic population particularly heavily. Do you want this as an answer to a possible attack by another big state? The other variant is that small states enter into a series of alliances with the possibility of acting together against an enemy. A right of veto would be necessary, because one sees the danger in NATO that small states—let’s say, the Baltic states—because they feel safe …

I.: … that they have become overconfident.

H.: … behave in a particularly brash way. And as a result they could drag the whole West into wars, so to speak.

I.: Now a completely different challenge: There is also the discussion about climate change and refugees. If I understand you correctly, you actually advocate for a cooperative intergovernmental model. One would then have to try to combat climate change, perhaps through an alliance of smaller states. How do you see the small-state model in the light of such other so-called global challenges?

H.: I’m not at all sure that this is a global challenge or whether it’s not an invented problem. Nobody has denied that there is such a thing as climate change. The question is: What is the human contribution to these problems? There is by no means only one answer. We are led to believe that there is scientific consensus on what exactly is causing this. That is untrue. The alternative is: If there are such challenges that the weather becomes warmer, different regions will naturally govern differently because the crisis presents itself differently in different areas. Greenland is affected differently by global warming than the Maldives. The idea that there should be a correct global temperature, so to speak, is completely absurd.

I.: In principle, you would say that this whole climate issue is almost a kind of power-ideological presumption.

H.: They want to centralize and have chosen this topic. Each person adapts individually to such situations. Either one buys more refrigerators or one buys more air conditioners or something like that. But I can’t even agree with my wife on the temperature in the bedroom. I would like it to be colder. She would like it warmer. How megalomaniacal do you have to be that people, who are a little bit more on the kindergarten level in terms of their education, believe that they themselves know what the average global temperature has to be. They presume to know how we can bring that about by intervening in the economy in all areas. They say: you can’t eat that, you have to drink that. You are not allowed to go there. But you have to go there, and so on.

I.: Well, I think that many people (at least I) follow you in this criticism of power and the bureaucratic overarching. But nevertheless I must challenge you here also a little, Mr. Hoppe. Is it not a fact that the founding of states is a cultural achievement? The famous social and political scientist, the great liberal Dahrendorf said: the nation state, this somewhat larger entity, is still the only suitable framework for the rule of law and democracy—what do you have to say to Ralf Dahrendorf? You as a former Habermas student.

H.: Germany has been unified by wars. Italy was unified by wars. Even Switzerland emerged from a war.

I.: A very short war.

H.: But still from a very short war, the Sonderbund war, and one group was forced to obey the other group. You obey us now! Although in itself the demand was that there must be a unified agreement of all cantons, which in fact did not exist. So why should one agree to a statement that nation-states are a great invention, when a war was necessary to create such a thing in the first place?

I.: But you were in the U.S. and the U.S. is one of those rare examples where one could say that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the liberal nation-state functioned very well almost as a liberal national imperial entity.

H.: No.

I.: Would you also say the U.S. has to split up again?

H.: In America there has been a war, a tremendously brutal war, which in comparison to what Putin is doing in Ukraine now, was probably worse because they deliberately targeted the civilian population that they wanted to destroy. To this day, there are large parts of the American South that believe that this was the war of northern aggression. Before that, the opinion was similar to that in Switzerland: individual states could leave the union of the United States. That has been settled since then.

I.: Okay, I have also failed here to bring you somewhat out of balance. Last question in our conversation: Where do you see the future of the European Union? Where will we go now in the direction of Mrs. Guérot: European republic, larger entity, or do you believe that the Hoppean paradigm of a more chambered regionalist EU is the future?

H.: The states want to have what Mrs. Guérot said, of course.

I.: What will happen?

H.: I am sure that the basic idea of the European community is to reduce competition between countries. A common taxation policy is introduced, which takes away any reason for economic entities to move from one place to another. With the euro monetary competition has been abolished, which previously prevented countries from printing money at will. They were afraid of devaluing their currency. With the euro this fear is no longer necessary. The cohesion of the European community at present is essentially due to the fact that the bandit leaders of the leading states practically bribe the bandit leaders of the less solvent states. As soon as the economic power of Europe is going down by punishing the productive ones more and more these support payments are no longer possible. Then the European Union will break apart.

I.: A sobering conclusion. If I have understood you correctly, you do not believe in the functioning of these institutions of a European Union. We have already come to the end of our discussion and I thank you very much for your visit to the studio.

H.: Thank you very much."

 

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P.S. Speaking of Liechtenstein, did you know that in 2007 the Swiss Army invaded Liechtenstein by accident: it was dark, and they couldn't see where they were going. And then there is this story from 1866 when, during the Austro-Prussian War, Liechtenstein sent 80 soldiers to guard the Brenner Pass. They saw no combat and, upon returning to Liechtenstein, the troop count was 81. The extra person was reported to be an Italian soldier or a civilian friend who asked to join them on their return, often described as a defector. That's my kind of country!

 

It's not the where; it's the how

 

 

People ask me, "but where will you live after you've left Riverbend?", to which I reply, "It's not so much the where that's important as the how", because I could live anywhere as long as I have my books and a few creature comforts.

A small flat - the smaller the better - in a quiet area with easy access to all amenities - shops and restaurants, public swimming pool, public library, and public transport - and with a sunny outlook and enough room for my books would be just fine. In fact, a little bedsitter would just about eliminate all the household chores and keep visitors away.

Come to think of it, my little "hole-in-the-wall" in Sydney would do just nicely, although it wouldn't have to be in the city but a rail link to it would be a plus. And it should be a 'pet-friendly' place in case I wanted to keep another little Rover. All I need now is a buyer for "Riverbend".

 

 

A leafy outlook from the (one?) window would be nice but forget about water views or waterfront. I did a few price comparisons and it seems that of two identical units, one with water views ('water glimpses' would be more accurate) and the other without, the one with water views would cost an extra 50%. As for waterfront, that more than doubles the price here in Sproxton Lane.

No water views then, let alone waterfront, for me: if I want them, I'd grab a folding chair and walk down to them. Or, if they're not within easy walking distance, I use public transport because here's the other thing: I won't bother about a car.

So if you happen to see an old codger carrying a folding chair on a bus or train, why not sidle up to him and ask, "Are you missing Riverbend?" I can tell you his answer right now.

 

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P.S. I've just looked over what I've written and realised that's the way I lived for the first ten years of my adult life, not because I wanted to but because I had to. Now I want to. How liberating is that?

 

The tie that binds

 

The BREWO company tie

 

Two months ago, on a beautiful sunlit morning just like today, I found this surprising email in my inbox: "Good day! My name is Tim Breckwoldt. I am the son of Hayo Breckwoldt and grandson of Friedrich Wilhelm Breckwoldt. It was with joy and surprise that I just found your post and am therefore writing this email in the hope that it reaches you. First of all, this much: Unfortunately, Breckwoldt & Co no longer exists since 1980. However, there is actually still an active Breckwoldt branch in New Caledonia, which has been in existence since 1971. For several years now, a meeting of former Breckwoldt employees has been taking place once a year, at which I (born in 1971) am of course the youngest participant. I would really appreciate a response and learn more about your story. I would be happy to tell you a little more about Breckwoldt and the end of this great company. Best regards from Hamburg, Tim Breckwoldt".

 

The post Tim referred to was my "Vanished without a trace!" about the sudden disappearance of one of the trading-houses in the South Pacific in the 1960/70s which vanished, seemingly without a trace, in 1980.

 

 

At its peak, Breckwoldt & Co, headquartered in Hamburg and with offices in Sydney, Milan, London, Antwerp, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Hong Kong, sold German imports such as VOLKSWAGEN and MERCEDES cars, GRUNDIG radios, BAYER medicines, OLYMPIA typewriters, ROLLEI cameras, CONTINENTAL tyres, right down to HOHNER mouth organs and accordions and a host of local trade goods, from its island branches in Port Moresby, Madang, Lae, Kieta, Mt Hagen, and Wewak in Papua New Guinea, Honiara in the Solomon Islands, Apia in Samoa, Suva in Fiji, Papeete in Tahiti, and Noumea in New Caledonia. It also had branches in Liberia and the Gambia. And they all disappeared in the blink of an eye!

 

 

You couldn't travel far in the South Pacific without encountering a Breckwoldt branch. I bought my first portable typewriter, an OLYMPIA, from their Rabaul branch, and when I was the accountant and office manager with Camp Catering Services on Bougainville Island, we bought lots of supplies from their Kieta office. Later, when I lived and worked in Western Samoa, I became friend with their Apia manager and his wife.

 

Breckwoldt's manager in Apia, Horst, and his wife Roswitha with daughter

 

Now that I have become friend with the grandson of Breckwoldt's original founder, Friedrich Wilhelm Breckwoldt, I am learning from him more about the company's history and its eventual demise which, with his permission, I hope to write more about on this blog in days to come.

 

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