Chapter 1737: Once an Ally Too

“Sir must have a lot of things to keep him busy when he comes to Berlin, I wonder what I can do.” Arnold was very up to the task of doing his landlord’s duty and said, “I believe Whitehall is very concerned about, the progress of privatization in the GDR, and I am willing to detail it without reservation.”

“It is natural to be concerned about these things, we are more concerned about the new atmosphere of the GDR, Arnold you know, for many British people, the Soviet camera, the Chinese film, and also the public’s childhood memories.”

Middleton was equally enthusiastic, “I hope that the GDR will also be able to provide, goods that are extremely needed in Britain.”

“Just as the plains of Russia are our cornfields, Canada and the Baltic our forest areas, Australia our pastures, Peru our silver mines, South Africa and Australia our gold mines, India our tea plantations, and the East Indies our sugar cane, coffee, and spice plantations.”

After hearing Arnold’s words, Middleton corrected, “It seems that North America was forgotten, but that’s okay, technology has advanced and there are still many places where it can make a difference, just as Kuwait and the UAE are our oil depots, Rhodesia is our breadbasket, Australia is our mines, Malaya is our industrial base, and the GDR is our ? ”

“Also an industrial base.” Arnold snorted, “The Cabinet Secretary wants us to make the GDR a dumping base facing Eastern Europe, as Malaya’s role in Southeast Asia. Even to radiate the entire South China Sea neighborhood, obviously the GDR can’t be such a role right now, still have to keep working on it.”

“I’m relieved you’re doing your job.” Middleton patted Arnold’s shoulder, “In fact, the Secretary General has always had high hopes for you, and of course I do as well.”

Arnold nodded and asked what his father was doing, Middleton didn’t hide it, “The Secretary General is convening a meeting of economic experts to introduce an economic concept called real purchasing power. ppp The application of purchasing power is an old concept of Swedish economists, but we have to recognize the value of a part of it. This would be very suitable for the economic assessment of the Eastern European countries.”

The ppp purchasing power parity has been around for a long time, but it’s also true that it has long been underappreciated, after all, the concept of GDP is only twenty years old, and since the Cold War is over, and the European side of the equation is no longer either a friend or a foe, the concept is perfect to roll out to appease the fragile egos of, well, the Eastern European countries.

Allen Wilson from ppp purchasing power parity found a huge stabilizing value, but this set of concepts, in fact, there is a loophole, that is, will be extremely magnified populous country’s economic capacity.

This depends on the concept of ppp purchasing power parity, other countries are not accepted, different countries will take different attitudes, want to stabilize the time to use a little, but in fact, the heart is not convinced.

For example, a certain big country and a reputable big country, in different time periods on ppp purchasing power parity have shown different attitudes.

The difference is that after surpassing Japan, a certain big country soon did not take ppp purchasing power parity seriously, the big sound country seems to be a short period of time, can not get rid of the concept of ppp purchasing power parity, this concept at least can make the big sound country seems to be so.

At this stage, Alan Wilson is going to take this concept of economics and use it in the political sphere, in fact, to maintain stability in Europe, as for the huge amplitude effect on the big populous countries, can’t care now.

“If the Mexican peso were to depreciate by half relative to the dollar, then GDP in dollars would also be halved. Yet, this does not indicate that Mexicans are getting poorer. If income and price levels in pesos remain constant, and if imported goods in not important to Mexicans’ standard of living, then a currency devaluation will not bring about a deterioration in Mexicans’ quality of life. This problem can be avoided if purchasing power parity is used.”

There is definitely an economic gap between Eastern and Western Europe in Europe, which no one can deny, and this concept can make the economic gap in Europe not so big so that it does not hit the psychological expectations of the majority of the Western European population, which is now more than chattering to give a signal to this change in economics.

For the position of leading Europe’s future economy, the United Kingdom must be the right person to do so, although the French General Mitterrand certainly do not agree, feel that France is the country to lead Europe.

For how to lead Europe, the two countries also have differences, Allen Wilson listened to France’s meaning, it seems to be to carry out the eastward expansion of the European Community, this is not to practice the special relationship between Britain and the United States again the opportunity to come?

Britain is firmly opposed to the eastward expansion of the European Community, anyway, it is unlikely to be realized in a short period of time, and hasten to put a flare on the head of the French, so that the Americans will notice the antipodean.

Cabinet Secretary from here no one knows more about economics than me when the current trade war between Europe and the United States is still in the middle of a stalemate, the French are firmly opposed to concessions on top of agricultural subsidies. Mrs. Thatcher called the cabinet secretary-general, who was posing as an economics expert, to ask for a professional’s opinion.

“I don’t have a problem with it, the French are now making the same conditions that Britain traded on in the first place.”

Alan Wilson shook his head and heard the prime minister ask what the specific conditions were, “It’s the scope of application of the trade treaty, the French have to count the territory of North Africa, at the same time the conditions of the UK are also similar, but because of the specific industry so, the conditions of exchange offered are not the same. For example, in the fisheries agreement Britain added Newfoundland, in minerals and energy is Rhodesia. On top of the commodity tariffs Britain was at a disadvantage, and the Malayan part was not negotiated in the first place.”

Not negotiated down is normal, first of all Malaya is really and the EC framework has nothing to do with, if the French even agreed to this article, that and my Qing dynasty basically no difference. Of course, in part of the goods, Britain still let France give Malaya the same treatment, all of which can not be counted on.

Specifically on top of agriculture and animal husbandry, the UK can be said to have suffered some losses, since the UK has suffered losses, the UK if you help the US to compromise with the EEC on the current terms, which is not?

Britain hadn’t even negotiated its own terms in the first place, so if it helped the United States achieve its goal, wouldn’t it be necessary for Britain to reconsider the agreements it had previously signed?

“It seems to make some sense.” Mrs. Thatcher nodded and had a talk about another topic, “What do you think about Prince Alexander’s popularity in Yugoslavia?”

“Of course I am happy to see it, he was born in England, now in the British point of view at least will not object to him having a certain amount of influence, as for the standpoint of Yugoslavia? He’s kind of a consensus in Yugoslavia, and there’s not a lot of consensus in Yugoslavia.”

Even then, of course, Alan Wilson felt that it was still unlikely that he would want to restore the monarchy, unless the Soviet Union and Britain had a common position on the matter.

That common position, which bordered on quite a surrender of the Soviet Union to Britain with all its remaining spheres of influence, was not going to be easy.

On the Lithuanian issue, there were reports that the Soviet high command was prepared to use force to solve the problem, Margaret Thatcher was of course against it, Alan Wilson agreed that using force was extremely stupid, “If it were up to me, I’d just blockade the Lithuanian border so that not a single Lithuanian could get out, and then order the Soviets to conduct military drills in Lithuania, and if that didn’t work, then encase Lithuania in landmines, which is how Grace did that in Rhodesia, and it worked very well.”

“Should I say it’s a good thing you’re not Soviet?” Mrs. Thatcher rolled her eyes, “What leverage do we have to stop the Soviets from solving the problem by force?”

“Apart from berating them with newspapers, essentially no leverage.” Alan Wilson wasn’t embarrassed, this was what the Prime Minister had asked, and of course he had no choice but to be truthful, or else Margaret Thatcher thought about what Britain could actually do. She couldn’t actually think about it.

So there are times when Alan Wilson just hates these politicians, and obviously he can’t do anything about it at all, but he still wants to rub it in? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?

“I do agree, however, that it’s possible to keep a sneaky eye on things, but it’s quite possible to make the UK’s position clear on an official level – after all, it looks like the Soviet Union is dominating, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

It was fine to give money, but not too much, the US gave as much as they wanted, the UK would just give a tenth, public opinion was allowed to pay attention, as for the rest, there was a price for everything, including justice.

“I suggest that we try with France, and communicate with Moscow, can we get the West Berlin garrison of both countries to show up in Berlin.” Alan Wilson said it was possible to pretend that Britain was busy, but of course it must be done in conjunction with France, so that there would be an alibi.

“To show that we have no time to pay attention to Lithuania, so British troops should appear in the capital of the GDR?” Mrs. Thatcher couldn’t help but smile, how did the other side come up with the idea of bombing Warsaw?

“We were allies with the Soviet Union in World War II after all, can’t we celebrate the end of the Cold War? As long as Moscow agrees, there’s nothing that can’t be done. There aren’t many reasons, really celebrating the October Revolution isn’t out of the question, the point is that British troops should be present on GDR soil, the last Prime Ministerial visit wasn’t enough, once our military forces can be present in the GDR. One more way to stop German reunification, military force is still reliable.”

“By focusing our forces on the GDR, we can avoid having to resort to widely offending the citizens of the FRG like we did in the last energy crisis.”

“Doesn’t that offend the FRG?” Margaret Thatcher raised an eyebrow, “Well, if you can talk the Soviets into it.”

Since Mrs. Thatcher did not object, then Alan Wilson did not mind using some assistance in light industrial goods to make a small bribe to the Soviet Union, to be honest Malaya also had a problem of backlogged goods, the reason why there were no major ups and downs also relied on the openness of a certain big country, otherwise the dividends of technology transfer would have been eaten up long ago.