The bizarre case of Luxembourg adds a grotesque note to the NATO rearmament drive. As reported, Prime Minister Luc Frieden (an Orwellian name) is the co-initiator, together with Canadian PM and former Bank of England boss Mark Carney, of the so-called Bank for Defense, Security, and Resilience (i.e., the NATO Bank).
Luxembourg is a tiny grand duchy, its monarch belonging to the Nassau-Orange aristocratic family (descendants of William of Orange). With approximately 680,000 inhabitants, it has an “army” the size of a battalion. No air force, no navy, no tanks, two drones. However, it has a banking sector with assets equivalent to roughly 12 times its GDP. Its investment fund industry manages approximately €7.6 trillion in assets, around 77× the country’s GDP, making it the second-largest investment fund domicile globally after the United States. To characterize it as an Epstein-class tax haven is no hyperbole.
