Years of neoliberal economic policies imposed by Brussels and by Italian politicians alike have devastated numerous industrial towns and the very fabric of Italian society, reports Attilio Moro....Short backgrounder.
Consortium News
This is the New Italy
Attilio Moro
See also
Spiegel Online
ECB Vice President Constâncio: 'Italy Knows the Rules'
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SPIEGEL ONLINE: Have the countries in the southern part of the euro area done enough on their side to fix monetary union?
Constâncio: Yes. The countries hardest hit by the crisis had high budget deficits and high current account deficits at the start of the crisis. So they were importing a lot more than they were exporting. But a great deal has been done since then. In the meantime, all the countries concerned have a primary fiscal surplus, which means that they are reducing their debt bit by bit. And all these countries now have a current account surplus; they are exporting more than they import. That is quite a turnaround.Death of the working class by strangulation to benefit the portfolios of the ownership class.
Spiegel Online
ECB Vice President Constâncio: 'Italy Knows the Rules'
Henning Jauernig and Stefan Kaiser interview outgoing European Central Bank Vice President Vítor Constâncio
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The elite is confident that it can jam any policy it wishes on "the little people," you know, the people that voted for Mussolini and Hitler.
Zero Hedge
Italians Furious After EU's Oettinger Says "Markets Will Teach Them" Not To Vote For Populists
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And the reason why Italians are seething with growing rage aimed squarely at Europe's unelected institutions, is because European Budget Commissioner, German Guenther Oettinger, said the one thing that he should not have: that "the negative development of the markets will lead Italians not to vote much longer for the populists" according to an interview set to be published in Deutsche Welle later in the day.Market "discipline."
The elite is confident that it can jam any policy it wishes on "the little people," you know, the people that voted for Mussolini and Hitler.
Zero Hedge
Italians Furious After EU's Oettinger Says "Markets Will Teach Them" Not To Vote For Populists
Tyler Durden
UPDATE
UPDATE
While it is nothing but a waste of time, today Italy's premier-designate, Carlo Cottarelli, a former IMF official also known as "Mr. Scissors" for his drastic public debt cutting, was supposed to present the country's scandalous president, Sergio Mattarella with a list of people who make up his technocratic government; instead he left the meeting with the president without an agreement on a cabinet team and Italy staring new elections in just two months.
While it is unclear what led to the failure by Cottarelli, who will again meet Mattarella on Wednesday, the inability to lay out his government would force the president to dissolve parliament, leading to elections within 60 to 70 days. He may have little choice: as Bloomberg notes, pressure among barious Italian lawmakers mounted on Tuesday to hold elections as soon as possible, with Ansa reporting that Cottarelli’s efforts were stalled by the parties demanding a vote on July 29, or a week later, on August 5....
Tyler Durden
SPIEGEL ONLINE: “Have the countries in the southern part of the euro area done enough on their side to fix monetary union?
ReplyDeleteVÍTOR CONSTÂNCIO: Yes. All the countries concerned have a primary fiscal surplus, which means that they are reducing their debt bit by bit. And all these countries now have a current account surplus; they are exporting more than they import. That is quite a turnaround.
This part is true: “All the countries concerned have a primary fiscal surplus,” which means that all the countries crippled by debt, and by Troika tyranny, are being destroyed by austerity.
This part is a lie: “And all these countries now have a current account surplus; they are exporting more than they import.”
Which countries is Constâncio talking about? Greece, Malta, and Cyprus, for example, have trade deficits. Hence they are not “reducing their debt bit by bit.” They are going ever further into debt.
It figures that Der Speigel and Mr. Constâncio would spout such garbage. Germany is the biggest beneficiary of the euro scam, and Constâncio has been Vice President of the European Central Bank since June 2010.
You can’t get any more pro-Troika than that.
GUENTHER OETTINGER: “Markets will teach Italians" to vote for the right thing.”
ReplyDeleteTranslation: “The Troika and rich oligarchs will teach Italians to not vote for the populists."
In the era of neoliberalism, “the markets” is code for bankers and oligarchs.
MEMO
From: Brussels
To: Guenther Oettinger
Subject: Your big mouth
You stupid Kraut! How long do you think we can keep enslaving the masses if dummkopfs like you brag about it? Take a lesson from the USA, where it’s acceptable to abuse and enslave African-Americans as long as you don’t use the ‘N’ word.
We’re trying to keep Italy under our heel, and you’re making it harder!
Screw up again, and you’re out!
Contrary to Zero Hedge, Carlo Cottarelli (“Mr. Scissors”) did not “fail to form a government.”
ReplyDeletePresident Sergio Mattarella tasked Mr. Cottarelli with making sure that Italy’s new government remained divided and deadlocked, so that it could not defy the Troika. In this, Mr. Cottarelli succeeded. The Northern League and Five-Star Movement are both anti-Troika and anti-Europe, and so they must both be neutralized.
(The Northern League and the Five Star Movement both want to dump the euro, but on most other things they are like Trump-bots vs. Hillary-bots.)
Mr. Cottarelli will rig the new elections in July so that the results are “correct” (i.e. pro-Troika, pro-euro, pro-austerity, pro-neoliberalism, and anti-populist).
The people must be forced to make the “right choice” to not vote populist (which the Troika calls “Nazi”).
The “corrected” results of the July election will give a slim but decisive majority to a pro-Troika coalition. The rigged “win” must be very small, or else the Italian masses will not believe it.