Tag Archives: italy
When a thought becomes reality
Someone sent me an email yesterday with the following Thought for the Day:
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power – Benito Mussolini
I thought little of it, until I started seeing how the EU puppet government of Mario Monti has started to impose capital controls on the former sovereign State of Italy.
This snippet from Morpheus at ZeroHedge:
Here are the latest developments which are coming in at extraordinary speed:
- The appointment in December of an unelected government. This government has no accountability and no fixed time mandate. It is being sold as being “technocratic”, but is in fact headed by a University Professor who is distinguished for: (i) having been head of the EU Internal Market Commission, where he used the power of the State to fine Microsoft and other corporate that were “getting too big for their boots”;(ii) being a good friend of Romano Prodi, another University Professor from the Communist heartland of the University of Bologna and creator of the Euro (more on him later);(iii) a paid hand of Goldman Sachs and a friend of Mario Draghi, another Goldman puppet who dispatched of the government of Berlusconi within days of taking the helm of the ECB; (iv) a fervent believer in the pre-eminence of the state over the individual;
- Prodi, the original architect of this catastrophe, famously made this comment in 2001, indicating that this cabal of Professors are playing a very long game indeed:
Romano Prodi, EU Commission President, December 2001I am sure the Euro will oblige us to introduce a new set of economic policy instruments. It is politically impossible to propose that now. But some day there will be a crisis and new instruments will be created.”
- Thanks to his friendship with Monti and the current government, he is very much still involved in shaping just what such instruments can be;
- The passing of an extraordinary edict making cash transactions of more than Euro 1,000 illegal (not subject to reporting – just plain illegal). Following Prodi’s own desire, the existing regime has indicated that this level will be progressively reduced to a limit as low as Euro 300. Hence cash is maybe for the first time in history no longer legal tender (over Euro 1,000, for now);
- A requirement that credit card companies report all transactions carried out by Italians, in Italy and abroad to the fiscal authorities;
- Delays and refusals by banks in allowing customers to withdraw cash balances of as little as Euro 10,000;
- Finance Police has placed cameras at the physical borders with Switzerland (see below) to register all license plates. In addition, currency-sniffing dogs have been deployed at the border (http://www.cdt.ch/ticino-e-regioni/cronaca/56250/fiscovelox-riapparsi-no…).
Events in Italy must be watched closely. The country that gifted Fascism to the world in the 1930s was widely admired even by FDR, who held Mussolini in high regard and was no doubt inspired in many of his own policy choices. Will Italy lead the way once more, as politicians in Europe and the US watch to see what oppressive policies they may get away with?
And while Russell Napier (correctly) foresees capital controls being imposed and suggested that one parks his cash in Singapore dollars, Italians may want to get themselves out as well before the current group of Professors slams the gates shut. Things are moving even faster than one of the world’s leading financial historians could foresee.
We thought that the impositions placed upon the Greek people by another EU imposed puppet government in the former sovereign State of Greece was bad enough, but it is looking as though Italy is fast becoming the blueprint for EU dictatorial authoritarianism with its own mix of Facism.
I wonder if Polly Toynbee has gone into Tax avoidance mode yet?
Where is this post democratic age taking us?
This time last year I wrote a post that was perhaps a little ahead of its time. People were still not ready to believe that the EU was on the road to killing democracy for its own survival.
Today, we can see with our own eyes how the EU, lead by a resurgent Germany, has removed the democratically elected governments of Italy and Greece and replaced them with imposed unelected technocrats subservient to the ruling elites in Brussels.
The Post Democratic age has long been on the EU agenda. It has oft been spoken of by those purple tie wearing ‘progressives’, in particular Peter Mandelson.
Unelected leaders of EU a pack of Hyenas
Love him or hate him, Nigel Farage is the man speaking out. He is saying what the rest of the UK is thinking.
Nigel Farage making very clear in the European Parliament plenary session this morning:
We now living in a German dominated Europe, something that that the European project was supposed to stop. Something that those that went before us actually paid a heavy price in blood to prevent. I don’t want to live in a German dominated Europe and nor do the citizens of Europe.
Of Van Rompuy he said:
Trillion Dollar exposure by US Banks to Eurozone crisis
From Ron Paul
European Debt Crisis Threatens the Dollar
The global economic situation is becoming more dire every day. Approximately half of all US banks have significant exposure to the debt crisis in Europe. Much more dangerous for the US taxpayer is the dollar’s status as reserve currency for the world, and the US Federal Reserve’s status as the lender of last resort. As we’ve learned in recent disclosures, this has not only benefitted companies like AIG, the auto industry and various US banks, but multiple foreign central banks as they have run into trouble. Nothing has been solved, however, by offering up the productivity of Americans as a sacrificial lamb. Greece is set to be the first domino to fall in the string of European economies at risk. Rather than learning from Greece’s terrible example of an over-consuming public sector and drowning private sector, what is more likely from our politicians is an eventual bailout of European investors.
The US has a relatively small exposure to overwhelmed Greek banks, but much larger economies in Europe are set to follow and that will have serious implications for US banks. Greece is technically small enough to bail out. Italy is not. Germany is not. France is not. It is estimated that US banks have over a trillion dollars tied up in at-risk German and French banks. Because the urge to paper over the debt with more credit is so strong, the collapse of the Euro is imminent. Will the Fed be held responsible if the Euro brings the US dollar down with it?
The most disingenuous aspect of the narrative about the European sovereign debt crisis is that entire economies will collapse if more resources are not bilked from productive people around the world. This is untrue. Tough times are coming for the banks, to be sure, but free people always find a way back to prosperity if the politicians leave them alone. Communities within Greece are coming together and forming barter systems because they know the Euro is becoming unstable. Greeks are learning how to engage in commerce with each other, without the use of fiat currency controlled by central banks. In other words, they are rediscovering what money really is, and they are trading with each other in ways that cannot be controlled, manipulated, squandered, inflated away and generally ruined by corrupt bankers and the politicians that enable them. Farmers will still grow food, mechanics will still fix cars, people will still make things and exchange them with each other. No banker, no politician can stop that by destroying one medium of exchange. People will find or create another medium of exchange.
Unfortunately when politicians try to monopolize currency with legal tender laws, the people find it harder and harder to survive the inflation and taxation to which they are subjected. Bankers should take their dreaded haircut rather than making innocent people pay for their mistakes. The losses should be limited and liquidated, rather than perpetuated and rewarded. This is the only way we can recover.
Government debt is often considered rock solid because it is backed by a government’s ability to forcibly extract interest payments out of the public. The public is increasingly unwilling to be bilked to make bankers whole. The riots and the violence in Greece should tell us something about the sustainability of this system.
If we continue to bail out banks and bankers so they can continue to lose money, if we cavalierly put this burden on the taxpayer, it is all too predictable what will happen here.