Bankers. Not your elected leaders!
ROME — A day after accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s president on Sunday asked Mario Monti, a former European Commissioner, to form a government charged with helping defend Italy from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.
President Giorgio Napolitano formally tapped Mr. Monti on Sunday evening after a day of meetings with political leaders across the spectrum, almost all of whom had pledged their support for a government of technocrats to guide Italy into its post-Berlusconi future.
“The president of the republic … has received Senator Mario Monti and conferred a mandate to form a government,” said a statement from the presidential palace, according to Reuters.
But in a sign of political wrangling to come, the leader of Mr. Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party said on Sunday that the party would support a Monti government only for as long as it could fulfill its mandate to push through measures to help reduce Italy’s $2.6 trillion public debt and increase growth to keep the country competitive. The party had been pushing for early elections, while media reports say Mr. Monti hopes to serve until the end of the current legislature in 2013.
Mr. Berlusconi addressed the nation in a video message on Sunday evening, declaring his “love and passion” for Italy and his bitterness at having been jeered on Saturday after he tendered his resignation, an act he said had been one of “generosity” toward the country.
The real news here is not the change of guard. But the bloodless coup d’etat orchestrated by bankers in two European countries. It tells us how powerful the banking interests have become in the world. Democracies are being ‘taken over’ by “bankocracies.” Last week there was a change of guard in Greece – the new PM is an Ex VP of ECB, not popularly elected.
Not just Mario Monti – the head of ECB, (another super) Mario Draghi is also a squid alumnus. Ladies and gentlemen – the masters of universe now are Goldman Sachs:
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But on the political fringes there are already those portraying Mr Monti – who is listed by Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, on its board of international advisers – as a tool of the “masters of the universe”, along with Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank and former Goldman Sachs executive.“This is the band of criminals who brought us this financial disaster. It is like asking arsonists to put out the fire,” commented Alessandro Sallusti, editor of Il Giornale, a Milan daily owned by the Berlusconi family.
