ITALEXIT NEXT?

Mr. F.L.M. found this article over at Russia's online English language Sputnik website, and it's worth passing along as the eurozone continues to teeter; Italy it seems is increasingly considering an exit from the European Union. And you can't blame them, since Berlin, aka Mad Madame Merkel, and Darth Soros, seem intent on flooding Europe with more and more barbarians refugees. But Italy, unlike Pope Francis, is having second thoughts about the whole thing:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201707241055813614-eurozone-italexit-collapse/

The possibility of Italy's exit from the eurozone has bas been raised in the Italian Parliament, as politicians try to come up with ways to tackle Italy's spiraling public debt, which reached 132.6 percent of GDP in 2016.

In early July, Italian parliamentarians from the Five Star Movement held a seminar in the Chamber of Deputies to discuss Italy's economic situation. They discussed the eurozone's default mechanism, strategies to restructure sovereign debt, parallel payment systems as well as the possibility of leaving the eurozone.

Of course, the debate is focused only partially on what the real problem is; it's not the Eurozone (though it is part of the problem too), it is the whole social democracy philosophy that has prevailed in virtually every European country since the end of the Second World War: more and more government programs that eventually bankrupt the country. And even as this goes on, more and more social programs continue to be advocated. Once plugged into the European Union, however, one country's problems become everybody's problem, and more fiscally responsible nations (Germany), have to impose "austerity" on more fiscally irresponsible nations (Greece, Italy, Spain), and this needlessly fuels increasing tensions and old grievances. It's trading the irresponsibility of Rome, for the greater nuttiness of Brussels.

Fortunately, Italy hasn't entirely lost its senses, or sense of national culture and identity:

The debate signified the first time that the Italian Parliament discussed the "Italexit" option, a topic which had been "taboo" until recently, the Italian press reported.

Financial expert Marc Friedrich told Sputnik Deutschland that a return to the lira would benefit Italy, which is struggling like never before with record high levels of debt and unemployment.

"The countries of southern Europe would be a lot better off with a sovereign currency than with the euro," Friedrich said.

"These countries will never see shoots of recovery while they are in the eurozone and the interest rate limitations set by the European Central Bank (ECB). We wrote this as early as 2012 in our first book, 'Der groesste Raubzug der Geschichte,' (The Greatest Robbery in History). We see that the euro does not work. That is why I can only emphasize that Alberto Bagnai of the University of Pescara is right."

In March, economics professor Alberto Bagnai called for a controlled end to the euro, arguing, "No matter how much political capital is invested in it, the euro will fall."

"The most likely cause will be a collapse of the Italian banking system, which will take the German one with it. It is in the interest of any political power, certainly of the declining European leaders, and probably also of the US, to manage this event rather than passively await it," Bagnai wrote on his Goofynomics blog.
(Emphasis added)

But I submit there's something much deeper lurking here, and it is the real problem with the whole "European Union" idea, for note the reference to the banking systems of Italy and Germany. When the European Union was actually cobbled together on the framework of the old Exchange Rate Mechanism, where other countries' currencies were pegged to the Deutschmark, the western economy was riding high on a bubble of derivatives, credit default swaps, and bundles of bundles of securities whose contents no one really knew. At the heart of it were the housing markets and mortgages. The EU and euro might have worked, if the boom had continued. But this consideration only exposes the flawed machinery and foundation on which the whole thing was based to begin with: the Exchange Rate Mechanism itself.

When that bubble burst in 2007-2008, European banks, and particularly German ones like Deutsche Bank and their closely-linked Italian counterparts, were left holding a lot of the bad paper. No amount of smoke-signaling and mirror-manipulation from the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bundesbank, or the Federal Reserve have been able to hide this fact. China and Russia - and several American states - recognize this and are acting accordingly. And now some sanity is beginning to appear in Italy. Imagine, for a moment, if Italy were to break with the EU, and to pursue its own domestic and foreign economic policy: trade with Russia and China would, I would wager, blossom in a little over a fortnight, and with some careful fiscal policy and acual productivity, the Italian financial house might be put in order. Italy would not need to have the crisis "managed" by "declining European leaders" or the American idiocracy.

I said many months ago, to watch Italy carefully and closely, because the idea of an Italexit would inevitably be broached. And if enacted upon, it would quickly pull Spain, Greece, and Portugal - each facing similar crises - with it.

How can Italy deal with all this debt and restructure it?  Who might step in with some real alternatives to "more of the same" from Berlin, Brussels, Paris, and Washington?

Three words: Russia and China.

See you on the flip side...

 

Posted in

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

15 Comments

  1. Neru on August 4, 2017 at 7:58 am

    France missed their cue. I won’t hold my breath for the hot-headed southern spirit to emerge. I am amazed it never did but not expecting it now.

    The EU will follow the recommendations claimed by the USSA and expect to pay a fortune just for basic needs or freeze to death in winter. The EU representatives are corrupt beyond belief just as their US counterparts.

    Normal living the last 5 years is in a decline that nobody can ignore anymore, the purse is already strapped for so many. Beyond shrugging, nothing is changing but then again I don’t live in Italy.



  2. goshawks on August 3, 2017 at 2:06 pm

    There is a deeper/wider elephant in the room (aside from the rogue Middle East country, or rather it’s handlers), of which Italexit is a symptom:

    Humanity’s brilliance.

    Think about that a moment. What used to take days to do with a hundred workers now takes minutes and two workers. Brilliant!

    However, the pace of tech progress has outmatched progress in the social ‘now what?’ area. Right now, there are far too many warm bodies on the planet than are needed to run/service the newest manufacturing machines. On one side, solutions range from ‘cut ’em loose and let ’em die’ to draconian (word used deliberately) population-culling to serious birth-rate reduction. Reducing-the-mouths solutions. On the other side, various sharing-the-goodies schemes range from voluntary to forced redistribution. Sharing-the-prosperity solutions.

    This is the social ‘cliff’ or ‘choice’ awaiting humanity in the next few years. It is unavoidable. (“May you live in interesting times,” as the old blessing/curse goes.) However, something else will buy us time to mull-over our collective future. The current ‘pressure’ is from the monumental buildup of debt under the current system. John Lanchester wrote a good book on this, “Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay” ( 2010). [Also published as “I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay”] Right now, everything is so unstable – due to the huge worldwide debt – that the world is purely ‘reactive’. Short-term thinking rather than long-term thinking. Not good.

    I keep pushing the concept of a worldwide debt Jubilee. This would give the world the time to do the needed fundamental-restructuring – whatever it’s exact form turns out to be. The banksters and the 0.01% will not like it (!), but may be persuaded that it is better than pitchforks. We will see…



    • Robert Barricklow on August 3, 2017 at 10:25 pm

      Goshawks,
      Yes! That’s been solution since time immemorial.



  3. marcos toledo on August 3, 2017 at 12:34 pm

    As I have said before this can be trance back to the Teutonic wars against the Celtic and Slavic ethic groups in Europe. And Rome being a Mediterranean civilization not really wholly a Europe culture. A future true EU will have to realize both the British Iles and Scandinavia are the equivalent to Japan and Korea to mainland Asia. Cultural ties but no true political ties. Without this realization any European Union is doomed to failure.



  4. Robert Barricklow on August 3, 2017 at 11:47 am

    Another perspective from William Engdahl…
    http://williamengdal.com/englishNEO31July2017.php



  5. Robert Barricklow on August 3, 2017 at 11:23 am

    These countries, like Italy & the U.S., should become sovereign again and become a real nation/country instead of a virtual one. I’m referring of course to issuing one’s own currency through a national public bank. One that could also assure other public utilities like transportation, education, health care, power[electric, etc.], and other public utilities.

    Otherwise, whom are they kidding?
    [But themselves, for one]



    • Robert Barricklow on August 3, 2017 at 11:26 am

      The BIS has to go;
      and by that I mean color it gone with the wind
      [good riddance].



    • Robert Barricklow on August 3, 2017 at 11:39 am

      What bankrupts the country is their stupidity in not using banking as a tool for the nation. Instead, it has become a scythe used by the private banking cartel[BIS] that culls the populations by DESIGN. The latest in they’re bag of tricks is owning it all through policies that purposely bankrupt public assets so they can purchase them thru privatization.
      They imploded, by design, the world economy in 2008, 1929, etc.
      All those booms & busts are by design.
      Put your thinking caps on and get those grey cells running on high octane truths.



      • Robert Barricklow on August 3, 2017 at 11:41 am

        Yes, they have paid help
        via the Deep State and others.



  6. Lost on August 3, 2017 at 9:20 am

    “have to impose “austerity” on more fiscally irresponsible nations (Greece, Italy, Spain), and this needlessly fuels increasing tensions and old grievances.”

    Despite the German banks, government, and businesses being especially responsible for the crisis in Greece and Spain.

    Now, of course, the one of the reasons Italy didn’t suffer as much as Greece, well banks are much more regulated than in Greece and Spain, and Ireland, and Portugal.

    As for refugees fleeing to Italy specifically, well that’s one of the parties that overthrew Gadaffi in Libya–like the French the Italians have neo-colonial designs on oil in Libya. And behold.



  7. WalkingDead on August 3, 2017 at 8:55 am

    Everything in the West is bass ackwards now. The doctors and pharmaceutical companies are killing the patients, the criminals are in Congress, the entitled minorities are the mainstream, teachers aren’t allowed to teach, entire generations are being lobotomized by vaccinations before they even begin school, I could go on. Just how long do you think society can last under this type of onslaught? Now we have the roll out of the one road to rule them all and WWIII waiting in the wings.
    I fear we are seeing too little, too late; the sleeping masses are continually programmed for failure by the MSM with their Hollywood fairy tales and outright lies. You can’t even discuss these things with your friends because they think you’ve lost your mind, yet the evidence is all around them.
    There is no safe haven, our only hope is to make a stand and give it our best shot. Our hero’s are dying; those picking up the torch to continue the good fight are being murdered in “plausibly deniable” ways; and the eyes of the enemy are on those of us who are aware.
    Our enemy is formidable, we are few in number, and Mordor senses it’s victory is at hand.



    • goshawks on August 5, 2017 at 12:05 am

      Remember the words of Gandalf: “Look to my coming, at first light, on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East.”

      And the words of Samwise Gamgee to Frodo:
      Frodo: “I can’t do this, Sam.”
      Sam: “I know. It’s all wrong. By rights, we shouldn’t even be here. But we are…
      It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad had happened?
      But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why…
      But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.”
      Frodo: “What are we holding on to, Sam?”
      Sam: “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”



  8. basta on August 3, 2017 at 6:41 am

    I’ll say it again: None of this is new; it was all foreseen well before the euro was even adopted.

    When the euro was being debated, the opposition argued for a two-tiered system, even two euros — one for northern Europe and another for the southern states. The reasoning was to avoid exactly what you are seeing today: the weakening of southern Europe’s economies by being saddled with an overvalued currency — the old D-Mark dressed in euro drag — while Germany benefits from a relatively weak currency which further fuels its exports.

    These two trends are fundamentally incompatible and are going in opposite directions: Germany’s economy is strengthened by the euro, Southern Europe’s economy is weakened, The gap will never close, only continue to widen until a major country like Italy says “basta” to a losing game. It’s only a matter of time until the pain reaches the tripwire threshold and Italy bails.



  9. DanaThomas on August 3, 2017 at 5:39 am

    LET’S HOPE SO, people like Bagnai have clearly explained the need to get rid of the euro and the EU. But, as we know, geopolitical changes do not take place on the basis of clear, justificable reasons expressed publicly and transparently.
    As Joseph and others have said, Europe is still fighting World War I/II. In WWI Italy was divided politically before opting out of neutrality in 1915, and in WWII was literally parti tioned between the Nazis and the British. With the Vatican holding the balance. So we shall see…



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