Last Blog for the year! Happy New year folks!

The world economy is in a mess… more and more we realise how bad the situation is. Thanks to the politics of the US, since Clinton, we have modeled a world based on Finance rather than on real economy. This is easy to understand if you ask yourself the most basic question: What do we need to live? I am sure that you would say… food! If this is true, it means that countries thar produce food should be the richest once… Well… it used to be, but since Maggie and Ronnie decided that the third sector of the economy counted more and dismissed everything related to food and industry favouring finance, the world has been growing faster based on paper.

The earning capability has increased for those making more money, even this money making is based on nothing, just on some digits on a screen and all the accounting methodologies, more or less fruit of fantasy, are the proof that there is not a clear way of saying, effectively, how much wealth we produce.

Another important factor that revolutionised our world is the fact that the capital has become the main factor of wealth and being preferred to work. Money doesn't get sick, doesn't take holidays and doesn't complain or strikes...

We have revolutionised the way nature should work and I am not talking about GMO or using a plane rather than walking. We have changed what we were meant to be: workers, farmers, hunters, soldiers and so on. People getting their hands dirty and get tired to earn a living.

Now, me, a clerical, someone that works with hot air, makes more money than any hardworker in a factory, in a farm or transporting goods around the world. I become obese, I have to undergo diets, cures and every sort of “actions” replacement gimmick to simulate one hour in the fields, while a farmer will be more and more looked down by those like me that still need him to eat but not that much, because if my local farmer stops producing I can still buy food in Africa for a spit in their hands and a kick in the ass and a kickback to the local politicians.

So we can live without food because there is plenty of it… But, 1 billion people starve! Fucking hilarious! The evolution has brought women to become men-like. They can do everything we do plus give birth and multitask. What can we men do that women cannot? Even what they cannot, with money they have now or even a smile, they can have it. In this type of society where men are less men, women are more men and less women, workers are neglected and rich people are richer, how on earth can anyone think that things can go well?

Think of Italy, but it is the same anywhere else. How come the profit produced by the capital is taxed less than the one produced by the work? Someone says that the capital has been taxed already before when produced. Bullshit! I am not saying that we should tax again the capital, we should tax the profit that the capital produces.

What if this capital has been produced on nothing… Exact like it has been happening since Clinton has been in power? I was one of those that had the illusion that this crisis would not have been a huge problem for the real economy but I was completely wrong having lost touch with the reality because I have not lost any money in this crisis. I forget that we have pensioners and housewives investing (betting) in sophisticated financial products. These people are the vehicles to deliver the crisis in the families.

As I have said a few times, the recession has been triggered by paper, it is due mainly because it was the finance pulling the economy up when effectively the economy itself has not produced anything good for a long time and if it were not for India and China we would have seen this tragedy happening 5 years ago or earlier.

How to come out of it? It is hard to say because unless we change completely the rules of the game we will be just burning money, whatever money can be worth these days. I think that to start with we need to admit that the neoliberism in place is not the liberism and that the State, at this point, cannot be excluded: social democratic societies are doing better than Liberal ones. So, more State observation and presence, not in the economy but in the directives. Secondly, protect the weakest categories and tax highly all the incomes coming from capital, unless this capital is invested in companies that produce something tangible and it is done directly, not via Stock Exchanges, unless the shares are kept for long long time. High tax for high earners and virtually no tax for those who earn little. Consumption tax higher on luxury goods. Tax highly those properties that do not produce any income because not rented and just kept by the owners as a sort of refuge investments, pushing prices up and making difficult for commoners to buy a property. Create a sort of solidariety tax where all people with exceptional incomes contribute and these funds to be used as reservoir in case of crisis like this or when unemployment reaches warning levels. Review, totally, the organisation of the State and try to reduce the dependency from politics. Reducing the “political” bodies and increase advice bureaus can make the citizen more appreciative of the State and feel it less distant. Redestribution of wealth can take place but not with lump sums as they have done in Italy in the past. There are many more things that can be done but, the big problem is that the world is in the hands of the rich and these do not give a shit about those who are starving. In a period like this they are getting richer and their money is increasing in value as goods are cheaper.

Another thing that should be reformed should see the participation of the State in the utilities companies and even in the Petrol companies. It is proved that the higher the price of petrol goes the bigger the profits these companies make, because the costs for extractions stay the same and the price is generally artificially moved by futures and options and not by the effective need of the market. Think of the petrol at 150 dollars and see it now at 40. Do you think that the consumption of oil has gone down by… 70%? It’s a joke! As it was a joke the petrol at 150 dollars a barrel.

Greedy bastards! States should buy them off now, that their price is low. Nationalise them, for God sake!

In Brazil the crisis we are seeing worldwide is not so strong because their economy is highly controlled by the State, from the exchange rate to the issue of an invoice to the interest rates and so on. The State is the one that makes sure that the economy doesn’t overheat. Is this right? Perhaps it will be right for us too in the future because Brazil has been through crisis before and the same for Argentina but the Argentinians haven’t learned, too Italian, while in Brazil they have preferred a gradual growth sheltered from big shocks. Of course the crisis will impact Brazil too, but not as bad as the “free economies”.

While I write, in my beloved country, there are the judges on a spree! Once again, politicians and entrepreneurs are being arrested for briberies and so on. Once Italian always Italian. As I always say, Bribesville is still there alive and kicking and, this time, most of the people involved are from the Democratic Party. The Party that was meant to be the clean one and the answer to the request of honesty from a small part of italians that now prefer, clearly, the party of former judge Antonio Di Pietro that has made of legality his personal battle and that lost the regional elections in Abruzzo to Berlusconi’s candidate but grew 5-fold his support, becoming the third party in that region.

The breakup between the Democratic Party, always more and more in crisis because unable to propose anything and to offer a valid alternative to the current rulers, and Di Pietro’s party has consumed in the aftermath of the elections. It is clear that Di Pietro is playing the requiem to his ally, rather than Berlusconi and there are a few people that see him as the possible candidate to run as leader of the centre-left coalition in 2013.

God bless the inhabitants of Abruzzo, 47% of them stayed at home and didn't vote! Well done! I won the elections! they were voting because the socialist President of the Region is accused of corruption charges. Better not to talk about this asshole...

I mentioned time ago the story of a lady, Manuela Englaro, being in a vegetative state for the last 17 years. The Supreme Court ruled that the machines supporting her can be stopped and let the poor thing die. Well… in Italy, when we do not like what the judges say, we propose reforms or we propose new laws. This is what is happening these days. The Democratic Party has agreed on a reform of the justice because some of their members are currently accused (it seems like they lost their preferential relationship with the justice, after they made sure that Di Pietro became a big guy that is a better referent to the judges than anyone else) and the health Minister has issued a law saying that nobody, no hospital or clinic, can refuse to feed artificially anyone in a hospital. Failing this: no more financing and fines… Wow! What a country! In the meantime the judges have ruled that Ms. Englaro can die, as previously ruled out.

Let’s hope the poor lady will find peace at last and so her father.

And it’s to him that my thoughts go in these couple of weeks when I will be off to some well deserved vacations. My thoughts go for him that this Xmas will have the present of seeing his daughter go at last, while I will celebrate my daughter’s birthday.

Life can really suck!

Happy Xmas to all of you guys, believers and not!