March 03, 2009

Dying of starvation/1

Someone is knocking on the door. You open and everything changes. The letter saying you are sacked has arrived for you too. You are no longer one of the Modern Slaves kept alive by a paltry wage. And you are not even a candidate for a White Death who has a job anyway. Now you are one who is Starving to Death. You have the right to the “social card”. You are one of the new two or perhaps three millions of unemployed in 2009.
The moment of detachment, of walking out of the factory or of the company is a state of trance. Your brain is floating and everything is under discussion. Anyone who has lived through it or who is living through it, knows that it is like a tiny stroke. You feel as though you are lost In nothingness and you don’t know what to do. The day before, the gates of the factory were open and you talked with your companions about politics or about football. Then the company closes, without rhyme or reason and without warning anyone. You find yourself at 6 o’clock in the morning in front of the gates with your colleagues and with the bobbies. Not much conversation. Lots of truncheon blows.
If you are a precarious worker, you have no protection. If you are an employee you have the pay for those laid off for a few months. You are outside the system and you only understand that now. Unemployment is contagious. If a company closes then often their suppliers close down too. If the number of unemployed people goes up in one area, then shops and supermarkets close down there too. The unemployed person, the modern person who is dying of starvation, is a virus. Living in a land governed by the richest man, by the parliamentarians who are the most numerous and the most well paid, starting with the pensions to senators and deputies after two and a half years. In the city, he is surrounded by 4x4’s, by tax dodgers who defraud the State of 250 billion Euro a year, by employees of organised crime, the top company in the country for turnover. He’s not a politician, a tax dodger, a criminal, that’s why he is unemployed. He has lived in a separate world where the word “honesty” had a meaning.
I see dignified people asking for alms in the stations or pressing the telephone token buttons in the metro stations. A lady asked me for a few Euros. She hadn’t recognised me. She didn’t know she was taking to a person from Genoa, crikey! She told me she was hungry. She was not a non-European-Community-person, a clandestine, a Roma. She was Italian and she had no work. She was a new “dying of starvation” person.
Every day, the blog receives stories of new people who are dying of starvation, about how they lost their job. I have decided to collect these together into a book that I will publish in digital format that can be downloaded free from the blog.
Tell your stories and put a shine on your clogs.
They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:41 PM in Economics | Comments (2)
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February 26, 2009

Banks of the government and of robbery

The Great Flight

The banks and the regulatory authorities are the main ones responsible for the financial catastrophe. In the last few years, Where have the Bank of Italy, Consob, ABI, the Ministers of the Treasury been? People like Tremorti and Padoa Schioppa? Like Fazio and Draghi? Like Geronzi, Passera, and Profumo? The mayors who have invested the taxes of the citizens in derivatives? The financial analysts? The economic journalists? People like Cardia and Capuano? The rubbish shares, the futures without a future, the subprime sub-primes, the CDOs, the holes in the balance sheets, the banking liabilities without guarantees. Either these gentlemen knew everything and thus are criminals and should be prosecuted, or they are incompetents and should be sacked as soon as possible.
Renewal has to start with the pinnacle of finance. To get rid of the politicians and leave the bankers in place is of no use. The next time round, the ones who have control of the financial system will elect other figureheads, who are willing servants or are business partners.
To save the country that has been destroyed by the banks they are lending money to the banks without getting rid of those responsible. It’s an upside down world. They are using public money, the fruit of the taxes of the families to reward those who ravished the savings of the citizens. Without even asking for renewal, with Passera and Geronzi still in post with salaries of millions of Euros. Instead of taking a step back, they have taken two steps forward. The ones who are responsible are rewarded. Often the citizens have lost everything. If you are starving and you steal ham from a supermarket, they arrest you. If you throw millions of families into poverty you become President of Mediobanca
A collective clearing away is taking place
The banks control the newspapers, they are present in the Boards of Directors of the publishing groups. The financial tsunami is described as a supernatural event, something inevitable, something cosmic. The top brass in the banks are the victims of the situation not the ones responsible for it. In recent years, how much have the bankers gained in stock options thanks to the toxic shares? After the crisis, by how much have their salaries gone down? I think that it’s necessary to have a public discussion with data, names, position, illegal gains of those who have been at the top of the financial institutions and their journalist accomplices. Meanwhile, not a single Euro from the State to the banks.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:54 PM in Economics | Comments (6)
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February 16, 2009

Tremorti and the New World Order

INNSE police charges: interview with a worker

Tremorti is going around Europe talking about the New World Order. The psycho-dwarf is also starting to develop a few worries about the economy. Ms Marcegaglia of the incinerators is announcing a poverty risk. Italy is producing ever less. The GDP was -0.9% in 2008. Italy is getting ever more into debt. The public debt is almost 1,700 billion euro. Since the beginning of the year, hundreds of thousands of precarious workers have silently lost their jobs. Technically they were not employees but “project workers”. With the termination of the pretend “project work”, which really was true continuous work, they are all at home without any social safety net thanks to the Maroni law labelled with Biagi’s name. The 2007 precarious worker has become the 2009 non-sacked person. Neither alive, nor dead, a social zombie.
Factories are endlessly closing amid the total indifference of the news media. Public solidarity is not bothered about the demonstrators. Instead the police baton is arriving relentlessly on top of the skull of the laid-off worker, of the unemployed worker, of the father of a family who raises his voice. Since August 2008 the Fiat factories at Pomigliano D’Arco have only been in operation for a few weeks and they risk closure. The protest finished in beatings last week on the motorway. It’s not the only one. There are dozens, however they are known only to the beaten and the beaters. On 9 February, in Milan, the workers at INNSE, where the factory has closed down after 9 years, were charged. One military guy for every pretty girl and a Bobby for every unemployed worker.
By now it’s simplistic to talk about the hooves of the bison. Every day from all over Italy, I’m getting appeals from workers in companies that are closing down. Tar Head is worrying about wiretapping and about doing electioneering in Sardinia while Italy is sinking. The islands of unemployment are still at the level of leopard spots, but by June they will all have joined up. The Bobbies will not be enough. They will have to ask for help from the United Nations soldiers. At the beginning of January, this year’s GDP was -1%, after a few weeks we have got to forecasts of -3%, the tax revenue will go down for the combined result of the closure of factories and the drop in consumption. Tremorti’s final lifesaver to be able to continue paying the salaries of the nearly 4 million public employees are the State bonds. With new issues and bonds that have fallen due, there are bonds worth hundreds of billions of euro on the market to cover State debts. However, together with our own, there will be thousands of billions of bonds put on sale by other States, States that are less indebted than we are and without the risk of defaulting. By now, Tremorti is in full delirium. If you interview him, he flees. When he’s talking to himself he talks about the New World Order. If there is no tsunami, I’ll eat my hat.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:31 AM in Economics | Comments (4)
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January 22, 2009

Gambling Towns

The Jesi MeetUp and the derivatives that the town has invested in


Italian towns have something in common: 35 billion euro of investments in funds, bonds, derivatives, and other types of paper that have become trash. The debts of the Italian towns make Parmalat blanche and someone will have to pay. In recent years, towns have become financial speculators. They have used the taxes of the citizens to play on the Stock Market. The results are astounding.
The financial crisis has transformed the investments into debts. The towns had benefits at the start with advances obtained from the banks on the forecast of consistent gains and they find that they have money to pay back and the initial capital that has been wiped out. As far as I know the town functionaries are not financial experts and not even the citizen body has assigned them the facility of using their money to buy shares in Lehman Brothers or the Bank of Scotland. Basically our mayors have suddenly taken on the role of bankers and they have lost everything.
In 2008, Taranto, Catania, and Rome went bust and were saved by the State coffers. They are in the front ranks. The financial operations often have picturesque names with a clear reference to the town. In Venice there are some current investments called "Canaletto" and "Rialto". Certain towns have decided to take the banks to court. Milan has taken legal action against Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, UBS and Hypo Real Estate’s DEPFA. Basically they are accused of having deceived the town. Thus this is a shining example of “abuse of the vulnerable”
Moratti’s legal action could open up the way for a class action by all Italian savers who have lost their shirt in 2008 and who will lose their underpants in 2009. If the town has been swindled, so have all Italian investors. What’s true is that 35 billion is missing from the coffers of the towns. Who watches over the Gambling Towns?
The financial operations are usually started off by the mayors who don’t have to be accountable for that because , the paying out period for the investments and thus the potential (usually certain) for loss falls on the following administration. For example, Moratti ‘s financial debts are the offspring of the Albertini administration. Up until today, there has been a precarious equilibrium with ever riskier investments that covered the previous losses. Now the cork has popped with the world economic crisis.
We are left with the question: “Who watches over the Gambling Towns? The mayors cannot expose their towns to going bust by playing roulette with tax payers’ money. The strategy of the towns is to take the banks to court. The strategy of the citizens should be to take the mayors to court. Crikey. The debt of the towns is bigger than that of Parmalat and no one is saying anything. No one is worried.
They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:10 PM in Economics | Comments (7)
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January 11, 2009

Catricalà is always the last to know

The Mapping of Power
Click on the image


Antonio Catricalà, the Head of the Competition and Market Supervisory Body has discovered something new. He has discovered that the Italian Stock Exchange is an orgy of conflict of interests in which the investor always plays the passive part. Directors on the Boards are present in 6/7/8 Boards, even for companies that are competing with each other. And they are always the same people. The control of the companies is done with Chinese boxes. Just 0.11% was enough for the unhappy Tronchetti to control Telecom Italia.
After a “finding out investigation”, Catricalà has discovered what is known even to the clandestines who have just disembarked at Lampedusa.
80% of the Italian finance groups have intertwined connections in the way of personnel and shares. They have staff working for one company who are also working for a competitor. For Catricalà, the solution is “heightened attention to corporate governance”. The solution is quite different. Close the Supervisory Body that costs a mountain of money to the Italian people and close down the Italian Stock Exchange. Let the Italian companies transfer to any European Stock Exchange where there are real controls. In Spain, and in the Netherlands, the conflict of interests does not exist and in Paris it relates only to 26.7%. With 80% our Stock Exchange is in the process of decomposition, a place to be avoided if you want to look after your own savings. If the anomaly of the Stock Exchange is sorted out, then that of politics is also resolved. The politicians are the chambermaids of the economic powers. If you want to really come to an understanding of what is happening on the Stock Exchange, use the "Mapping of Power. Type in the name of the company or the name of the Director and then start shivering. It would be better to entrust your investments to the Casalesi than to this lot. The current "Mapping of Power shows the intertwining between the Directors of the different companies. In the future it will be brought up to date with 2009 data and it will also show the share ownership and the Supervisors present on the Boards of Directors.
I’m not doing this for you, but for Catricalà, to help him move on with his work. To give him a hand, I will also go to Brussels to explain to Europe what the Italian Stock Exchange is. They won’t believe me, but I’ll try. They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.

PS: If you discover some conflict of interest, send an email to Catricalà.

Previous posts:
Power Mapping - 26 March 2007
Stock Exchange Orgy - 22 September 2006

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 06:23 PM in Economics | Comments (3)
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January 06, 2009

The Power of Debt

Tremonti and Bossi
Click on the image


For every 100 euro in taxes that we pay, 18 are interest on the Public Debt. The issue of the Public Debt is simple: if we don’t bother about the Debt, the Debt will bother us. It is bothering us every day, since its explosion that happened with the governments of Craxi and Andreotti. Cuts for schools, health, research. The decay of the Country. The Debt takes away resources from the services and from development to give it to politics and the lobbies. Italians pay taxes for interest payments on a colossal debt contracted by others in their name.
The year 2008 closed with about 1,700 billion euro in Debt. In the year 2009, we expect to pay interest payments of 80 billion. With 80 billion we would be able to restart the economy, quite a different kettle of fish from the “Social Card”. In the year 2009 there are State Bonds coming due for payment and on offer for between 2 and 300 billion euro. Who will buy them? Tremonti is reassuring us. Let him tell us whether there are takers, whether there are finance groups, or bankers who have already taken up the offer. Whether Mediaset has already ordered something, whether the patriots Colaninno and Tronchetti are already on the waiting list. Italy cannot wait until the last minute to find out. If necessary, let them start a collection among the public service employees. I know that you have already thought about that. Instead of 30% of the salary you could give an equivalent amount in State Bonds. It’s not a bad idea. Public employees buy the Public Debt by the mechanism by which the State pays public salaries. It’s a bit contorted but it could work.
The “spread”. Have you already heard this word? It sounds like a soft drink. Halfway between a “sprite” and a “chinotto”. The “spread” is the difference in the interest paid on State Bonds of one nation and that of another nation. In order to sell our State Bonds, we have to offer interest rates that are higher than those of others, like Germany, France, the Netherlands ... and the spread gets bigger. It gets bigger like the taxes do. It’s like a bit of elastic that is pulled. State Bonds, if bought in large quantities are insured. It’s insurance against the collapse (the “default”) of the State that issues them. The cost of Italy’s insurance is going crazy.
In 2008, the State Balance Sheet went into the red by 52.9 billion euro. The coupling Berlusconi/Tremonti is unbeatable in getting the Italians into debt. And it’s also in order to cover this 52.9 billion that it’s necessary to sell the BOT and CCT {government bonds}. The power of Debt is enormous. It’s a power that the Italians have left to the politicians. They can get us into debt without the need for financial cover, mortgage our future when they want, for how much they want. The Power of Debt must be taken from them before the Italy hayloft catches fire. Crikey. I’m running into the kitchen. I can smell the pong of Tremonti burning.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:08 PM in Economics | Comments (1)
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January 02, 2009

Zero concessions

Recession? No, thank you!
Click on the picture

Once upon a time, long, long ago, people used to rob from the rich to give to the poor. Later on, this situation began to change drastically. People began robbing the poor to give to the rich. While it may be true that the poor have very little, but there are many of them. Very little, stolen from many people soon make up many billions of Euro in our Country. Privatising the profits and mutualising the losses is something that has long been the motto of unscrupulous businessmen, starting with Fiat’s use of unemployment benefits paid for by the taxpayer.
Today, many of the poor people have been made destitute. Robbing the poor to give to the rich has become a hopeless enterprise. The great entrepreneurs are however people that know what goes on in society and understand the problems facing the unemployed and the families with no income and no roof over their heads. They are not totally unaware of the increasing number of destitute people and they have now come up with a solution to the problem: take away from the almost poor to give to those dying of starvation. Speaking for the Veneto Region industrialists, Andrea Riello stated that: “Public sector employees could give up a small percentage of their earnings for the next year in order to donate it in the form of a temporary loan to replenish the welfare funds. A loan that would be repaid just as soon as there is an economic recovery.” PDwithoutanel deputy, industrialist and former President of Federmeccanica, Calearo, rushed to express support for Riello: “Riello’s provocation does make sense however …this contribution would be required from office bearers, managers and directors of companies … and Government employees, of whom there are many. However, it would be great if the politicians were to set the example.”
Our politicians are the highest paid in Europe and the majority of them are either sentenced offenders or under investigation. After only two and a half years in Parliament they will have earned the right to a full pension, doing a job for which they are being paid but are seldom if ever present since they in many cases hold down other jobs, thus earning double salaries. They are already setting an example. We can ask nothing more of them.
Mr. Riello, instead of promoting solidarity between Government employees and the private unemployed, I would begin with the public concessionaries. These are people that earn hundreds of millions and indeed billions of Euro each year on Government assets. Government concessions should mean zero profit for the concessionaries themselves. These assets belong to the Country’s citizens, both employed and unemployed. The running costs must be covered but any profits, if any profits are made, should accrue to the State. The motorways, telecommunication frequencies, radio and television broadcasting frequencies, water resources and waste disposal contracts should be renegotiated as zero concessions.
When do we start? Are you going to tell Minister Marcegaglia about the incinerators?
They may never give up (is it in their interest?), but neither will we.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 04:33 PM in Economics | Comments (6)
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December 21, 2008

The boss' pay

Click on the picture

Millions of Euro of salaries with no results. You lead a company to bankruptcy, or almost. Companies such as Alitalia, the Government Railways or Telecom Italia and in return you receive bonuses to your heart’s content, stock options and remuneration worthy of a thousand and one nights. Who do you think paid the kingly salaries received by Cimoli, Buora, Catania, Tronchetti, Romiti and Ruggiero? The answer is easy. The minority shareholders, the 12,000 workers dismissed by Alitalia, the 9,000 people retrenched (so far) by Telecom, the taxpayers and the people on unemployment benefits. These managers are the new leeches on the economy, who feed on the blood of the companies and who never go down with the company. They are recycled by the system into other companies. This is the Apex of the Economy. If you follow orders and never rat out, then you will be rewarded. A closed circle where no one ever speaks out, no one ever hears anything, no one ever sees anything and, above all, no one ever names any names.
The unemployed family man returns home, looks at his kids who have no future and then sees those that caused the company to fail appearing on the television, showered with adulation, cosseted and with a million-Euro glint in their eyes. The bison’s hooves are deadly and perhaps it would be better to avoid being in their path next spring.

Text of the interview with the authors of: "La paga dei padroni" (The Boss’ pay)."

"According to certain influential institutions, the economic crisis is set to continue for at least the next two years and yet, only one of the many major Italian managers and the most highly paid one in 2007 at that, namely Alessandro Profumo, has said, almost as if making a concession, that he will not be receiving any bonuses in 2008. He states that he may give up any bonuses. His bonus in 2007 amounted to six million Euro, and this on top of his basic pay, which amounted to more than three million Euro. Therefore, we will see Alessandro Profumo when the company’s financial results are published since, even without receiving any bonus, his excellent salary is equivalent to the average of the top one-hundred Italian Managers who enjoyed gross earnings of some four million Euro each in 2007. He is the only one of the whole bunch to have stated that he did not deserve any bonus due to the bank’s poor performance in 2007. All the others have remained silent: from Corrado Passera, Managing Director of Intesa SanPaolo and one of the main competitors of Profumo’s Unicredit Bank, through to the top managers of the other major banks and industrial companies, for example Pirelli, whose share price has dropped sharply on the stock exchange and whose Managing Director, Negri, is the highest paid of the lot, with earnings of some six million a year. Now the minority shareholders, the public and the customers of these major listed companies that also manage private savings, namely the savings of the masses, those without any say, will be expecting these top managers to act in keeping with the very modest results that their companies have achieved.
These managers’ remuneration, as we attempted to explain in our book entitled "La paga dei padroni" and published by Chiarelettere, were stratospheric but were never linked to the achievement of any results, or rather, the financial statements never stipulated to which results their remuneration was in fact linked. What we have indeed noticed during our observation of the situation in recent years is that the remuneration received by the managers has continued to increase unabated, irrespective of the results achieved and, in fact, just a few years ago now, two American scholars working at the heart of global capitalism write a book entitled "Remuneration without results". This example also holds true here by us. There is certainly enough political interference in the running of the State-owned public companies. Just recently we have seen the case of Alitalia, which, although bankrupt, is currently in the process of being taken over by a consortium of private businessmen, leaving the massive burden of the Company’s debt to be carried by the taxpayers and the shareholders, half of whom are private individuals. Yet in 2004, when Berlusconi was at the helm of Government and Tremonti was the Minister of Finance, Berlusconi called in the services of the man he classified at the time as the best manager in the world, namely Giancarlo Cimoli of the Government Railways Company, offering him a remuneration package that was the highest being paid by any of the European airlines, or 2.8 million Euro gross in 2005, a figure that was more than double that paid to its top manager by Lufthansa and more than triple that paid by Air France. However, Alitalia was and still is the airline posting the biggest losses not only in Europe, but worldwide. The remainder of the Italian companies and capitalist system is being managed by private entrepreneurs with little capital but who nevertheless expect to run the companies personally or to do so through their children, rewarded with exorbitant salaries and, in this case, in my opinion, politics is conspicuous by its absence. It doesn’t seem to matter that the decisions are being made by a closed system of relationships in which capital poor entrepreneurs, capitalists and bankers pay themselves exceptional salaries even when the profits, which should form the basis for remuneration, at least according to the classical and most proper capital reward systems, are indeed scarce or too inconsistent.
As far as we are concerned, the problem is not so much how to measure the extent of the remuneration paid out, but rather, the problem we have is the following: When he left Fiat after 25 years of service, Cesare Romiti was given a golden handshake of 100 million Euro. This amounts to a payout of four million Euro for each year of service. The question that arises is the following: why did Fiat give all this money to Cesare Romiti in the form of a golden handshake? It was while we were searching for an answer to this question that the real problems and failures of the Italian capitalists system were uncovered, namely that, today, the workers and minority shareholders invariably end up bearing the brunt of the serious effects of the economic crisis. What we would like to know, and what remains to be seen in 2009, is not only whether or not they will be reducing their salaries accordingly in the light of the economic crisis, but also whether or not the managers and entrepreneurs who together run these Italian companies change their behaviour and their management style in any way. In other words, whether they will genuinely work towards mitigating the effects of the crisis and improving the performance of the companies or whether they will instead continue to display the same behaviour that so clearly emerges in our book, namely this typical way of concerning themselves mainly with their personal interests in terms of remuneration, as well as making other profits, instead of ensuring that their companies perform as well as they should. The figures we are dealing with may be huge for the individual managers that receive them but, were they to be divided between all of the companies’ employees, these figures would fade into insignificance and, therefore, the problem is not that if the managers earned less, the company would do better, but rather precisely the opposite. If the companies were better managed, the managers would earn less. Managers’ salaries are not the cause of the poor performance by the companies, but rather one of the effects. It is a symptom of poor company management. Abroad, there is a much closer link between cause and effect and those managers who manage the companies and the banks poorly are sent home as a result. We see this on a daily basis in the newspapers. In Italy instead, none of them is being sent home and indeed we read in the newspapers certain statements made by top managers and bankers claiming that the current crisis is not of their doing, but is simply something out of the blue.
Abroad, in recent months and with the advent of the global financial crisis, we have not only seen many captains of industry being sent home, but also many others having to accept cuts in their salaries, so-called bonuses and much vaunted performance rewards. However, in certain other countries such as Germany, the Government has established a ruling that, in the case of companies that receive aid in order to avoid going under, the managers may not earn more than 500 thousand Euro per year (gross) if they are to keep their jobs. This could be a mistake however. While we don’t believe it is right to cap earnings by law, it would certainly be opportune to encourage greater moderation and closer links between remuneration and company results. In the USA, where the three major automobile manufacturers of Detroit risk sliding into bankruptcy unless billions of dollars of government aid is forthcoming, the top managers have already cut their basic pay to one dollar, or so they say, and the remainder of their package will only be paid out if the company results warrant such payment. Nothing of the sort has yet occurred in Italy, in the sense that no one has yet made any announcement of this sort, except for Profumo who, as was stated earlier, was obliged to do so as a result of the difficulties currently being experienced by his bank and the risk of being sent home." Gianni Dragoni and Giorgio Meletti

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 04:17 AM in Economics | Comments (5)
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December 09, 2008

Lehman Brothers: money back!

Ennio Doris, president of Banca Mediolanum, harangues his financial advisers

Lehman Brothers have gone bust. Was it foreseeable? Could those who sold Lehman shares have avoided proposing them to investors? Can those who bought them get their money back if the information given was elusive or false?
But who sold funds with Lehman shares in Italy? Here are the names: :
- Assimoco Vita
- Aurora Assicurazioni
- Axa Assicurazioni
- Axa Interlife
- BCC Vita
- CNP Capitalia Vita
- CNP Unicredit Vita
- Fondiaria Sai
- Mediolanum International Life
- Mediolanum Vita
- Novara Vita
- Unipol Assicurazioni
- Uniqua previdenza
- Zurich
(the details are on DiariodelWeb).

It is possible to get your money back, as is explained on the Codacons website.
”Often at the moment of purchase, the consumer has not been put in a position to understand the nature of these policies (always written in a hyper-technical and incomprehensible language!) proposed “craftily” as simple plans for savings, that is like for a pension, without mentioning the associated risks – as happened with the indexed policies on Lehman shares.
Luckily, according to the Bersani law (L. 2/04/07, n. 40, art. 5, n. 4) in multi-year insurance contracts, set up before the law came into force, the person insured has the right to pull out of the contract with no penalties (if the contract had been in existence for at least 3 years). If then you are the owner of an insurance policy that is connected to Lehman shares (see the table below, but anyway that does not cover everything) take action straight away to get your money back, even if the policy has not yet run out!....”

Some people have even been advising others to buy the shares, for example the website PattiChiari, up until a few days before, as has been pointed out on the blog on 28 September. The ratings for Lehman have been given by Trimurti: Standard & Poor's, Fitch and Moody's.
For them, Lehman shares were extra safe, and instead it was worse than with Parmalat and Alitalia put together. Wow!
A group of savers has taken Standard & Poor's to Milan’s Civil Tribunal, for the reimbursement of 3.9 million euro for the capital invested in the Lehman shares “for having published false information about the solvency. of the American Bank and for having violated principles and norms of conduct that they were bound to keep.”
Standard & Poor's has made it known that: “Our ratings are opinions about the quality of credit, they are not recommendations to buy or sell....”
Let the Lehman-ited who are online make themselves known, Let them write a comment. I am curious to know how the financial promoters (“The true highlanders”) placed these shares and with what promises.
The blog is available for the Lehman-ited people to put them in touch with each other and so that they can form denunciation groups against the companies that have tricked them.
They will never give up (but is it in their interests?). Neither will we.

- To get your money back, consult the consulta il sito della Codacons site.
- To create a denunciation group, send an email to the blog.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:32 PM in Economics | Comments (1)
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November 29, 2008

Between the Emilia way and the West

The management of refuse in Emilia Romagna

"The wealthy Bologna that was once agricultural " becomes unemployed, but with a concrete vegetable patch. Now they are importing vegetables. The buffalo of Emilia-Romagna is more bloodthirsty than others elsewhere on the peninsula. When it charges, it really charges. His is always a stampede. He enjoys doing things with others. And he is very scary. Emilia Romagna was once the blackest of Italy’s regions, then it became the reddest.
Change has always begun from there.
The Italian regions have become a mosaic of unemployed people. Meanwhile, Northern Italy has been turned into a concrete jungle by the property developers that get money loaned to them by the banks which, in turn, get more money loaned to them by the Government and, therefore, by the taxpayer.
The psycho(dwarf)peddler of optimism is no longer capable of understanding the difference between consumer faith and consumerism. In his opinion, the optimist must consume, otherwise he is an economic saboteur. Italy became great thanks to the savings accumulated by our fathers and grandfathers in the period following the end of the war. Do you remember “Savings Day”? And the piggy banks? And the savings book into which people used to deposit money to send their children to University? If Italy has not yet failed entirely, it is only thanks to the savings that families managed to keep out the hands of the banks, the financiers and the companies quoted on the Stock Exchange.
Anyone who encourages you to consume is nothing more than a peddler of poverty. Selling a life with no quality.
One blogger has written that: "After the wave of students, now comes the tsunami of unemployment ". Quick, break out the life jackets.
They may never give up (is it in their interests?), but neither will we.
BOLOGNA : 365 retrenchments at the La Perla textile company.
REGGIO EMILIA : 114 employees dismissed by Dual.
MODENA : 48 retrenchments at the Fini foodstuff Group.
IMOLA : 53 layoffs at the Leonardo ceramics plant.
IMOLA : 114 retrenchments at the Cerim Company of Mordano.
FORLIVESE : 100 companies in crisis.
BOLOGNA : 50 layoffs at the Marconigomme plant.
EMILIA : eight thousand more people on unemployment benefits by the end of 2008.
EMILIA : 150 retrenchments at the Post Offices.

Previous postings:
- "La Serenissima" unemployed
- That thing in Lombardy
- The hooves of the bisons

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 02:41 PM in Economics | Comments (0)
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November 27, 2008

Madagascar, Daewoo and neocolonialism

Daewoo project in Madagascar

What have Madagascar and South Korea got in common? On the face of it, nothing. The former is a country in development, the second is an economic power. One is in Africa, the other in Asia. The Malagasy have uncontaminated land. The Koreans lack cultivatable land. Madagascar has 28 inhabitants per square kilometre. South Korea has 493 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Two countries that are different from each other but that today have Daewoo in common as well as neocolonialism without capital. Tronchetti and Colaninno have been leading the way even abroad.
Once upon a time they gifted necklaces and shining stones to indigenous people in exchange for every type of good. Today not even that.
South Korea needs corn, palm oil and agricultural goods. Madagascar has land. Daewoo signed an agreement with the Malagasy government. The handing over of 1.3 million hectares of cultivatable land for 99 years. More than half the cultivatable land in the country (2.5 million hectares).
It’s all for FREE. In exchange, Daewoo is committed to taking on the Malagasy as peasants.


Image from The Financial Times


According to Mr Hong, a Daewoo manager: “It is land that is totally not developed, and uncontaminated. And we will provide work and make it cultivatable, and this is good for Madagascar.”
The produce of the 1.3 million hectares from Madagascar will be sent to South Korea for its needs and it is probable that not even a cob of maize will remain for the Malagasy.
Madagascar is part of the World Food Programme from which it receives food for 600,000 people who live at subsistence level. People on the bread line to which can be added thousands of small farmers and their families.


Destruction of forests in Madagascar - photo Foko -Madagascar


The 1.3 million hectares are mostly forests. They will be destroyed with severe effects on the climate. The Malagasy peasant has his land taken away from him, the food is sent abroad, his environment is destroyed. In exchange he can work for Daewoo. What luck!
Those who have resources have no money. Those who have money, buy resources. But what is money? Where does it come from? Guess. From the resources of those without money.
Africa has the greatest amount of uncultivated fertile land in the world and the greatest number of starving people. There must be a reason.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:05 PM in Economics | Comments (7)
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November 22, 2008

"La Serenissima" unemployed

Epifani obviously reads this blog. That’s a certainty. After having carefully read my articles regarding the fast approaching spate of mass unemployment (two million newly unemployed people) he said: "After careful investigation I can say that an avalanche is on its way here. What we need are some major interventions". Do you hear the sound of bison hooves approaching? They are trampling the prairies of Northern Italy. From West to East.
If it is true that Piemonte is shutting its doors and that Lombardy is facing a storm of dismissals, then the Veneto has been hit by the bubonic plague.
I did a little “investigation” of my own in “La Serenissima” (Venice), which I will forward to Epifani. The bison will arrive in a stampede, a huge disorderly attack. At the moment it is limited to a few fathers of families, sitting without work and out in the street. Men who are perhaps just a little ashamed to look their children in the eye. This is about to change, you’ll see that this will change. They are becoming more aware. No one will be able to stop them. The trade unions have betrayed them, the politicians have used their taxes to increase their own wealth and the media have taken them for a ride.
A bulletin from “La Serenissima”. "The bug infuriates you, the bread is lacking. The white flag flutters on the bridge!"

PADOVANO: one and a half million hours on unemployment benefits in the Padua area.
SCORZE' - TREVISO: 347 workers from Aprilia to be laid off soon.
CASTELFRANCO VENETO - TREVISO: 480 retrenchments at Berco (Thyssen Group).
TREVISO : 390 retrenchments at Osram.
SUSEGANA : 350 jobs at risk at Electrolux.
VERONA :100 retrenchments at Glaxo.
LAVAGNO - VERONA: 114 temporary contracts at risk at the Casamercato Megastore.
MONTEBELLUNA - TREVISO : 250 retrenchments at ACC
PADUA: Hundreds of jobs at risk.
MESTRE - MARGHERA : 1,000 jobs at risk.
VENICE: employment levels crashing.

Previous postings:
That thing in Lombardy
- The bisons' hooves

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 02:39 PM in Economics | Comments (8)
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November 09, 2008

Hooves of the bison

Eaton closes down in Massa. Workers rebel.


I put my ear to the ground and I hear a noise. It’s getting closer. A rumble, a charge, an outburst. It’s millions of newly unemployed. How many extra will there be in a year’s time? Two million? Three million? With nothing more to lose. The batons will not be able to stop them. They will mow down everything and everyone and they won’t take prisoners. Anyone on their route will be mown down. Colluding Trades Unions, servile journalists, self-referential parties. Topo Gigio’s loft and the psycho-dwarf’s Sardinian villas. Mown down. The Wave of the Students is coming first. After the Wave, comes the Tsunami of work. No one is talking about it. Every day dozens of big and small companies are closing down. Jobs lost for ever. A father of a family without a job, without a lump sum handshake, with nothing. What alternatives does he have? He goes home and looks at his children and nothing has more importance for him. The army will have to take control of the supermarkets first and then the offices of the parties straight away after that.
From today I am collecting evidence about “lost jobs”. I’m starting with Motorola in Turin and I’ll soon pop in there. They will never give up (but would it be worth it?). Neither will we.

”Dear Beppe,
Thank you for talking about Motorola. As you have said we are among the first examples of this crisis that is sweeping across the world and that will soon destroy our country too. Everything has happened so suddenly. Thursday morning we were slaving away for mother Motorola. Many of us were even working the weekend so that the production is finished on time. All useless effort given that in a simple announcement, the president of the Mobile section declared the immediate end of the product range that we were working on. Immediately after that an email told us there was a meeting on Monday morning with the Motorola boss responsible for the EMEA region. Many people fell into a state of anxiety. While many were still optimistic. The worst thing happened between Friday and Monday when Motorola together with the directors left us literally alone at the mercy of the press: “Motorola, the end of a dream, 300 researchers at risk – At Motorola three hundred at risk”, I read in the press at three o’clock in the morning of Saturday. Then when we got to Monday morning when, as I said, they gave us good service after telling us that we are among the best, that we are an excellent centre, but that we are not needed any more…. And lots of greetings and good bye. But we meanwhile knew before the press. Anyway, they made out that we are thieves saying that Motorola had already removed all the boxes from the building to avoid theft. And loads and loads of other rubbish written by lying journalists who should be sweeping Turin’s streets…
The moral of the fairy story is that there are 370 engineers plus about a hundred consultants, all out of a job … without social security … without anything. Many of us have families … Now given that we are on our own I’m wondering whether you Beppe could come and visit us… - to encourage us… I am certain that we will welcome you with open arms… - Warm greetings” Marco

Read the article on the job losses at Motorola.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:07 PM in Economics | Comments (4)
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November 03, 2008

The new P2 and the old Red Brigades

Licio Gelli: "Only Berlusconi can go ahead ..."


Licio Gelli: ''If the Red Brigades were to come back there would be even more slaughter: the ground is very fertile as the Red Brigades could find many followers because of the poverty existing in the country.” Is this a warning to all shipping? To the P2, PDL, PDminusL and organized crime?
Gelli is right. The ground is VERY fertile. There are two reasons for this: the economy that will cut our country to shreds in 2009 with millions of new unemployed. The impossibility of controlling information in relation to the years of lead. At that time, Pecorelli was killed and they were in peace for a decade. Today it would be necessary to muzzle the Internet. They will try, but perhaps it is too late. perhaps it is too difficult
A lot of people, a stream of young people, know everything about Dell'Utri and Andreotti, the convict and the “prescritto”, Senators of the Republic (once it was a title of honour, now it gives you the shivers). The couple were guests of the programme "Venerabile Italia" presented by Gelli on Odeon TV. The young people know who Gelli is. They know about the infiltration by the Secret Services in the State massacres. They know about the activity to set the investigators on the wrong track, put into operation by Gelli in the Bologna slaughter, 85 dead and 200 injured, with the definitive verdict of the High Court.
The comedy of the white truck in Piazza Navona and Cossiga’s words are indicators of a new “strategy of tension”. New because there are no longer parties against parties. But citizens against politicians. Will the stadia be enough? They will have to interrupt the football championship to lock up the demonstrators. The Red Brigades will not come back. However the citizens who are angry and without work are ready. When they realize that they no longer have anything to lose, who will be able to stop them? Gelli knows that. His best pupils from the psycho-dwarf to Cicchitto, are in government. It’s as though he were there. In fact he has asked for the copyright on the “Piano di Rinascita Democratica” {plan of democratic rebirth}. The others are taking the credit while he is confined to Villa Wanda with his tatty overalls.
Prevention is better than cure. The army in the streets is becoming a habit, like in Colombia. Anyway, Italy is the world aircraft carrier of cocaine. The informed citizen is an angry citizen. The informed and unemployed citizen can become a freedom terrorist. To disinform and employ at the same time is a difficult equation to resolve. The P2 in government is working at this, day and night. Time flies and perhaps in a bit, so too will the P2-ists. They will never give up, neither will we.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 05:19 PM in Economics | Comments (1)
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October 17, 2008

The Mediaset Takeover Bid

Emilio Fede on Roberto Saviano


The psycho-dwarf has raised the alarm for the companies that are at risk of a takeover bid.
The takeover bid is an offer aimed at buying financial products.
If the shares of a company are worth a little or nothing, then to start a takeover bid is cheap, you offer a figure greater than the quoted value of the shares and you gather up the shares from the market until you have got the majority.
The shareholders who prefer the egg today rather than the (possible) chicken tomorrow can sell their shares (and usually they do that) to the one behind the takeover bid and get a cash benefit that is much higher than they are worth.
To take a casual example, the psycho-dwarf’s Mediaset is at risk of a takeover bid. Yesterday its value on the Stock Exchange was 3.990 euro a share. That’s 41.11% lower than in 2008.
From the beginning of 2007, Mediaset has gone down from 9.501 euro to 3.990 euro. If a year ago you needed to pay 100 to buy the shares, today they cost 40. A bargain.
A takeover bid for Mediaset would produce numerous benefits. The Office of the President of the Council and in the future that of the Republic. To remove from our hair Emilio Fede and Paolo Liguori and Clemente Mimun. Gain a mass of wealth thanks to the advertising revenue coming through Publitalia. Limitless official press releases.
And not just that. There would be true information. Travaglio director of TV News. Saviano special envoy (and not emigrated abroad). Dario Fo responsible for culture.
What would it cost us to get liberated from Tar Head’s straitjacket? Not much. You would just need to find who has the money to put forward.
There are all the prerequisites to launch a takeover bid. I need industrial partners. The BBC for example. I am available for the communication of a public auction. On one condition: to share out and publicise the programming structure and the presenters before the takeover bid.
I’m waiting for a telephone call, a fax, an email. No time-wasters.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:25 AM in Economics | Comments (2)
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October 13, 2008

Geronzi means trust

Travaglio on Geronzi


”If our banking system is solid, we owe it above all to Antonio Fazio.” Who said that? Cesare Geronzi two days ago.
”Anyone in the companies who makes a mistake must pay for it. And it is not possible that no one ever pays: both when the director shows they are not up to the job and when they are on trial.” Who said that? Giulio Tremonti, Minister of the Economy (how long ago?), two days ago.
Geronzi, 72 years old, is involved in numerous judicial cases (the following is translated from the Italian version of Wikipedia)
- Parmalat - Eurolat: Within the overall trial for the Parmalat collapse he is under investigation for aggravated usury and collaboration in fraudulent bankruptcy. According to the charge against him Geronzi is alleged to have forced Tanzi to take on the Ciappazzi company, belonging to the Ciarrapico group. The investment is thought to have been financed by Capitalia with usurious interest rates. For the Eurolat side, Geronzi was sent for trial for extortion and company bankruptcy on 5 April 2008. According to the charge, Geronzi obliged Tanzi to buy Eurolat, a company in Sergio Cragnotti’s Cirio group, at an inflated price, threatening to put an end to the bank overdrafts. The trial documents were transferred from Parma to Rome on 20 June because the crime in the charge (extortion in relation to the sale of Eurolat by Cirio to Parmalat) is alleged to have taken place in Rome.
- Cirio collapse: the banker is under investigation for fraud in relation to the issue and placing of Cirio “bonds” through Capitalia.
- Italcase collapse: Geronzi convicted at the first level for bankruptcy and sentenced to 1 year and 8 months plus the prohibition on having the position of director in any company for two years.
- Telecom case: tax fraud operated by the Luxembourg company Bell (controlled by Emilio Gnutti’ s merchant bank Hopa, that also has participation from Geronzi).

Cesare Geronzi is head of the supervisory committee of Mediobanca, the investment bank at the centre of the Italian banking system. With his CV he should be elsewhere. Writing his memories or preparing his defence with his lawyers.
How much have the Parmalat, Cirio, and Italcase shareholders lost? How much has Geronzi had to pay? Why is he untouchable? Matteo Arpe, CEO of Capitalia, has been pushed out and now the same end is happening to Profumo, CEO of Unicredit, because he crossed his path. Why? Why is he rewarded instead of being sent away?
He and the psycho-dwarf are the same age, both great frequenters of courtrooms. They have been helping each other for 20 years, since the time of thepossible collapse of Mediaset . In Mediobanca, thanks to Geronzi, two thoroughbred horses have arrived: Marina Berlusconi, member of the board of directors, and the unhappy Tronchetti, as vice president.
Mediobanca is the heart of Italian financial and economic life. It is in the hands of Geronzi, the psycho-dwarf and Tronchetti, folk who have contributed to the economic disaster that is about to overwhelm us. And the citizens have been asked to give their trust to the banks… Without shame.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:05 PM in Economics | Comments (0)
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October 10, 2008

Mattress Banks

New professions

A bank is useful for making money go round, lending to private individuals, to companies. If it’s not lending that’s because it doesn’t have it or because it doesn’t trust them. Right now both hypotheses are true. There’s little money and above all there’s no trust. Banks have become mattresses. They keep the money in-house and they don’t lend to anyone anymore, and particularly not to the other banks. If they were to fail then they would lose the cash. The banks are doing what they tell us off for, as current account holders (putting savings under the mattress). They are not giving overdrafts to anyone. They don’t trust anyone. It’s the politics of suspicion.
In turn the clients are becoming suspicious. And they are moving money from the banks to the State Bonds. This is why Tremonti can participate in the ownership of the banks with the “Save the banks” decree: with the capital in flight from the banks that’s transformed into BOT and CCT. Basically it’s a merry-go-round of accounts. More State and less market, more Berlusconi and Geronzi and less Profumo and Passera.
The companies are being economically throttled. The banks are no longer giving them credit and this, in Italy, means the end.
The businesses, especially the small ones, are obliged to support themselves on debt because of the State. Every time they issue an invoice they have to pay the sales tax up front. The invoices are paid, if all goes well, at 120 -160 days. If things don’t go well, never. And the sales tax is reimbursed by the State in biblical time frames. The businesses have to pay presumed taxes and in advance. The mafia is a hundred times more correct. If a society has a certain profit in a year, it has to pay taxes on the profit, in advance, even for the following year. And if the following year it has a loss?
The businesses get into debt because of the State and they have to turn to the banks. If these don’t give them credit, the businesses close down. It’s what is happening and that will happen in the next few months for hundreds of thousands of businesses. Large, medium small, and family-run. They will no longer pay taxes, they will have gone under.
The State can’t ask for money in advance for the sales tax, nor for tax on profits.
There’s tax when the citizen gets cash. They don’t have to pay before that. With what money? If Tremonti has problems, let him get money from the banks. Alternatively let him buy a mattress with springs. Permaflex, like those that Gelli sold to his boss, Tar Head.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:17 AM in Economics | Comments (1)
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October 09, 2008

Banks and scurrilous politics

"People and Power", Al Jazeera. Report on Beppe Grillo and the V-Days

If I walk along the street people stop me and use me as a financial consultant. They have read my posts on the economy and they treat me like a prophet. I am just a book-keeper. Basically economics is simple. The disaster was in front of our eyes, we knew it. Those in Italy who were in key positions couldn’t not know. The problem is that they kept quiet and got on with other things. On 8 July in Piazza Navona, I spoke about the economy, of the risks it was running. The newspapers and the TV channels reported the serious and unheard of offences against Napolitano whom I called Morpheus. Read the speech. Among other things, I said:
”We have one of the biggest public debts in the world: 1,647 billion euro. Each year it increases by 80 billion for the interest. Just in March we paid 23 billion in interest on the debt. In 2008, 300,000 companies will close. 300,000! And the other small companies are in the hands of the banks with debts that arrive at 780 billion euro. It’s not just the State that will go bust. The banks will ….”
I, a comic derided by the politicians and the servant journalists, was talking about economics while they were devoting themselves to:
- Fingerprinting the Roma people
- Lodo Alfano
- Abolition of wiretaps
- RAI Surveillance Committee
- Alitalia (already sold months earlier to Air France)
- Law to block trials
- Abolition of ICI tax
- Prostitutes in the streets
- Rete4.
The one who is taking us to the edge of the abyss must take a step forward and throw himself down. Veltrusconi, basically it’s worth it, it’s better to do it on your own rather than wait to be thrown.
Banks and politics are the same thing. If a banker at the head of the biggest bank, perhaps the most solid and well endowed in the country refuses to give succor to Telecom by paying it 2.8 euro when it was worth 1.5 or to enter into the farce of saving Alitalia, then he needs educating. If then the same banker is more than once in confrontation with Geronzi, the chairman of the supervisory board of Mediobanca, then Profumo must be punished. Unicredit with its share value plummeting, perhaps nationalized. “So that I can eat you better, Italia mia”. PS: The end of the line is coming. I repeat: The end of the line is coming.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:54 AM in Economics | Comments (3)
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October 07, 2008

Yankees Go Home

L'avidità funziona - "Wall Street", 1987

Everyone is worried about what will happen. The banks no longer trust the banks. They don’t lend money to each other any more. The poison introduced into the world financial system by the toxic made-in-USA products is producing its effects.
No one in the world can say how much is the quantity of the American poison and where it can be found. The SEC, the FED, the Bush government, the Secretary of the Treasury, Paulson where have they been in the last few years? While their nation was the bastion of liberty, it was exporting cannons and CDO and subprimes, and financial products based on unrecoverable debts. They knew, these bastards that they were unrecoverable.
Shit introduced into funds and derivatives that will produce tens of millions of unemployed, of homeless, of desperate savers. The American public debt is the highest on the planet, the United States consumes a third of the resources of the Earth, but there are only 300 million of them out of 6.7 billion. To stay on their feet they have to control the world economy with finance and with weapons. The United States spends 500 billion dollars EVERY YEAR for weapons, for the hundreds of military bases spread out over the world, from Japan to Cuba to Vicenza. The second nation for military spending is Great Britain with 59 billion dollars, almost a tenth, and Putin’s Russia follows with 35.


Plan B 3.0, Lester Brown

The world is paying for the value of the dollar, the 500 billion dollars for weapons. The United States faced with this financial disaster should do like the defeated Nazi Germany obliged to pay the debts of war and to pay a PEACE dividend to the nations that it brought to their knees.
Between Saddam and Bush, who has done more damage? More dead? The former was executed by the latter who meanwhile also executed the world economy. By whom was Bush elected? By American finance, by the National Rifle Association, the organisation that promotes the arms industry, by the oil barons. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, in October 2008, the Wall Street Wall fell together with the delirium of globalization governed by those who gained from it The USSR no longer exists. The United States, for now still exists and they are explaining to us the economy, finance and freedom. They are dealing with protecting us, they make our banks collapse, our Stock Exchanges. Yankees Go Home , with your arms, your atomic weapons, your creative finance.
I don’t believe that the banks will go bust, but this is not the real danger. In a few months, the collapse of finance will be transferred to the real economy, to production. In the spring no one will be thinking about shares or bank accounts but of jobs, and of getting to the end of the month.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:18 PM in Economics | Comments (23)
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September 25, 2008

What will be, will be Saràs

Click on the image


I wrote about “MM”, Massimo Moratti in the blog on 23 April 2007, 17 months ago.
” Every so often his big brother Gianmarco asks him to sign the transfers. People trust him and his good Bugs Bunny appearance. And that’s how it’s been even for Saras on the Stock Exchange. The Morattis have pocketed 1,700,000,000 euro. They needed that to strengthen the team. The share was quoted at 6 euro at the time there was the collapse in the energy market. Anyone buying lost 12% in a single day. … Summary: someone decides that the price of 6 euro is right. Savers believe, buy, and lose. The Morattis and the banks gain and the prosecutors investigate. Where was Consob? Cardia shed light.”

“MM” mutters about court actions against me and I have no news of them. The ones I have already are quite enough.
Seventeen months after the post “Without stealing”, on 23 September 2008, the technical consultant of the Milan Prosecutors Office described the Saras operation in 400 pages.
The consultant, as reported in La Repubblica: “put forward the hypothesis that the cashing in of the quotation was useful above all for one branch of the family, that of Massimo Moratti, to tackle Inter’s debts. With the resulting damage to the market of 770 million euro.”
So basically the shares were quoted at a price that was much higher than their value. The Morattis and the banks pocketed the money. Anyone who bought lost 770 million euro.
The banks offered precious help for the placing of the shares. The emails impounded by the magistracy:
- “It is vital that in front of the price there is a 6”, Federico Imbert, Jp Morgan
- “You have to know that we have obtained 1.6 billion euro, that is from both the brothers, but one of the two must repay 500 million in debts, so that part we won’t see for a long time” Emilio Saracco, Jp Morgan
- “I had a long talk with Miccichè from Intesa. He is pleased with the work done together on Saras and Intercos. He is personally available to motivate the sales team especially on Saras. He asks us to inform him if we foresee problems or upsets. He is obviously very keen to see success given the exposure of himself and Passera with the Morattis. Galeazzo Pecori Girali of Morgan Stanley has been to visit him and advised him not to exaggerate with the price. He believes that he is doing that because he is jealous of us.” Federico Imbert, Jp Morgan.
What will be, will be Saràs …:
- Moratti, pockets 1.6 billion euro
- Jp Morgan, pockets 26,7 million euro
- Banca Caboto, pockets 18 million euro
- Morgan Stanley, pockets 20,9 million euro
- Shareholders lose: 770 million euro.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:17 PM in Economics | Comments (0)
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September 18, 2008

PattiChiari, Empty Pockets

Lehman brothers


What is an economic journalist? It is a strange being. A person working for the press talking about the companies that advertise in the newspaper for which he writes. A Nostradamus of the day after who foresees the collapse after it has happened. One who executes the orders of the editor who in his turn executes the orders of the shareholders.
The economic journalists write articles full of doubts. Let’s take an example, “If this happens then… If this were to happen then.. and perhaps, who knows…” The first rule of journalism is that if you have an item of news you have to give it out. The economic journalist does the opposite. If he has an item of news, he keeps it to himself. In Italy, there are different political journalists who denounce corruption and mafias, from Travaglio to Abbate, from Saviano to Gomez. But there’s no trace of economic journalists who stand out. Why not?
Parmalat and Cirio, the Tango Bonds and the swindle of the “variable mortgages” (the banks sold them knowing that they would explode), the shares of Telecom Italia that disintegrated , the unrecoverable debts (the sub-prime) sold as bonds and the stocks in Lehman Brothers on the road to collapse considered to be low risk the day before. The economic journalists know the facts. Months before. But their mouths remain sewn up.
The banks possess quotas of newspapers. It should be forbidden by law. That Profumo, Passera or Geronzi sell money, not information and in particular if that information is that of the PattiChiari.
”PattiChiari is a consortium of 167 Italian banks with 26 thousand cash desks (84% of the whole Italian banking system) promoted by the Banking Association. Its aim is to offer simple and modern tools that let you have a better understanding of the financial products. The philosophy of the project is in fact that of constructing a new relationship between the banks and the citizens, the families and the companies, based on greater trust and a dialogue that is clear, understandable and transparent.”
A reader has told me about “the project philosophy” of PattiChiari.

Ciao Beppe,
At times, reality is at a higher level than the fantasy of the most creative comics. Today I have received an email from some friends who work in the banking sector with links that I indicate below and I wanted to tell you about this. I don’t know to what extent they noticed but on the site www.pattichiari.it,and specifically on this page, there are certain bonds that are so-called “low risk” – those of Lehman Brothers! I didn’t want to believe it, and I had to reread it four or five times, especially the piece that I have copied and pasted:
” PattiChiari proposes a list that you can look at of low risk bonds and thus they have a low return, this list is constantly updated, to help you if you have no financial experience and you intend to invest in shares that are particularly simple to evaluate.”
That is, a person who has no financial experience who has listened to their advice, great experts, has just found themselves with a handful of waste paper just like the situation for Argentina and Parmalat.
The “Great Experts” today have published a note to this page which says “Today, all the Lehman Brothers shares have come off the Pattichiari List “Low Risk Low Return Bonds” following the communication by this company that they want to lodge an application for bankruptcy. (Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code)."
Beppe, now there is not even the need for you to put them in the stocks, anyway they have revealed themselves on their own! Greetings” Gerolamo

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:24 PM in Economics | Comments (9)
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September 03, 2008

The battle for wheat

Clicca l'immagine


If the wars of the day after tomorrow will be fought for water, the wars of tomorrow will be for food. Wheat, rice, corn, soya. Revolts and attacks on bakers have already happened in many countries, from Egypt to Indonesia, from the Philippines to India. The harvests are becoming more important than petrol. It’s better to die while you are still, than to die of hunger while you are moving.
The over-populated states are moving on the world chess board and buying up cultivatable land. China in Brazil, Laos, Kazakhstan and Tanzania. India in Uruguay and Paraguay. South Korea in Sudan and in Siberia. Egypt in Ukraine. In parallel, a new protectionism is being created, that of the starving hungry. The States that don’t produce enough food resources for their own population are blocking exports or are increasing the customs duties. It’s human nature. The price of foodstuffs is going up at a mad speed in the whole world, thanks also to financial speculators. It’s the economy.
The mechanism that has started to act is hellish. One State, for example, China, is increasing the number of mouths to be fed while it is destroying cultivatable land. In China in 2005 the expropriation of land from the farmers increased by 15 times in relation to 10 years earlier. Land that has been transformed into residential and industrial zones. Less land, less food, more Chinese. The equation is resolved by buying more land for food elsewhere. In the countries where, for now, they can allow themselves to export agricultural produce. But even in these countries, the population is increasing, the land for food production is decreasing, because of building speculation and bio fuels, and water for irrigation is scarce. What will happen when the Brazilians see their corn disappearing and they have no daily bread? Any government would not last a week and the lands sold to foreigners would be nationalized. The lighted match would be in the hands of China and its armaments.
China is the prime world producer of cereals and rice. Once upon a time it was exporting. In 2007, China produced 501.5 million tons of wheat and the Chinese consumed 510 million. According to the FAO, in 1985 the Chinese ate 20 Kilo of meat each, in 2018 that’ll go up to 70 Kilo. To produce meat you need cereal and land. China imports already today, 60% of the soya that it needs.
If the top world producer has to import, the others, like Italy, what will they have to do? Seen from above, our country seems like a building nightmare. It is disappearing under the cement. The priority must be self-sufficiency in food, not the parking lots and the incinerators.
PS. A word of advice: create your own kitchen garden on your balcony or in a tiny piece of land.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:55 PM in Economics | Comments (7)
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August 05, 2008

Cash from Brussels

Click on the image


Each year the Italians pay taxes even to give about 13 billion euro to the European Community. This money finishes up in a common fund. About 8 or 9 billion returns to Italy. That’s called help from the European Community, but it’s our money. That escapes from any control by the government. The one signing for the destination of the funds is an unknown official in Brussels. The billions destined for works that are usually not brought to fruition or are useless or not even spent (but pocketed). The euros returning finish up on the whole in Campania, in Calabria, in Sicily. But the people of Campania, of Calabria, or of Sicily don’t see the positive effects. This flow of uncontrolled money feeds criminality, the undergrowth of politics, the exchange votes. And all in the light of day, but it’s all hidden. Like the best traditions of our country. Once upon a time, there was the “Cassa del Mezzogiorno”, today there is the “Cassa di Bruxelles” {Brussels Cash}. The blog, as soon as it can, will give an account of the spending and will publish it. The Italians need to know where their taxes go, who spends the money and what it’s used for. The Internet has exactly this function.

”I’m an American, from Apulia. I’m in advertising and I’m outraged. That’s why I will never participate any more in the Italian public competitions for communications.
These are the facts: on 14 December 2007, the Region of Apulia published a competition announcement for the communication and promotion of its territory in Italy and in the world. The money offered is not a mean amount. 7 million euro! And as it is money from the European Community, it has all to be spent, as is very clear in the competition announcement, in the two years 2007 to 2008.
And already here, I who am American, perhaps naïve and perhaps an idealist, identify the first anomaly. Where I live, if someone receives public financing and they say that he has to spend it in a certain way, he does it. It would be as if my doctor tells me that in order to get better from my illness I have to take a certain medicine for two years, and I decide to take the medicine only in the second year but two at a time.
I have an advertising agency in New York and one in Italy and lots of agencies belonging to our group in the main countries of Europe. I am an American citizen and I’m an Italian resident. My family has its origins in Apulia. I know, respect and love Apulia. How could I not have participated in this tender? So, together with my partners and with the agencies of our international system, we set to work: strategies, creativity, numbers, ideas and documents. So much paper, hundreds of sheets, millions of sheets!
On 11 February 2008 the tender period closed and 7 companies apart from us, present their proposals. I’m thinking, may the best one win. And here is the second anomaly. I discover that in the competition there are not just advertising and communications agencies, but also groups of publishers and TV networks from Apulia. Strange, isn’t it? Where I come from, communications are done by communications agencies. It’s as though to promote the sale of my ice creams in the bars of the whole world, I ask the bar under my apartment to create the campaign. But let’s get to the third anomaly. It’s February. Summer is getting closer and the proposals sleep in the drawers of the Region, under a warm layer of dust. The months slip by and my astonishment grows. How is it possible, I ask from New York to my colleagues in Italy. They lost last season, they wouldn’t want to lose this one as well? Yes. They want to lose this one too.
Today, 20 July 2008, the contract to promote Apulia in the two years 2007 – 2008 has not yet been assigned. After the opening of the final envelopes, the classification causes some perplexity and strange shadows hover over the certainty of its assigning. And guess who is in top position? “The bar under my apartment” To say, without giving offence, the local company.
I don’t know whether it will be made official the allocation of the budget, but I know that to spend 7 million euro in TV advertising, press releases, radio advertising, flyers and brochures, all in a handful of weeks at the end of the year is an offence to common sense. And for what then? To attract to Apulia skiers and those in all the world who love winter sports?
Here are my conclusions: I participated knowing that I could win. But also putting into the calculations that I could lose. We have not lost. It’s worse. We were excluded for a vice of form. We were about to appeal because our lawyer said that the reasons for our exclusion do not exist. I have stopped everything and I have decided to write this letter. I am not interested in being an accomplice in this waste of money. I am interested in denouncing it. I am doing it as an outraged American publicist, as a proud Italian resident, as an injured person from Apulia. And I am asking why does no one make his voice heard? Does the European Community have nothing to say when it sees how its money is used? And does the Italian association of advertisers not feel the need to defend their professionalism? I know that when I open the American newspapers I will see advertising about other regions of Italy. And I also know that the next time I land at Fiumicino, Rome’s airport I will see massive advertisement for Sicily, Tuscany etc. And I will laugh when I arrive at Bari Palese and as always, there will be big posters promoting tourism in Apulia. As usual the money will be well spent! OK. It’s said and it’s done. I accept the responsibility for my gesture. And I send good wishes to the TV networks and to the publishing houses who united together in a temporary association of companies, will see themselves being allocated the contract. Waiting for them, there are a handful of weeks of hard work! To produce the campaign and to broadcast it on their networks. So at least the people of Apulia next year will choose to go on holiday in Apulia.” Paul Cappelli
Founder and President The Ad Store International, New York

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:46 PM in Economics | Comments (9)
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August 04, 2008

Telecom. Arriba Espana!

Security Telecom Italia. Tronchetti Provera, Tavaroli
Click on the image


In May 2007, Intesa San Paolo, Mediobanca, Generali and Telefonica got rid of the unhappy Tronchetti and they bought the controlling package of Telecom for an exorbitant value. In July 2007, I wrote “Telecom shares are worth a bit more than 2 euro. The Piave line, the K2 of the analysts, is about to be breached. After that there’s the unknown. It’s nothing new. When Tronchetti demanded and got 2.9 euro per share, it was known to be an “ad personam” value. To get rid of him with a golden handshake. The industrial forecast for the share was between 1.5 and 1.7 euro.”
I was being an optimist.
Today Telecom shares are worth about 1.1 euro. K2 has been transformed into K1. The threshold of the euro is near. And after that?
If the shareholders cry (one or two have lost nearly everything). The bondholders are trembling. The Telecom debt, turned upside down in part onto those who own bonds, is 46 billion euro. Bernabè, the new CEO has denied there’ll be the sale of Telecom Italia to Telefonica, perhaps he would do it (or he would have to do it) willingly given the disastrous financial situation, but the government cannot allow itself to lose other Italian companies.
The decrease in value for the shareholders and for the System of Italy has been impressive under the Tronchetti/Buora management, allowed to go with millionaire golden handshakes, paid for years with salaries higher than the European companies in the sector.
Before the final crash, the Knock Out, it’s useful to ask a few questions:
- Who will compensate the Banca Intesa San Paolo, Mediobanca and General shareholders for having purchased Telecom shares at at least double their value? Everyone knew and they didn’t? The companies in the controlling group will have to devalue their shares by a few hundred million. Their patrimony will be worth less, their shares will be worth less. Who will pay for an out-of-market choice?
- The situation in which Bernabè found Telecom was (and is) dramatic. A plan to sack the staff is already underway, at least 10,000 (in relation to this, is Napoletone also included?) Telecom should take it out on the previous administrators, even for the vertical drop in Telecom’s image due to the wire-tapping. Will it happen?
- Telecom Italia cannot do it on its own. The white knight is called Telefonica. If there is a takeover bid, will it be the usual folk to gain? Only those who possess the controlling package, Benetton included, or even the small shareholders who represent the majority of the ownership? What will the Consob do?
Arriba Espana!

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:46 PM in Economics | Comments (6)
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July 17, 2008

Fannie and Freddie

Queues of Indy Mac savers
Click on the image.


Fannie and Freddie are two credit institutions in the United States. They sell mortgages on property. They are like Ginger and Fred but they don’t dance on a film set. They dance on the brink of crashing. Their shares have fallen in the month of July.
If Fannie and Freddie were to go bankrupt they would leave a hole of 5000 billion dollars, half the American Public Debt. The State should intervene and nationalize them with an automatic increase in the cost of money and in taxes. In Italy it is as though there were the bankruptcy of most of the companies quoted on the Stock Exchange all at the same time. Fannie must pay back 216 billion dollars within a year, Freddie a bit more than that, about 291 billion. The money’s not there. For two reasons. The mortgage repayments are no longer being paid and no one is underwriting the new mortgages. Basically the property market has disappeared.
People no longer have money and the cost of money has gone up. Furthermore, the value of houses has collapsed and the banks are full of mortgaged houses. In the stomach of the banks’ balance sheets there are still properties with values that go back to before the “subprime” crisis. The banks don’t want to devalue, some can’t allow themselves to do so, their share values would collapse. Fannie and Freddie represent a financial tsunami that in one way or another will arrive here. The prices of property in Italy are drugged by a cartel of property companies. The city centres are no longer for habitation but for making money. The price of apartments has no connection with reality. The property companies for some time have been in a strange media silence, losing their value on the Stock Market. Since January 2008 the top 9 companies in the sector lost 2.4 billion euro, about half of their capitalization. Pirelli Real Estate, a bit more than the average: 57.82%. The fall in the property market had already happened in part. Anyone who had a one Euro share at Christmas finds themselves with 50 cents before the holidays.
The value of houses is kept high artificially. The big cities are invaded by “For sale” and “To Let” signs and meanwhile new homes in the outskirts are still being built.
The astonishing thing is that the true crisis has not yet arrived. In the United States there are about 90 banks risking collapse. One of them, Indy Mac, closed on Friday. The third most important collapse in the United States since the war. The queues of people who were taking out their savings are an image of the situation.
A bit of advice: don’t buy property; don’t do debts; don’t take out new mortgages; if you can, pay off the mortgages that you have; don’t buy shares in property companies; don’t buy funds with shares in property companies. Fannie and Freddie are arriving.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:12 AM in Economics | Comments (25)
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July 07, 2008

The castle of cards

The Italian castle of cards is about to collapse. It could well happen during next autumn. Many companies and many jobs are about to fall, together with the leaves. The castle was built up, one membership card on top of another, over a period of more than twenty years. Italy has been totally drained from within. All that remains is a pile of playing cards. The Country is no longer able to stand up on its own. The results of twenty years of American-inspired recession, financial fraud ranging from futures to below-prime interest rates, the cost of money and the increase in the price of crude oil and raw materials are all huffing and puffing at the door. Those that are still in good health may yet recover, but those already suffering from bronchial pneumonia, like Italy, will end up either in hospital or at the undertaker’s.
Italian companies are fast disappearing, as if it were a species under threat of extinction. The manufacturing sector is becoming like a desert as a result of the greenhouse effect of the political parties and lobby groups. 245,843 companies closed their doors for the last time in 2007. 22.5% of all small and medium-sized companies are increasingly at risk thanks to rising crude oil prices. The large companies are even worse off. Telecom Italia may well be forced to terminate some 20,000 people, Alitalia another 8,000, while Fiat could fire any number of people that they may choose, at will. The total number of jobs at risk now stands at 300,000. Those companies that are managing to hold on for dear life are falling ever deeper into debt. They are managing to survive purely thanks to their debt with the banks, which, by the end of 2007, had reached a staggering figure of some 780 billion Euro, having increased by 72.4% in just seven years.
The situation is extremely serious, but not yet critical. Italians earn amongst the lowest salaries in the whole of Europe, while the cost of their services, everything from telephone services through to highway toll fees are, on average, amongst the highest in Europe. Temporary employment has become the norm, and is now estimated to involve some six million jobs. Our Parliamentarians, on the other hand, enjoy higher salaries than do most of their European counterparts and, on top of it all, they elect members from amongst themselves. The industrialists have managed to privatise the entire Country, with some help from the political parties, and they are now busy sharing out the dividends earned from the basic services provided to the citizens, including everything from the provision of water, to electricity and onwards to refuse removal.
Italy is already now living with a wartime economy. In the near future, our soldiers will be guarding the banks instead of the waste disposal sites. All that the psychodwarf is concerned about are his personal legal matters. But the real emergency is this Country’s economy. A salary at the end of each month. Italy is somewhat like a hot-air balloon that is plummeting to earth. What we really need to do is to jettison any excess baggage and eliminate any unnecessary costs. Italy has some four million public servants, which is more than the entire population of Ireland. Our companies need to be freed from the bleeding wound of taxes and compulsory advance payments. Law No. 30 must be abolished. Let those Regions that really wish to become independent do so using their own revenues, otherwise they should simply break away from the very same Italy that is currently supporting them.
The politicians continue to waffle, but the castle of cards will soon fall and the Italians will once again be looking for a suitable scapegoat, as they have always done throughout the course of History.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:41 AM in Economics | Comments (0)
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July 04, 2008

There’s a letter for you (Telecom sacking)

The Telecom letters saying you are sacked are arriving. 5000 straight away and 10,000 to follow. An office worker has sent us his letter. It’s subject is “Dismissal to reduce personnel – art.24 of law n.223/1991”. The letter specifies that Telecom “intends to start the “mobility procedures” for 5,000 workers that are in excess of its technical-organisational needs”.
The letter is a showcase of bureaucracy, sub-articles, articles, laws, and arrangements that have a single meaning: “You are sacked. Your family can no longer count on your salary.”
Telecom gives 3 reasons for your sacking:
1 “on the technological side, from the simplification of the production processes that have had an impact on the functions of specialist support, as well as on the provisioning activities of the network and of services, with the consequent need to rationalize the address and government structures and the territorial ones.”
2 “for the market structures, from the recomposition of the activities and the responsibilities of the positions in the functions of the company (for example the pre- and post-sales, and the commercial programming), the significant reduction in the profitability in the more traditional business, of the progressive defocalisation of the outbound activities and in the simplification of back end activities.”
3 “for the Staff functions, from the need to rationalize the company structures connected to the completion of the company and organizational merging of Telecom Italia S.p.A and TIM S.p.A., as well as the integration of the central staff with the staff of the former Operations and Corporate”.
The former Telecom employee will thus be able to explain to his children that he has been sacked for “progressive defocalisation of the outbound activities and in the simplification of back end activities.” Or alternatively for “simplification of the production processes that have had an impact on the provisioning activities of the network and of services”.
The children will be able to ask if these are the only reasons or whether the company has been plundered with the sale of the productive parts of the company, of buildings, of foreign investment to give dividends to Tronchetti and stock options to Buora, and Ruggiero and salaries among the highest in Europe to the trusted directors and to the members of the Board of Directors. The children could ask why the one who has put their family out into the streets has been rewarded with millions of euro as a golden handshake instead of being taken to court by Telecom.
It’s well known that children, that youngsters are naïve. They are “pezzi 'e core” as they say in Naples. They would never be able to understand the strategies of Tronchetti-the-unhappy and perhaps because their parent is crying in secret.
Once more I’m inviting the sacked Telecom employees to participate in the initiative of class action against the former administrators.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:40 AM in Economics | Comments (11)
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June 21, 2008

Long nights and accounts in the red

What would happen if your apartment building manager were to spend one million Euro on unplanned expenses without first discussing it with the apartment owners? And what would happen if he passed the one million Euro of debt onto the community by levying taxes? In such a situation you should be asking yourself two things: why can the Manager simply go ahead and spend money that he does not have? Why must the community foot the bill? This is, however, what is happening on a daily basis with our local mayors at our local municipalities. The more you go ahead and spend money that you don’t have, the more votes you will garner in the next election campaign. If James Bond was licensed to kill, then Topo Gigio Veltroni and his colleagues are licensed to spend.
The General Accounts Department of the State has discovered a black hole in the Rome Municipality’s financial accounts. Between accumulated debts of 8,151 million Euro as at the end of 2007, financial market loans, completion costs for the Underground train service, off-balance sheet debts and debts incurred by para-statal companies, the Capitoline municipality has amassed debts to the tune of 10,709 million. A veritable Roman K2. Technically speaking, the Rome Municipality is bankrupt because it is physically unable to pay its employees.
Marco Causi, Councillor in charge of Financial Accounts during Veltroni’s two terms in office stated that: “We didn’t hide bugger all. In 2001 we inherited a heavy debt load, equivalent to 6.1 billion in fact, aggravated by the investments made in order to finish construction on the new Undergorund train services. It’s all a bluff”. In other words then 60% of the blame lies with “Er Cicoria” and the remaining 40% with Topo Gigio. A ten billion Euro bluff, paid for by all of Italy’s taxpayers. Long nights and accounts in the red.
The inspectors reported that: “The current trend as regards revenues and outlays shows a total lack of financial sustainability, even in the short-term”. Without being too obvious about it, Tremonti is busy using a few hundred million Euro of Government money in an attempt to shore up the empty coffers of the debt Capital.
Local mayors must be controlled and must not be allowed to spend money they don’t have. If they do so, let them pay the bills, not the taxpayers. The next administrative elections are due to be held in 2009. Perhaps it would be a good thing to start preparing ourselves now. Rome is simply the tip of the iceberg. Starting today, I will be publishing any reports I receive regarding Municipalities that are throwing money around. Take a look at the Municipal Accounts, investigate, write in and send the documentation in to this blog.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:46 PM in Economics | Comments (2)
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May 28, 2008

Incinerators and those who are beaten

Click on the image: "Chiaiano, prof.Marfella"


The rubbish trains go north. Like migrating birds in spring. Towards the welcoming Germany that separates our rubbish and transforms it into secondary raw materials and in organic compost for industry. The trains of differentiated rubbish then come south again. Towards the Italy that is ridiculous and slovenly. Put in the stocks in the whole of Europe by incapable and corrupt parties.
We pay Germany for the rubbish twice, once on the way there and once on the way back. To get rid of it as rubbish and to buy it as secondary raw materials. The spokesperson for the Saxony Ministry of the Environment said: “The refuse has not been burned in the incinerators, the organic refuse has been separated from the solid refuse, that will become secondary raw materials, a minor part has been treated in a mechanical-biological plant and it will be sold to industry.”
Italy is a great client of its own rubbish and the third importer of secondary raw materials from Germany with two million tons a year. We are importing plastics, metal, paper from the Germans. Our plastic, our metal, our paper. The Germans are doing the work that the Italians don’t know how to do. To separate out the different types of rubbish is too complex a job for the Italian genius. But, above all it gives a low income. The incinerators however, are oil wells for those that make and manage them.
If nothing is created from diamonds, from manure up spring the public companies for managing refuse. And the call of rubbish is stronger than them. The refuse emergency is a business. Find out who gains and you will have found the solution to the problem. For example, but just as an example, who is the main shareholder of Impregilo? Who does the Chiaiano rubbish dump belong to?

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 05:39 PM in Economics | Comments (20)
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April 30, 2008

Breaking point

Click the image

In 2008 the growth in production is estimated to be about 0.5%. Only a few months ago, they were taking bets on 1 point something %. It’ll end up under 0%. A possible estimate is MINUS 0.5%. There’ll be a harsh recession, but Italian-style. The drop in production is equivalent to a drop in employment. A recession is translated into hundreds of thousands of fewer jobs. In Italy however employment will rise and the salaries will go down. It’s the trend of recent years.
How does it work? An employee is transformed into a precarious worker. A third of his previous salary, bye-bye pension and no safety at work (it costs!). The equation is simple. More recession=less salary, more precarious workers (and thus more jobs) and more who die at work. The number of precarious workers has arrived at about 5 million. There’s space for improvement. The whole Italian population. The abolition of article 18 that is under discussion is basically a help to the growth of precariousness and to employment. And also for dying of starvation. The recession is world-wide, but we’ve already won the world cup. Growth estimates in Europe and round about for 2008: Slovakia 7.4%, Russia 7.0%, Ukraine 6.4%, Poland 5.3%, Czech Republic 4.8%, Turkey 4.6%, Norway 3.4%, Ireland 3.2%, Greece 3.1%, Sweden 2.5%, Netherlands 2.3%, Hungary 2.2, Belgium 1.9%, UK-Germany 1.7%, France-Denmark-Portugal 1.6% (*).
We are the last of the last. But there are no real proposals for restarting the country. The reason is simple: to change, the equilibria on which the System is based, would have to be turned upside down. That on your own you never reform. How many are left producing real wealth in Italy? How many are parasites? The number of the former is going down. The number of the latter is going up before your eyes together with the number of precarious workers, the number of the new poor, the public debt. Before the euro, the lira was devalued, now we get into debt, with joy, the Nation with new issues of State Bonds.
The economic problems of the country, for example, Alitalia, are resolved by getting into debt. But it’s at breaking point. In 2008, we will pay about 70 billion euro in interest on the bonds issued. That’s about 4 budgets, Crikey! In 2009, the amount of interest will be greater, for three reasons. The first is that Italy is considered to be at risk and to compete with State Bonds of other countries it has to guarantee higher interest rates. The second is that the public debt is getting bigger. The third is that our production is going down. Towards the catastrophe with optimism.
(*) Source: Consensus Economics

Example of journalism:

La Repubblica (more than 16 million euro of public contributions annually to the L'Espresso Group) after V2-day reported: "In 50 thousand at Grillo’s show" and an article by Francesco Merlo.


Click the image

La Repubblica for the first of May 2007: "Piazza san Carlo where the Trades Union leaders spoke in front of 100 thousand people”

Click the image

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:02 AM in Economics | Comments (13)
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March 24, 2008

Robert Kennedy and GDP

Forty years ago, Robert Kennedy, gave a speech about the real wealth of Nations and GDP. Three months later he was assassinated.

What is the GDP, the Gross Domestic Product? A measure of the growth of society? The transformation into money, an abstract concept, of our health, of our time, of the environment? No one has ever calculated the COST of the GDP. The damage of empty sheds, of useless merchandise, of lorries that run around empty like maddened insects, of the destruction of the planet. No one has ever estimated the value of wasted time in queuing, the wasted years working to produce useless objects. Of the years thrown away to buy useless objects created by advertising. The time, The Earth, the life, the family (the only important ones) are concepts that are too simple for the GDP. A monster that devours the world. It eats it and accumulates it. It digests it and transforms it into nothing. The equation GDP=wealth is an enchantment. The useless products do not become useful because someone buys them.

”only when the last river dries up
when the last tree is torn down
when the last animal is killed
only then will you understand that money cannot be eaten.”
Creek Prophecy

Speech by Robert Kennedy, 18 March 1968, University of Kansas.
”We will never find a purpose for our nation nor for our personal satisfaction in the mere search for economic well-being, in endlessly amassing terrestrial goods.
We cannot measure the national spirit on the basis of the Dow-Jones, nor can we measure the achievements of our country on the basis of the gross domestic product (GDP)
Our gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:31 PM in Economics | Comments (10)
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March 19, 2008

2001: Cement Odyssey

Year 2000: Towns can spend money from building licenses ONLY for investments
Year 2001, October: Towns are authorised to spend money from building licenses to do what they like, thanks to the Unified Text on Building.
The building boom arrives.
Year 2000: 159,000 homes constructed.
Year 2007: 298,000 homes constructed and 38,000 homes extended.

Licenses double in 7 years. Italian territory is cementified with small blocks of flats, nano sky scrapers, hangars, second, third and fourth villas, car parks, garages. The towns double the cash coming into their coffers without any obligation according to how the money is to be used. They have a licence to kill the territory.

The “territorio comunale” {territory of the town), as the word itself says, is the “communal” inheritance of the citizens who live there. It belongs to them. The wood, the meadow, the panoramic view, a place to go for a walk or to let one’s children play, the park, the gardens, or even, a simple empty space for looking at the horizon. Let it be clear that the territory belongs to the citizens and not to the mayor decorated for the feast and his cabinet members who are ONLY town employees. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions.

What’s happened to the money from the building licenses that have been handed out with no longer any obligation to make investments? New services, nurseries, cycle tracks, public transport have not been seen. I’d do a survey. Town by town.

How much more can the Italian countryside be cementified? It’s only possible to go back, to de-cementify. Tourism is dying from cement.

Which are the main building companies that have obtained licenses? The constructors now are more in charge than mayor Moratti and mayor Topo Gigio. They have to get out of the town councils. They are there, even though they have not been elected.

The infernal process put in motion by the 2001 Unified Text has to be stopped. We need to turn the clock back to the year 2000. Less cement, less money for the parties, the true bosses in the towns. The citizens must present themselves in the Town Councils to ask for the reasons for the building disaster and they should document the meeting with a video.

The Bel Paese {Beautiful Country} is ours. Let’s claim it back.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:55 PM in Economics | Comments (8)
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March 13, 2008

2008 - 1929?

The forecasts about the crisis in the real estate market in the United States are for heart attacks. You remember the subprime, the mortgages given to anyone without checking up on their income and then transformed into investment funds placed to the right, left and centre? The bank sold the mortgage and the fund with the mortgage inside. Great. Some banks like Northern Rock, got blown into the air and the value of their shares taken down to almost zero.
Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, in July 2007, forecast the damage to the American financial system to be 100 billion dollars. Later Goldman Sachs altered the estimate to 500 billion dollars. Recently Nouriel Roubini of the New York University Stern School of Business, raised the level to 3,000 billion dollars. That’s equal to 20% of the USA’s GDP. Roubini estimates a collateral effect on the United States Stock Exchange as a loss of 5,600 billion dollars
Roubini’s pessimism, or perhaps realism, goes as far as forecasting a loss in overall value equivalent to the entire annual GDP of the United States. The price of houses has gone down by at least 10% of the maximums and it is envisaged that there’ll be a further 20% reduction. Those who are paying a mortgage often hand over the keys to the banks when they realize that the mortgage on the house is greater than the market value of the house. The bank then has to devalue its stock of buildings. To recover from the abyss of financial losses they call in loans at risk. And they sell the most vulnerable shares.
There’s a decrease in value of the banks, shares, houses and all of a sudden, no one is making loans anymore. The value of the dollar collapses, 63,000 jobs fewer in February 2008. In these cases, there’s always talk of a new 1929, given the scenario, it’s not excluded that that could happen.
The average Italian with a salary among the lowest in Europe, taxes among the highest in the world, and indecent public services can believe that they are safe from this financial tsunami. It seems difficult that it could be worse than this. It’s better to take some tiny precaution anyway so as not to be completely ruined. For those who have no money, don’t take out a loan. For those who still have money, don’t invest it in funds and put off buying a house.
Towards the catastrophe with optimism.
For more information: Martin Wolf’s blog, Financial Times
Nouriel Roubini’s blog.

Print and distribute the V2-Day flyer..


V2-day, 25 April, for freedom of information:
1. Put your photos on www.flickr.com with the tag V2-day
2. Put your videos on www.youtube.com with the tag V2-day
3. Give your support to V2 day
4. Download the V2-day flyer


Click on the image

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:11 PM in Economics | Comments (3)
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March 10, 2008

Finance letter, Rome 15/12/2011

Rome, 15 December 2011
"The state of siege proclaimed yesterday by the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano has exasperated the population weighed down by the serous crisis of the economy. During the night, people spilled out onto the streets and squares of the main cities of the country, ignoring the measures taken by the authorities and asking for the resignation of the Minister of the Economy Giulio Tremonti. The request was heeded. This morning the Minister resigned and straight away the government of Berlusconi fell. Napolitano summoned the presidents of the Lower House Fini and D'Alema as well as the leaders of the parliamentary groupings. The clashes throughout the country are continuing and the number of dead has already reached 32. Constitutional guarantees have been suspended.
The country is on the brink of bankruptcy after the ultimatum of the European Community saying that to stop the indebtedness of the State at least 350 billion Euro would be needed.
After the start of the American recession in 2008, the slow down in the economy has made it more difficult to turn round the tendency of public indebtedness. After three years of recession, starting from June of this year, all sources of international financing have been. These made possible the survival of a model of chronic deficit that was constantly covered by new issues of public bonds. In mid-August Parliament approved the so-called “zero deficit law” put forward by Giulio Tremonti, who took the idea from the former Argentine Minister of the Economy Domingo Cavallo, as a last resource to gain back the trust of international markets.
The law lays down that the State must maintain expenditure within the limits of what is gained from tax revenue. If there is not sufficient money, the creditors of the public debt are given priority over the salaries of public employees and pensions. In applying the new law, incomes and pensions have thus been reduced by 30% starting from August.
With the “zero deficit law”, the deputy Minister of the Economy Lamberto Dini went to Brussels to negotiate a solution to avoid bankruptcy. After difficult negotiations, a loan of 40 billion euro was agreed so that the Italian government can take charge of the restructuring of the public debt that is equal to 2,000 billion euro (estimated end of December 2011). The agreement also includes a reform of the labour market “The Russian law” that supercedes the law number 30 aiming to make “flexible” the conditions of work, and it should be based on “temporary contracts with pay levels lower than current ones”
The international situation relating to the conversion of Treasury Bonds is more complex. Foreign creditors have threatened to take Italy to court if it does not respect the agreements.
The news that the European Community does not intend to provide the finance for the last portion of funds agreed in August has cooled down any enthusiasm. The motive given is that the government has not respected the agreements. Some observers believe that the decision is motivated by the wish to keep a distance from a country on the brink of disaster.
It is the first time since the war that there is a reduction in Italy’s Gross Domestic Product for the third year running. The current crisis is developing in the context of a strong recovery of the main world economies.
The reduction in the availability of public financing has also dragged down the availability of private financing, while the reduction in consumption has aggravated the recession. The vicious circle is completed by the reduction in the money coming in to government from taxes and with the freezing of current accounts and the block on the payment of interest on State Bonds.”

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:46 PM in Economics | Comments (1)
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March 04, 2008

70 billion euro in interest

Click to see the video


70 billion euro in interest. You have been paying this together with all Italians. And the coming year it’ll be more. At night, before you close your eyes to go to sleep, think of the interest payments on YOUR public debt. Put aside ten euro in the glass on your bedside table.
Before investing in social structures and security structures, the State last year had to pay 70 billion euro. The State is us. The interest payments were paid by us through our taxes. For every euro given to the taxman, a part has been used for the interest. It’s as though, you with your salary had to pay a loan shark before the mortgage on the house, the children’s day care, the shopping and the utility bills for gas and electricity. The difference between the State and the loan shark is that the State got you into debt without asking your permission. The loan shark at least lent you the money. If however you buy a bit of the public debt through the issuing of State bonds you could even get even. The taxes paid for the interest on the public debt will be transformed into interest from State bonds.
The debt has reached 1,629.7 billion euro (in September 2005 it was 11,542.4 billion euro). Each year it increases thanks to the new interest to be paid and to the deficit in the accounts (the difference between money coming in to the State and money going out). It’s a maddened train that has to be stopped by reducing the costs of the State. Cut bureaucracy, Provinces, group together villages, investments without funds and without future like the TAV in Val di Susa (15 billion euro) or the Messina Bridge (4/5 billion euro), useless public bodies, etc. etc.
The governments must not be able to create holes in the balance of the accounts, the outgoings must be equal to (or less than) the income. If they are bigger, let the President of the Council pay the difference.
The young generations are the victims of the public debt. Less money for research, for the school, for innovation means less opportunity for work. It is the society of the “big babies”, that has come after the society of the “big eaters”.
To tranquilize the Italians, the public debt is compared to the GDP. Today the debt/GDP ratio is 105. If the GDP, that is the Italian Gross Domestic Product increases in a year, the catastrophe gets further away. But the GDP is slowing down, coming to a stop, and in 2008 could get less. And for the debt/GDP ratio we are next to the bottom in Europe out of 27 countries, followed only by Hungary.
Public spending is the main resource of Italian politics: they even spend the money they don’t have for lobbyists, votes and clients. They are getting us into debt, and above all our offspring.

V2-day, 25 April, for freedom of information:
1. Put your photos on www.flickr.com with the tag V2-day
2. Put your videos on www.youtube.com with the tag V2-day
3. Give your support to V2 day


Click to see the video

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:25 AM in Economics | Comments (8)
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February 20, 2008

Global economy, sacking Italians

Are you an employee in the private sector? With a simple test, you can find out your future:
Case number one: international competition is too strong and the company closes. Sacked on the spot.
Case number two: the cost of labour is lower in China or in Romania and the company transfers to China or Romania. Sacked on the spot.
Case number three: international competition is too strong, the cost of labour is too high, you’ve been taken on as a precarious worker, not on the books or openly but underpaid. Investments in safety are reduced: died at work.
Case number four: the company is a multinational with a base in Italy. The costs of bureaucracy are too high, taxes on work are too high and the services don’t exist and are costly. The company transfers the offices and the factories abroad: emigrating.
Case number five: the company, in spite of all the problems, is useless. The product is "Made in Italy". The company wants to increase profits. The company moves production to China or Romania. The product is called "Made in Italy". The profits of the company go up: Sacked on the spot.
I’m publishing a letter from Simone, one who has been sacked, and I reckon who comes into the situation of case number 4. I’ll pop over to Florence to understand better.

”Dear Beppe,
We are 450 people in the Zanussi company in Florence. As you know, work on refrigerators costs less in China. They are paid less. If we work for ten, they work for five and this is why they want to close the company. Just think. 450 families with mortgages to be paid and children to bring up and they close the company. Beppe, I think that if you come to Scandicci, they won’t let you come inside, but if you let us know beforehand, if you like I’ll write down the name of my Trades Union representative in the CGIL, at least if you happen to come, tell him that you are Beppe Grillo, but tell him that you are the real one or he won’t believe you. We wanted to organise a march to the government in Rome. If you come too, we’ll be really happy. I’m writing to you because I have been working there for 5 years, but there are others who are over 40 and don’t know where to go any more. BEPPE WE NEED HELP. You are our last hope. Please don’t let us be closed down. We’ll agree to bear the cost of putting on a show in front of ZANUSSI and put up a stage. If there’s any money, otherwise do it on the ground level or on a car. If you come to the gate house first, we’ll come out straight away. Me a worker and a Trades Union representative.
Anyway, if they know that you’re there, the whole factory will stop.” Simone.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:02 PM in Economics | Comments (7)
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January 19, 2008

Public debt, private profits

This Government is what it is. It carries on regardless while we tighten our belts. But it does so for a good reason, namely to restore the Italian economy. We become poorer in the hope of a better future, and the results are plain to see, this we cannot deny. Our economy is much like the bill at a restaurant in that we always hope that someone else will pay. Every government leaves the bill for the subsequent Government and, sooner or later, payment becomes due.
The government’s optimism with regard to our economy is not shared by the Heritage Foundation’s annual Report on economic freedom.
Italy is in 64th place, out of 157 countries assessed, and has dropped down four positions in the ratings since 2006. The Report assesses the various Countries in terms of the freedom to do business in the country, as well as its financial and taxation systems. It also assesses the level of corruption in the country, as well as government interference in the marketplace. The fact that Italy is preceded in the ratings by Botswana (36), or immediately followed by Madagascar (65), is no longer a newsworthy fact. It does, however, make one realise that almost all of the more economically free countries are to be found in Europe. And that is precisely where we are. We are the exception. Guinea-Bissau (148) can justify its position, after all, it is situated in Africa. How, instead, can Italy justify its lowly position? What does Europe mean to us? A spiritual home? A way for us to believe that we are first-world citizens rather than third-world?
Economic freedom is closely linked to freedom of information. Where one of these is absent, so is the other. It is no coincidence that our economy has been going to the dogs for the past twenty years, while information has been held hostage by certain business groupings and political parties, almost all of which are living as parasites on State concessions.
Everything is going well. In October, our level of public debt hit a new record of 1,629.7 billion Euro. A bottomless pit, an upside down Everest. Our taxes are used to pay the interest charges on the public debt instead of being put towards development. But don’t worry, the important thing is the ratio of public debt to GDP. The very same GDP for which the Banca d’Italia revised its growth predictions for 2008, down from 1.7% to 1%. Ask yourself this question: how much longer can the level of public debt continue to rise? Where is the breaking point? And what then will become of your savings?

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:17 PM in Economics | Comments (15)
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January 12, 2008

The hunt for the tax evaders

This government never ceases to amaze one. First they want to hunt down the tax evaders and the, when they find them, they fail to go all the way. 98 Billion Euro of tax evasion is equivalent to 4/5 annual budgets. In order to be prosecuted, an Italian tax evader must pay his taxes, not owe the receiver of revenue very much at all, and not collude with the political parties.
The GREAT TAX EVADER, instead, has nothing to fear. In the worst case scenario, he can always float his company on the Stock Exchange and share out his debts amongst the small investors.


Text:
Beppe Grillo:We at the blog would like to know what has happened to the 98 billion Euro from the tax evasion by the State Monopoly concessionaries. This man, Ferruccio Sansa, is the person who carried out the investigations.

Ferruccio Sansa: It is a good thing that, finally, someone is applauding the journalists, and it would be even better if someone were to respond to the findings of the investigation, seeing that we have been asking Visco and Prodi to give us some answers for a number of months now, without either of the two deigning to say a single word.
Their tactic has been to act like a brick wall, and we must prevent them from using this tactic successfully. We must continue to repeat these questions, ad nauseam, at the risk of seeming repetitive. They are hoping to wear us down, yet we must carry on, continue to resist and repeat these questions until such time as they are worn down.
This is not something we have sucked out of our thumbs, nor do we have any intention of venting our frustrations on some or other political party. We have based our actions on documentation provided by an investigation commission and on statements made by the Court of Counts. Public documents, in other words. They told us that, based on an inquiry by the Financial Police, not by some dangerous subversives, the Slot Machine concessionaries owe the State, us in other words, 98 billion – those figures with the nine zeroes – Euros. Next time they ask us to pay additional taxes for some or other expense of 12-13 billion, remember what they have given as a gift to these companies, certain of which include Cosa Nostra families on the Boards of Directors, while yet others are managed by members of political parties, particularly Alleanza Nazionale, just like the Bingo business was in the hands of members of the DS and the Lega. Let us always remember: you ask us to pay additional taxes to cover 11-12 billion of expenditure? You ask us to make sacrifices in order to be able to make cuts amounting to 11-12 billion Euro? But where have these 98 billion Euro gone? Parliament is already discussing a law. There are only two possible solutions: either we write off the fine, in which case, the next time I am given a parking fine I too will ask for it to be written off, or else we are talking about a final pardon, in other words, we are giving a 98 billion Euro gift to private companies. We will continue to follow this story through to the end, you must just stay with us and don’t forget. If any mention is made of a final pardon, it will be like giving companies quoted on the stock exchange a gift that is much greater than that which they ask of us. Just the other day, tens, nay thousands of our readers wrote to Prodi, demanding answers. This was the response displayed on the Government’s website: “We must be careful because we are dealing with companies that are quoted on the stock exchange”.
We may not be quoted on the stock exchange, but we are nevertheless entitled to the same level of respect. Thanks to you all.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:06 PM in Economics | Comments (0)
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January 07, 2008

Emergencies and Moratoriums

Italy is the land of sunshine and Emergencies. Each day has its Emergency that always obliges the Government to reflect seriously. Between an emergency and another, while the citizen is still seeing stars, there are Moratoriums. The first was the Great ceppalonic Pardon. Between the security emergency and the deaths at work emergency, up pops the moratorium on abortion. Between the refuse emergency and the Alitalia emergency, they come up with a moratorium on Malpensa “my moratorium, my life” is the motto of the politicians.
No one is saying anything more about the Maroni laws (C major jazz musician where are you?) that saw the lining up of the politics of work in Italy with that of the fifth world. The renewal and/or the abolition of the law number 30 was in the manifesto programme of the Ulivo. But now we are in Emergency. You cannot insiiiiist, as Valium Prodi would say.
The lack of safety at ThyssenKrupp is because of the Maroni law. The workers who survived declared that they could not protest about the interminable shifts or about the empty fire extinguishers. Anyone on a short term agreement is left at home if they protest. And anyone with a family can’t afford that.
The book "Schiavi Moderni" has got to 450,000 copies downloaded. Read it and spread it around.

Mauro Gallegati’s speech.

Beppe Grillo: "He wanted to be here and here he is. A Professor of Economics who will be talking about work. I want you all to listen very carefully to what he has to say. Please welcome Mauro Gallegati. Come on up Mauro. Is it 4-wheel drive … is it licensed? Good then. Go ahead. Mauro Gallegati.

"I lecture at the university and I generally have a class of around twenty – forty people. To see the square so full of people, and to come here and be stopped by people saying “I am a temporary worker, thanks for what Grillo, Stiglitz and you are doing” is a truly moving experience.
In any event, until yesterday I lectured at the university but after today, I don’t know whether that will still be the case, but anyway …
In this book, we have come to a relatively simple conclusion, namely that the law regarding temporary work is a law that has only been applied in order to reduce labour costs. In this sense: our politicians have not simply worked to reduce the salaries paid to temporary workers, which, as Beppe remarked, were already ridiculously low. It s like going into a bank to ask for a loan and saying “however, in all probability I won’t be able to pay back the loan” and the Bank Manager saying “very well, then you will be charged a much lower interest rate than everyone else”. Because paying lower salaries to temporary workers essentially means turning people into beggars for work. The problem is not only that we don’t earn a decent salary. The problem is that the cuts in labour costs have come at the expense of welfare payments, so that we find ourselves with an entire generation of people currently living with the spectre of temporary work, earning very low salaries and, when they reach pensionable age, they will be not have enough money to survive on.
The truth is that everyone born in the ‘70s and the late ’80s are unfortunately destined to accept temporary posts when they are young and are equally destined to one day die of starvation as pensioners. However, perhaps you will get used to it and so you carry on. Nevertheless, this is clearly an untenable situation because it is absolutely ridiculous that this situation is only being highlighted in Beppe’s book. You have no idea just how many times Beppe and I have spoken on the phone, with Beppe absolutely and rightly livid because he was accused of being a terrorist. He may well talk a lot of bullshit, but perhaps this is not enough to make him a terrorist! Thank you all!!" Mauro Gallegati V2-day, 25 April, for freedom of information: < br>1. Put your photos on www.flickr.com with the tag V2-day
2. Put your videos on www.youtube.com with the tag V2-day
.

Click to see video

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:38 AM in Economics | Comments (3)
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November 28, 2007

Open letter to Franco Bernabé

photo Adnkronos

"Dear Dr. Franco Bernabè,
I heard about your appointment as Managing Director of Telecom Italia and decided to write you an open letter.
You were kicked out of the chair in 1999, the same chair that you are once again about to take over. At the time, you were in favour of forming an alliance with Deutsche Telecom and preventing Telecom Italia from being indebted to the tune of tens of billions of Euro to the “courageous captains” Gnutti and Colaninno, who “bought” the company by getting into debt. Your attempt failed due to the opposition of Massimo D’Alema, Chairman of the Board at that time, who favoured entry into the largest company in the Country of the capitalists with patched trousers. Subsequently, Colaninno was convicted of preferential bankruptcy in the Italcase case, Gnutti for insider trading and D’Alema is now involved in the Unipol case in which Consorte and Sacchetti have been convicted.
You now find a company that is more indebted, with fewer resources, with a reduced international presence, minus thousands of employees and companies sold off, unbundled or closed down. A company that has missed every boat in the past eight years and that has only survived thanks to what is essentially a politically sponsored monopoly.
The management currently in charge of your former company is made up of people, and here I refer specifically to Carlo Buora and Riccardo Ruggiero, which have allowed or ignored the creation of the most widespread espionage centre in the entire history of the Republic. There are thousands of files on people who were spied upon, for which million of Euro of company money was paid out, of which the management was totally unaware. Tronchetti and Buora, an unbreakable couple, brought people such as Tavaroli with them from Pirelli and entrusted them with Telecom’s Security while they knew nothing.
I tell you this in the hope that you will have no hesitation in dismissing the management team that has taken Telecom to the brink of the abyss.
The go-ahead for your appointment came from the appointment committee of Mediobanca, consisting of Rampi, Bollorè, Tronchetti and Geronzi. This is not a good recommendation. We know Tronchetti and Geronzi well and so do you.
I would have preferred it if your appointment was made by the majority of shareholders, also involving the minority shareholders that are continually impoverished by every decision that is made. However, this was not to be. I ask that you take immediate action to give minority shareholders an appropriate voice in Board meetings and hope that you listen to me.
Following his appointment, Tronchetti expressed the hope that: “ the work carried out by the front-line employees be appreciated, namely those employees that have contributed to the company’s economic and technological success and the important financial restructuring, guaranteeing good results through their professionalism, even during the long period of instability”.
You, instead, should kick out all these managers that have taken the company to the wall, because the only great things they have are their stock option and their salaries.
I will be following your progress with interest and in 2008 I will be ready for the share action.”
Beppe Grillo

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:35 PM in Economics | Comments (6)
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November 21, 2007

European Parliament/2 Luigi De Magistris

Danuta Huebner, Polish, European Commissioner responsible for Regional Policy, held a Press Conference about my speech at the European Parliament when I asked for clarity concerning the European funding that arrives in Italy. Danuta declared: “We mustn’t give a negative image of the use of European funding in Italy, given that in most Regions of the South there is anyway noticeable progress in the reduction of inequalities. We have a monitoring system that is really very evolved at the level of Regional funding, Member States, European Commission and Court of Accounts. When these irregularities are actually identified there is a system that has been really well tested that involves even the interruption of the flow of funds. I would not say that Italy is one of those member States that is far from the average situation.”
Danuta is sure about what she says. She has received the guarantees about European funding directly, from Totò Cuffaro. True. I’m not joking. After meeting him she said enthusiastically: “I could tell you that the commitment of all those who work to guarantee that there are no crimes or fraud is evident without a doubt.”

I advise “Danuta the naïve” to listen to the speech of magistrate Luigi De Magistris at Strasbourg and get someone to translate for her the first investigation in today’s edition of la Repubblica.

I also want to remind her that in 2006, Italy obtained illicit funds from the EU amounting to 318 million 104 thousand Euro with 1,221 cases denounced, almost 5 times the European average.
Read the article about European funding.

”Thank you. This reminds me of the day there was the CSM hearing when I arrived late, without breakfast, and I underwent four hours of hearing. Now I’ve had a cup of tea and hope that this time the meeting will last for less time.
I have accepted with pleasure this invitation to present a reflection on my experience as a magistrate in which I deal with fraud and crimes of corruption and other things around the management of public spending, and thus of public financing.
Obviously, although I cannot talk about the investigations that I have carried out over the years, and especially those that have been illegally taken from me, I cannot keep quiet about a worrying fact: even though the tool that has the objective of economic development of the regions that need it – I work in Calabria, an “Objective One” region where a lot of European funding is arriving and for which in the period 2007-2013 funds for 9 billion Euro have been allocated – economic development has not happened.
In certain cases, as has been noted in very careful investigations by the Court of Accounts as well as by the regional prosecutor and jurisdiction sections that have monitoring functions, as well as by the ordinary magistracy, it has been possible to verify a lack of tax income for sums not spent for reasons of serious negligence and therefore implying guilt; in many other cases, even other prosecutors of the Republic in Calabria have been able to see that there are real and true swindles to the detriment of the European Union. Many other times there have been hypotheses of corruption.
This makes the management of public financing seem systemic: it’s not a matter of occasional or isolated incidents, of swindling by individuals, and this in my opinion is the most important fact, but there is always something that is governing the whole management of public spending from above.
This is evidenced above all by looking at the routes by which the projects for European funding are put together. We don’t have particular sectors but it’s a question of all the branches by which development should come about: like the environment, ICT, health, public works.
What’s the process used to get hold of these sums of money? By constructing a network of companies organised according to a system of Chinese boxes, more often than not mixed public-private ones.
This use of mixed public-private companies is an important part of the route. It’s something to be considered at an institutional level. I also did this at the Bi-Chamber Committee of the Italian Parliament on the cycle of refuse when they tackled the issue of companies that are managing refuse and the purification of water.
It’s here that you understand how, from above, the system of management of public spending is often governed by groups of people who have organised true criminal associations, composed of professionals, entrepreneurs, men of the world of the economy and of politics, to create lower down a true control system of the other important sectors of public life.
In a series of investigations, when we have examined how the close-knit social societies were put together, how directors were inserted into the companies, how the Boards of Directors were put together, how the College of Supervisors and the Auditors were appointed, we understood that the groups of professionals were always the same. Often we found people who were even closely connected with magistrates, with men in the police forces, with men in the institutions.
It is clear that the most worrying aspect is that there is the creation of a damaging mixing of those who monitor and those who are monitored.
The central problem is how all this can be remedied. In different cases we have noted that the people who should have been monitoring, because they were in vital positions in the region or in other institutions, were also participating directly or indirectly in the companies that should have been monitored.
It is clear that to be able to guarantee a correct flow of the money allocated and to be sure that this is used for projects that bring about economic development, the monitoring system should work. Not just the European one, using the structures that have been set up – (I have collaborated a lot and in a useful way, right up to the time when they took the investigations away from me, with OLAF – the anti-fraud office) but also using the monitoring done by the Regions. That is often impossible or very difficult because in all the criminal proceedings that we dealt with, the people responsible for some crimes in this area, were actually the people assigned to the monitoring organisations of the Regions.
The problem becomes important especially if you consider that the economic development doesn’t happen and in fact these costs then fall on the Italian people since Italy is then obliged by Europe to pay back the money.
What is even more worrying is the step that happens after that. I have explained what happens at the top and lower down, and how people are inserted into the companies. Even lower down, what happens when people are employed by the companies that win the projects that are being financed, the training courses and so on… And here there’s another really sensitive step. Often there is a real system of “indication” of the people to be employed. Those who at the top establish the conditions to get the financing are the same people who “indicate” to the companies to employ this or that person, (and here I’ll stop) with a further connection with voting. When voting happens, (and in some proceedings we have also had the crime of “exchange voting” ) a vote is asked for because one has been a determinant not only in getting the financing but also in imposing the person to be employed.
A further consideration on the mixed public-private companies.
In some cases we have found that in the public sector, there was a real division of the jobs among Parties, with people who are part of all political sides: in some companies we verified that there were people belonging to all forces except, perhaps, of the extreme right and extreme left.
What I worry about most is not this, because I could get the objection by the important people who I see here, that it's a way to represent all cultures. It is an old thing. Very questionable, but it can be said. What worries me is the private companies, because in some cases we have noticed that some entrepreneurs are directly linked to people who are in the public sector, in organizations close to the world of the Church, left and right politicians, and the circle closes with companies tied to organized crime.
If this is the picture, one can understand that within some companies who receive large European fundings, we find much of the political world, a large proportion of professionals that in an area such as Calabria are not many, organized crime, control of the labor market and control of Votes.
If this is the picture we must think beyond the investigations and think what help can come from the European Community structures.
Certainly, for my experience, I can say that the anti-fraud office, when there was a need, always worked in a significant way with the Italian judicial authorities both in terms of cooperation and through Eurojust for the good order of certain rogatory letters." Luigi De Magistris

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 04:26 PM in Economics | Comments (3)
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November 13, 2007

Stop funds from Europe to Italy

Click the video (Italian only)

This afternoon I have taken part in a meeting at the European Union in Strasbourg. at the invitation of Giulietto Chiesa, together with Marco Travaglio and Luigi De Magistris. At this meeting there was discussion of European funding. I’m giving a summary below. In the next few days I’ll publish my video and the video of De Magistris and Travaglio.
“I’ve come here to Strasbourg to ask you for help. To beg the European Community not to provide any more funding to Italy. The money that is arriving from Europe is increasing the metastasis that is devouring our country.
In 2006, Italy got illicit funding from the European Union, then it swindled it for 318,104,000 euro with 1,221 cases denounced. In a single year it has improved its performance by 90 million euro.
We are the top in Europe. First in football. First in fraud. Italy is fraudulent with agricultural funding. It is fraudulent with structural funds for the development of areas that are getting left behind. And I’m just referring to fraud that has been proved.
Billions of Euro arrive every year from the European Community to Italy. Where do they end up? Italian citizens don’t know. To get information they can only turn to the judges. But the judges, when they take action, are always blocked by the Government, by the Parties. So we are always kept in the dark about everything.
The financing from the European Community is our money at the end of the day. Italy participates with other countries to create the common fund that is then redistributed. Money that goes out and that then comes back. A bit like uncontrolled laundering of dirty money. Our taxes are financing the European funding whose use the Italian citizens know nothing about. If it is useful, if it is not useful, what benefits it brings, when it ends.
The Vice President of the Community, Frattini and the Minister of Community Policies, Bonino are very private people. They did not tell Prodi that Barroso had put up 275 million Euro for the integration of the Roma community. Italy didn’t ask for anything, Spain got 52 million and Poland got 8.5 million. Poland? Have the Roma people gone to Poland as well? I thought they were all in Italy. For once when we could have used the funding for a good reason we haven’t asked for it.
And it’s strange. Because even our Regions have opened luxurious community offices in Brussels, that we pay for, to get to the funding. They have more office workers than all the other States.
The billions of Euro that come into Italy are intended for useless work: roundabouts, theme supermarkets, like the TAV tunnel in Val di Susa and Mediapolis in Piedmont. They have financed projects that never arrived at a conclusion, purifiers, alternative energy. They ended up in the pockets of that grey zone that connects the parties to the companies to criminal groupings.
It is better if Italy no longer gives contributions to the common European Fund and in exchange that it has no funding. This money can be used by our government in other ways. To reduce our Public Debt, the biggest in Europe, one of the most impressive in the world.
A Debt that risks taking us under. The money could be used to reduce taxes. To give incentives to companies to invest in Italy instead of encouraging Italian companies to transfer abroad. Or even to reduce the poverty that exists in Italy or increase the starvation pensions of our old folk.
The money laundering of our cash through Brussels is no good for us. It is only useful to fatten up the mafia, to grow criminality in our country.
Also present here is the judge Luigi De Magistris. What has been taken out of the hands of De Magistris is an investigation that involved the top people of the Region of Calabria and of the Italian Government: Mastella, Minister of Justice and Prodi, President of the Council.
The investigation was removed from him by his superiors without a reason. The documents of the investigation have been taken from the strong boxes of the Catanzaro Prosecutors Office without warning him and they have been sent to Rome. The investigation is called Why Not and it also deals with the use of Community funding. In Calabria, they are waiting for five billion euro in European funding. Where will it end up?
The magistracy has been halted by the politicians. Once, in 1992, with Falcone and Borsellino, they used TNT. Now it’s the Minister of Justice who intervenes directly.
European funding is of no use to Italy. It’s useful to the political parties and organised crime. We don’t want it. Please hang onto it. Do this for a better Italy.”

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 09:23 PM in Economics | Comments (14)
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November 05, 2007

Bonino, Frattini and the open hatches

The Local House of Liberty is indignant every hour with the Government and with Topo Gigio Veltroni. It says that the uncontrolled flow from Romania and for Bulgaria is what Valium Prodi wanted. That’s not true!
The responsibility for an out-of-control immigration is the fault of both the government and the opposition. As usual. As for De Magistris, for the Great Pardon, for Forleo, for Rete 4, for the 94 billion tax dodge by the slot machine concessionaries. Just as ever basically.
On 01 January 2007, almost all the European countries imposed a moratorium period for the entrance of people from Bulgaria and from Romania into the EU.
Italy, the least organised country, where the certainty of the penalty does not exist, with the most impressive public debt in Europe, with a density of habitation like an ant-hill and with 5 and a half million precarious workers has in the words of the part time mayor of Rome "aperto i boccaporti" {Opened the hatches}
Forza Italia and Rosa nel pugno have serious responsibilities in relation to the arrival of flows of wretches. I’m reporting the speech by Frattini (FI) vice president of the European Commission and that of Emma Bonino (RNP), Minister of European Policies delivered on 14 December 2006, at the meeting of the ambassadors of Romania and Bulgaria.
Franco Frattini thanked the two countries for their great commitment to the fight against corruption that in the last few years has seen a big drop. Frattini declared that he was contrary to the limitation of entry to Bulgarian and Romanian workers to Italy, as has however happened in other countries of the EU. Minister Emma Bonino spoke and gave a welcome to the 30 million citizens Romanian and Bulgarian. She tranquilized everyone about the fictitious myth of the terror of the invasion of the foreign workers after the entry of a new country to the European Union and she reminded us that instead these people are a great resource for our country. Ms Bonino declared that she personally is against any possible moratorium period for the entrance of people from Bulgaria and from Romania into Italy. She reminded us that even when Spain joined the EU we were all afraid of the invasion and then nothing happened. But who sent us this ? Let her take of her fashion designer jacket and resign immediately. The countries of the European Union have done a moratorium. We haven’t. Why? Confindustria needs to export capital to Romania and Bulgaria where the cost of labour is much lower than here and the controls are fewer. Confindustria also needs to import labour at starvation wages. Romania and Bulgaria are perfect for these objectives. Doors wide open. Prodi did no moratorium and Berlusconi did not ask for it.
Pappa e ciccia.
Bonino deserves in-depth soon. Stay tuned.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:48 PM in Economics | Comments (18)
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October 18, 2007

Let's go forward together!

Thousands of tiny companies are closing down in Sardinia. Their lands are being repossessed for debts that they can no longer pay. There are between 5,000 and 7,000 companies at risk. The crop farmers and sheep farmers are challenging the enormous amounts of interest applied by the Banco di Sardegna on mortgages that they thought offered good terms. They are asking the Region to take action to help them, No one responds. What’s the use of a Region if it isn’t to protect the territory, the culture, the citizens and local production? If they are not taking an interest in these topics they may as well be done away with so as to cause lower costs to the citizens.
The Banco di Sardegna is demanding payment of its loans, but the only thing about it with a connection with Sardinia is its name. It is in fact owned by the Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna. That’s the one that has an incestuous relationship with Gruppo Cremonini, which at one time was at the centre of an investigation on Milena Gabanelli’s programme called Report. Why was it incestuous?
The diagram that I’m showing here highlights the fact that the company called Marr (in the Cremonini Group) and Cremonini, have the following in common with the Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna:
- two supervising auditors
- threedirectors
- a director (in Cremonini) who became a supervising auditor in Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna:
(the green lines connect the directors, the red lines connect the supervising auditors)

Marr was awarded the tender organised by Consip S.p.A. for the supply of foodstuffs for the Public Administration of the Region of Sardinia.
The management of the bar at the Cagliari-Elmas airport has been entrusted to Cremonini that sells panini imported from all the world except Sardinia with moddizzosu from Sanluri, sausage from Murru di Irgo and Boi from Nuraminis
The Banco di Sardegna has two of its directors who are also directors of its controller, Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna: Guido Leoni and Ivano Spallanzani. Leoni is also the CEO of the Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna. It’s he who gives the orders.

To sum up: the farmers are having their lands taken from them. Soru is thinking of Topo Gigio Veltroni, whoever is making decisions stays in Emilia Romagna and has more than a brotherly relationship with Cremonini, a group that is in the foodstuffs business and could get food produced in Sardinia.
There are grown men who are crying on the video. I would like someone to think about these thousands of families. I’m going to do that by soon going to Decimoputzu where they are doing the hunger strike. I’ll do a bit of hunger striking too, but you see I really need that.

Let's go forward together!

PS This evening at 6:00pm in Piazza del Ferrarese in Bari there’ll be the collection of signatures organised by the Bari’s MeetUp2 against the incinerator and the turbogas power station at Modugno.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:28 PM in Economics | Comments (6)
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October 16, 2007

Decimoputzu, Italia

In Sardinia the representatives of the crop farmers and the sheep farmers are on hunger strike in the Council Chamber of Decimoputzu. They are protesting about the sale by auction of 5,000 farms according to the law 44/88. The banks are asking for 700 million Euro and not a cent less. The Government and the Region are looking on. The farmers say that the law that forced them into debt is considered to be illegal by the European Community. That the banks have applied enormous interest rates on the debt.
Who has an interest in getting their hands on the Sardinian farmers’ land used for sheep and crops? And what do they want to do with it?
Don’t touch the farmers of Sardinia or I will turn into a ferocious beast!

Part of a letter from Decimoputzu.

”The sale by auction of the Sardinian companies because of the illegality of the regional law 44/88 is the most serious Italian emergency since Parmalat. In Sardinia, more than five thousand farming companies concerned with crops and sheep are at the second or third auction. This is a disaster that involves the lives of tens of thousands of people. Crop farmers, sheep farmers, and manual workers are reduced to desperation.
A disaster caused by planning, management and the government of the regional agriculture that is the result of the last few decades.
The credit system asks those who work on the land in Sardinia for about 700 million Euro but we, don’t even have the resources to send our children to school for our domestic family expenses or for getting our fields to be productive. To produce, then , for what? For many years our products have been sold (when we can sell them and we don’t destroy them in the field) below cost. The banks expect the equivalent of almost a whole year’s farming production from all the Sardinian companies.
Who will benefit from the sale by auction of our lands? And what will they do with them? Certainly not the creditors. So who? Is it the speculators who will buy extraordinary agricultural land at ridiculously low prices to speculate at our expense? The relatives or the friends of how many of those who are seated at their desks in some private or public office know the dates of the auctions and will turn up ready to make a last minute offer?
We were led into investing and getting into debt with the banks by a regional law that the European Commission has declared to be illegal. They have asked us to pay back the sums that were guaranteed by that law with all the interest (the amount of interest has risen in an abnormal way and we are convinced that there are many cases of illegitimate calculations) while the banks, according to the same illegal law, are not giving back the interest payments (even public ones) that they have received. Perhaps we are simple people but in the habit of thinking that if something is illegal for us it is also for the banks and for the Region that made the law, and thus that each party must accept their responsibilities.
If it goes on like this, we run the risk that in the general silence, there’ll be the sell off of a whole heritage of work, of know-how, of an economy, of guarantees for the future not just for us but for all Sardinian citizens. This is why we say “enough!” and we are ready, if it could be any help, for the final possible battles: those for the dignity and the right to the future.”
Bruno Cabitza. – Comitato di Lotta degli Esecutati, Riccardo Piras – Altragricoltura Sardegna, Giorgio Matta – Soccorso Contadino Sardegna.


Watch the programme on raiclicktv at 3.07 minutes: www.raiclicktv.it

If the banks, Soru or Prodi want to respond to this letter, the blog is available .

Useful links:
- www.sovranitalimentare.net
- www.soccorsocontadino.eu



Ps: It’s revolutionary to be happy. Put your songs on YouTube with the tag "V-day song".

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:39 PM in Economics | Comments (1)
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September 28, 2007

My house cow

Reduce the price of milk and don’t pay the pizzo to the intermediaries? With cows you can’t. Bureaucracy and the great groups of packaged milk do not tolerate unpackaged milk. Signor Andrea Busetto, a farmer rearing cows, explains how and why. If they take the distributor away from him, the farmers will bring their cows straight into town together with Bersani. Our country is one of positional incomes, of corporations, of castes. We pay the pizzo on everything. It is the State that has corrupted the mafia not the other way round. One cannot even sell the milk from one’s own cow.

“Dear Signor Grillo,
I am Andrea Busetto from Pesaro, 47 years old, I rear cows and bring up 2 children (my wife brings me up).
Two years ago I was one of the first in Italy to try my luck with unprocessed milk. And to tell you the truth I was doing reasonably well, with 6 distributors operating throughout the province. All went well for a year. Then someone started to say (the only company making and selling distributors of unprocessed milk approved in accordance with the decree of the Ministry of Economic Development, COZOSERNO of Novara), that the distribution machines have to conform with metric regulations, the same ones for example that relate to petrol distributors etc.
Bear in mind that neither those who sold us the distributors nor the agricultural unions (all terrible) nor the Finance Police have ever said anything about us doing wrong on this point.
Now however it’s the moment of impounding the distributors throughout italy (written intentionally with a lower case “i”), and the CCIA say that they cannot do otherwise, given that by law it is their role to check, using the metric office, the correctness of the weighing scales and the distributors, to protect the consumers. As long as the supermarkets were selling unpackaged wine no one ever dreamed of raising the matter, now that some dairy farmers are trying their luck with entrepreneurship and to the advantage of consumers, this blow happens and it makes me want to give up and move elsewhere.
Given that you are definitely in tune with a topic like this, I’m begging you to respond to me if you can, or even to use all your really powerful means so that Minister Bersani will do a framework law that makes the regulations the same as those in Switzerland, where for 25 years everything works to the satisfaction of all concerned with machines that have not been calibrated (even Austria, even though it is in the European Union like us, finds nothing wrong in allowing the best dairy farmers to get on with it, and they don’t consider the milk distributors to be metric instruments). Why is it that with us, in a bar, unbottled coca cola can cost 1, 2 or 3 euro a glass that can contain 250 or 500 cc and no one can say anything and yet I, a poor dairy farmer at the end of my tether cannot sell the milk at 1 euro a bottle. (The bottles are all the same if you buy them new, but there are similarly of a known volume if the mineral water bottles are re-used.
If you would like to see my face look on www.lattemontefeltro.com. Thank you.” Andrea Busetto Vicari

PS The cow is not mad. I repeat: The cow is not mad.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:47 PM in Economics | Comments (7)
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The Maroni Law

The law on precarious workers should be re-labeled with the name of its true owner. That is Roberto Maroni. For the love of truth, the law on precarious work should be called the “Maroni Law” after the Minister of Labour at that time.
Professor Mauro Gallegati shows us the effects of the Maroni and explains to us that there’s no work in Italy. In fact, when there is work, precarious work does not exist and there’s no need for any law.


Dear Beppe,
I would like to offer to the readers of the blog, certain reflections about things that have been read and spoken in the last month in Piazza Maggiore that would have been an insult to Marco Biagi. About unemployment that hardly exists any longer, about flexibility that “creates” work that doesn’t exist.
Let us start by recognizing that there is a distinct difference between Biagi’s “white paper” about employment and law number 30 (that is not Marco Biagi’s law, but rather it is Maroni’s). Biagi’s “white paper” proposed combining flexibility with social re-balancing and a rewriting of the system of social safety nets.
Biagi specifically pointed out 2 matters of social injustice: Intergenerational equity and the different procedures for protecting employed and unemployed people. Basically it pointed out the disadvantage of being young and unemployed (if then you are a woman living in the South…). He wrote: “the structure of the Italian social spending shows a marked emphasis on pensions and a low level of unemployment benefits as well as the social security in favour of those people of working age.” That is: we are spending too little in social safety nets and too much on pensions. And again: in Italy “among the people looking for work there is a high percentage of people looking for their first job, who are not covered by the insurance systems dealing with unemployment”, and that is because “the removal of protection of existing relationships has made it less urgent to supply help for the risk of unemployment and at the same time, producing a big gap between those who are in employment and those who are unemployed. This has restricted the group of potential beneficiaries from accessing unemployment benefits that do in fact exist.” We tend to ignore the importance of the unemployment benefits because these would be useful above all to those who have lost a real job, while in Italy the biggest number of unemployed are those still looking for a job or who are in transit between one precarious position and another.
If someone wanted to call law number 30 the “Biagi law” it is they who are insulting the memory of Marco Biagi, not those who are campaigning against the existence of precarious work. The experience of industrialized countries shows that flexibility does not create work (www.bepress.com) and that without social security flexibility only creates precariousness.
Has law 30 worked? It is often said that after the reform of the labour market, employment figures have increased by 2 million. But the laws on flexibility have produced what economists call the dilution of work: the same quantity of work shared out among more workers as it is basically obvious if 2 precarious workers do the work of one regular worker, but cost a lot less. ISTAT {National statistics body} says that the unemployment rate has been halved between 1997 and today (6.2%). The problem is that a reading of that data must be taken together with data on the number of those who have been discouraged and on the units of work. Taking account of these elements, unemployment is sailing along at well above 10%. ISTAT tells us that in the first quarter of 2007, there were about 1,600,000 unemployed in Italy. Two ISFOL researchers, Mandrone and Massarelli (www.lavoce.info), people who habitually provide numbers that they have reflected on, say that 1 in 4 of the precarious Italian workers is unemployed, or slightly less than half of those without work is a precarious worker. Do we need other data to get worried? Well then just think that when a precarious worker is unemployed, no one is paying the contributions for that miserable pension that he’ll find himself with in a few years and at least 1 million precarious workers in the last 10 years have been working with contributions that will provide a pension below the minimum. Just think that the annual net income of a “permanent” worker is on average 15 thousand € whereas that of a “precarious” worker is 10 thousand €. And then: the 12% of those employed are non typical (but among the young people the percentage goes up to more than 40%) and this figure is due to rise because every year the relationship between “new” precarious workers and those precarious workers that have found stability (that is who have become workers with no time limits) is a factor of 2 to 1. It seems small, but we are already at more than 3 times more than the other workers, and many of these are graduates).
The introduction of atypical work in the forms set out by law number 30, has in fact widened the range of alternatives available to private business in making use of labour: it has broadened the amount of discretion available to the entrepreneur in employing the work force while nothing has budged to protect the rights of the worker? It is possible (necessary?) to bring in social reforms that provide guarantees for the precarious workers. But the true problem is that here there is no work: a country that was considering bringing in customs duties to tackle the competition from Chinese merchandise, not understanding that innovation is the terrain on which to compete and a country that continues to not spend on research, is so short-sighted that the decline that is in view is not inescapable, but probably deserved. Warm greetings.” Mauro Gallegati.


PS. According to one of the main economists of last century, Schumpeter, the Italian school of economics at the end of the nineteenth century, was second to none in the whole world. Two of its main protagonists, Pantaleoni and Pareto, corresponded frequently. Reading it: “well according to you in Italy are the electors or the elected the worst?” Reply: “What a question!”. It’s like asking which pongs the most between shit or ‘merde’” V-Day instead says that we don’t want to die neither as pong-sufferers nor as pong-producers!” Mauro Gallegati


PS Download and distribute the book: "Schiavi Moderni". We have reached 370,000 copies downloaded!

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:00 AM in Economics | Comments (9)
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September 24, 2007

TFR: If you switch you are lost

Investing your end-of-work-lump-sum in shares and bonds has not been a good idea. Luckily 60% of the workers in the private sector have not listened to the Sirens of the private insurance sector and they have done well.
Beppe Scienza explains why.

Dear Beppe,
It’s good to know that I have given good advice. Above all, that way they can’t accuse you of just denouncing things without ever making concrete proposals. The recent falls in shares and bonds show how appropriate it was to keep your TFR. www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2007/06/tfr_muttering.html).
Basically the “referendum” to get rid of the TFR did not get through: more than 60% of the private sector workers chose not to do without it. Newspapers and TV invited them to listen to the politicians and the economists who were friends of the private insurance sector. Instead, the Italians, (rascals that they are!) to a large extent disobeyed Cesare Damiano, the Minister of Labour and the former director of the pension fund, they disobeyed the Bocconi professor Tito Boeri, Giuliano Cazzola and Marcello Messori, who moved from Fondazione Di Vittorio to Assogestioni, the association for managed savings (certain intellectuals are really champions of transformation).
They preferred to listen to Beppe Grillo and a few others who advised them to keep the TFR, as I did in the book: “La pensione tradita” {the pension betrayed} (www.fazieditore.it)) or Giuseppe Altamore in “Famiglia Cristiana” (www.sanpaolo.org). Or more simply, they have listened to common sense. Thus now they can lounge about, watching the turbulence in the financial markets with detachment.
The Italian workers who have gone over to the pension funds are right to be worried. Since June, the American Stock Exchange has gone down by 2%, the European ones by 3.5% and the Italian one by a massive 6%. The crisis in America of the mortgages called sub-prime has set off a series of collapses that are causing many of those trapped in the private social insurance systems to lose money.
But the worst thing is the lack of transparency. In the Italian pension funds are there bonds connected with the sub-prime mortgages that have gone belly-up? In their portfolios are there other unexploded mines? Probably. But it’s not possible to find out because the complete list of shares that they hold is kept a close secret.” Beppe Scienza

PS. I have cancelled the two shows at Trento and Novara. I’ve done too much shouting and I’ve lost my voice. Don’t worry: The strawberries are ripe. I repeat: the strawberries are ripe.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 08:46 PM in Economics | Comments (11)
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September 21, 2007

Without work, without anything

In Italy anyone who loses their job, loses everything. Whoever has a family to keep and from one day to the next finds themselves out on the streets has no social protection. They are expelled from the system. Paying taxes for twenty or thirty years gives them no rights. To be an Italian citizen gives no protection. The State is absent.
The real problem is not due to the laws about precarious working but the lack of work.
I have been told about a letter sent to Corrado Augias in his column "Lettere&Commenti" {Letters and Comments} and I’m publishing a summary of it. It describes a situation that is common to tens of thousands of people who first lose their job and then lose hope.
If any entrepreneur is listening, let them help this family.
”From the moment when my husband and I were spending a few days holiday with our ten year old daughter and we had to come back early because my husband suddenly lost his job, without any warning, our world fell about our ears. He had been in the job for 30 years and was 52 years old.
I am working part-time and my salary is about 500 euro. Even though I try hard, luck hasn’t helped me enough to get a better wage.
My husband has replied to different job adverts and is willing to do any type of work, but nothing. We have even been to the social services to have at least some kind of financial help while waiting for a job. Among other things, the school has started again, the school fees, the utility bills, the rent, and now there’s the risk that we will be evicted. And yet we even need to eat. We have heard that with my income of 500euro, it’s possible to live, by law. I challenge anyone to do that with a rent that is the same as my income.

I am overcome with sorrow and I am feeling tortured as a mother because I cannot provide the primary needs of my daughter, which is naturally my first thought.
How can the institutions be so cruel to people who suddenly find themselves having to face up to situations like this that are not their fault?
Maria Grazia Spadaro
mgarte@yahoo.it

PS: Download and distribute:: “Schiavi Moderni” {Modern Slaves}. Only yesterday 20,000 copies were downloaded. That makes a total of 280,000 so far.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 06:18 PM in Economics | Comments (18)
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September 20, 2007

Precarious workers, seduced and abandoned

Marco Travaglio has launched “Signornò” {No Sir!}, a new column in l’Espresso. It started with the precarious ones and then there’s the demonstration on 20 October. Not just the “radical left”, the fight against precariousness with the reform of the law 30 was in the election manifesto of the Unione, even though many people in the Unione have forgotten that. But we don’t forget anything.
”So it’s official, the demonstration on 20 October is about welfare and it’s against precariousness. It’s promoted by the “radical left” and it’s an attack against the Prodi government. “A contradiction that cannot be rectified” thunders D’Alema. “an initiative in error”, says Fassino. “No Ministers in the streets”, from Veltroni and Bindi. For once they all agree so well. “If Ministers go out into the streets, it means there’s a government crisis”, threatens Mastella. Even Mussi of the Democratic Left holds back: “Better to have a meeting inside a building.” Unfortunately, without considering whether or not the motivation of the promoters is just, no one is saying why going out into the streets would be such a horrendous thing to do. Especially considering that the revisiting of the law 30 (wrongly called “Biagi”) is written into the election manifesto “For the good of Italy”, on the basis of which the Unione was voted into power giving rise to the Prodi government.
In the tome of 282 pages, the running sore of the precarious workers is cited a good 28 times. “To make the fragmentation of the world of work even more fragmented, the ‘Maroni’ law (law n. 30/2003) entered the field…We are against the contents of the law 30…. For us, the normal form of employment is a normal work contract without a time limit, because we believe that all the people must be able to construct for themselves the prospect of serene life and work (161-162). “The extension of precariousness has contributed to the worsening of the safety conditions in the work place.” (163)
Who is threatening the government then? Who is asking that the manifesto be respected? Or who is forgetting that they signed it? On 2 August, Prodi wrote to the leaders of the left: “In the Autumn, I really would like there to be the demonstration that has been talked about: out in the open air and in the work places. Take with you your issues, popular pride, triggers and naturally criticism”.
There’s no lack of precedence. On 22 March 1997, D’Alema, the DS Secretary, marched with Bertinotti and the Trades Unions “to press – recalls the former trades unionist D’Antoni - the first Prodi government about the issue of employment” And last spring, Mastella demonstrated on Family Day against the DDL on the Dico issue written by two Ministers of his government. Now, to those who remind him of this he says: “Yes, but it is very different, because I did not promote the demonstration.” In fact it was promoted by the friends of Pezzotta and the Cdl,, that is by the opposition. And he was marching with Berlusconi, Fini and Casini: but to lend a hand to Prodi of course.”
Marco Travaglio

PS: Download and distribute “Schiavi Moderni” {Modern Slaves} (260.000 copies downloaded).

PPS: I’ve been told about an initiative for 6 October in Rome called: “From V-Day to the National Civic List” by Roberto Alagna, Oliviero Beha, Pancho Pardi, and Elio Veltri. I want to let you know that I have NOTHING TO DO WITH the National Civic List that is being proposed.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:29 PM in Economics | Comments (11)
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September 05, 2007

Golden milk, silver horn

photo by matteopenzo

Last Sunday the cows came down to the valleys. In piazza San Carlo in Turin, the good people of the city incorporating a car park, were protesting about the expensive milk. The cows are milked as well as the consumers.
From the cowshed to the table, milk is subject to a financial transformation. A litre goes from 0.32 cents to 1.4 euro a litre. To the producer, milk is valued at less than mineral water. Often the cow owner doesn’t cover the costs.
The Coldiretti protests for the management of milk quotas. They ask that the provenance of milk and its derivatives should be indicated so that we can avoid eating Belgian or Ukrainian milk products sold as Italian. The milk quotas have had up and down times. The memory of manure splattered at a State official is still vivid. I have to admit, as regards the milk quotas I’m still investigating but with limited results. I don’t understand why Italy, with demand that is greater than the supply set down in law, is obliging the producers to close down or to throw away excess milk. I don’t understand why we can’t buy unbottled milk directly from the associations of producers in public distribution points. The cost would be less than a euro a litre. We wouldn’t throw the bottle away. We wouldn’t be fattening up the parasites on the cows: the distributors, the transporters and the advertisers. And we’d know where the milk is coming from. We could even adopt a cow at a distance.. We could go and visit it every so often with the children. A tour of the cowshed at the weekend, like you do with the wine cellars.
The Coldiretti estimates family expenditure on food and drink as 467 euro a month. 230 euro (51%) goes on sales and services, 140 (30%) to the food industry and 89 (19%) to the producers. Producers and consumers count as much as the 2 of spades in briscola or like Fassino in the DS. Prices go up, but the prices of what, if milk increases its value by almost fivefold from the cow to the supermarket?

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August 27, 2007

The sweetness of the public debt

photo by janet7r

Taxes and the resulting income derived from them are going up. In the first 6 months the State gathered in 179,900,000,000 euro with an increase of 13,400,000,000 with respect to the same period for the previous year.
If more money is coming to the State, that should reduce the public debt, but instead it’s going up. By May 2007 it had arrived at 1,626,316,000,000 euro. In a month it increased by 17,000,000,000 euro. That’s 204,000,000,000euro a year, eight budgets.
The equation "tax increase= increase in public debt" is a sadomasochistic practice exercised on the tax payers. The more they pay, the more they get into debt. The debt is not called public by chance. In fact it is a burden on the citizens. It’s as though we had entrusted our current account to Prodi and at each increase of our earnings there were a corresponding increase in our outgoings. The more we hand over, the less money we have and the more we get our children into debt. The increase in the debt is due to the greater costs of the public administration. “Pubblico ergo debito.”
Once upon a time, the debt was managed by inflation, but Padoa Schioppa cannot devalue the euro. We’re left with the State bonds, the BOTs and the CCTs. The public debt offered to the citizens who buys and increases it. The interest paid out on the bonds in fact increases the State’s debt. These are perversions not economy. Group orgies in the dark with no prisoners taken.
It’s immoral to increase taxes and increase the debt. Any old ordinary administrator of a condominium would be thrown out. The next budget must eliminate costs, not increase the tax receipts, otherwise they are pulling our legs. A budget that has a decrease of 100,000,000,000,000 euro in State costs. The ri-sa-na-mento {making things OK once more}, this magic word that the trimurti ProdiSchioppaVisco, spell out, is just thin air. For confirmation, check up on (your) public debt.

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August 21, 2007

The red line

On the horizon there’s the red line: the end of oil. Where is it placed? At 15, 30 years? We know for certain that we will see a post-oil world. Similar to but different from the post-bomb scenarios. No one can say with certainty how much oil remains. Almost all agree that half has already been used. The cheapest, the part nearest the surface. To extract oil costs energy. If it takes 2 litres of oil to extract one, then it’s not worth it. The oil in the Mariana Trench is not economic.
What will happen after the end of oil, and above all what will happen before that?
States work on energy. At a well that’s drying up, only the strongest animals get to drink. The armed States will drink the oil, and towards the end, when the well has become a puddle, they will fight each other.
Alternative energies cannot in the medium term, be a substitute for oil. There will be a transition period of at least decades. Before the economy of oil, there were one thousand million of us. Now there are six thousand million. Will we go back to being one thousand million? Agriculture needs oil, machines and fertilizer; without that there’s famine.
Whole zones of the planet are not self-sustaining. Without transport, they will close down. The neighbour’s grass will get greener and the neighbour will not want to share. The transport of goods will become a luxury. Tomatoes from China and tin baskets from Mexico will become an obscene memory. The outskirts of the cities without supermarkets, gas, oil, fields, water will not be great places to live. If it’s possible, they’ll be worse than now.
After the red line, what’s waiting for us is neo feudalism. The land, the communities, the animals, relationships, the capacity of individuals will become important. While waiting for a new form of universal energy that perhaps we would willingly do without.

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August 12, 2007

Prodi’s gold

It’s a very worrying time. The stock markets are crashing. The GDP is not growing. However the public employees are always growing. Useless organisations are multiplying. The salaries of councillors, deputies and senators are definitely above the European average. The banks are reassuring. And the more they are reassuring the more worrying it is for us. The value of real estate is going down, but the interest rates for the variable rate mortgages are going up. You pay more to have less. The beaches are half empty and the hotels half full.
An economic war has been declared on the Italians. And to win it we need extraordinary measures. Visco, our V2, is not enough. They have let it go on Valentino Rossi in London. But it’s small fry. Those who don’t pay taxes no longer sin, according to Famiglia Cristiana. It depends on what you pay and to do what. Put like that it’s an encouragement (but correct) to dodge.
Prodi has had a spin on his bike at Predappio. While meditating in front of il Duce’s tomb he found inspiration. If Mussolini asked for gold for the country, he would have asked for gold from the country. He would have used our gold reserves to reduce the debt. Straight away he talked to his wife about it and she stayed silent for a day and then she zoomed off to the psychiatrist. Before Prodi, no one thought about it, and what’s more they didn’t say it. If the public debt, as the words say, is ours then so is the gold. It doesn’t belong to the government, it belongs to the Italians. The State machinery is rubbish. No sane person, wants to have anything to do with it if they can help it. And it costs, it costs a lot. In certain Italian regions, in the South, the Centre, the North it is the main employer. Two million public employees fewer. This must be your objective, employee Prodi. Take notes. Leave the gold where it is.

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August 05, 2007

Golden shit

photo by psyhiro
The banks can be better than the “magliari” and much better than the mafia. There’s no limit to their creative finance. Or rather, the limit is the crack, the bubble, the crisis in the market. When savers lose everything, then the creativity leaves the space to the analysis by the economists who explain well in great detail, but always later. Whoever has lost everything, while they are reading, always feels the desire to meet them one evening with a sledgehammer.
The banks, especially the American ones, for years have been applying the infernal mechanism to mortgages. It works like this. The bank grants a mortgage to a person who is at risk. “Subprime” mortgages for which there’s no verification of the source of income of those asking for the mortgage. “Alt-a” mortgages given with a simple declaration. The more mortgages, the more the money for the banks. The bank gains on the interest payments on the mortgage, but the risk is high. Because whoever has taken out the mortgage might not pay it back. So the bank packages the mortgages in investment funds, a bit like transforming shit into gold.
The mortgages on sale are called CDO, Collateralised Debt Obligations. In practice what happens is that the banks sell the debts of people who are insolvent. With a treble gain: from the mortgage, from the fund and by eliminating the risk. In theory the CDO can be inserted in any fund. The unknowing buyer could discover that in the next few days. In fact, the value of the real estate market in the United States has been in free fall for months, the Americans are no longer managing to make their payments, the funds are plummeting.
It’s not known where the CDO’s have finished up. In which banks, in which countries, in which funds. If it’s your turn, it’s your turn. It’s the capitalism of debt, beautiful. The one that invents wealth and destroys the savers.

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July 30, 2007

The disappearance of the future

Costs, money, big steps and little steps, tax inducements, payments. The joyous costs of the Caste. The little treasure chest, ah the little treasure chest. Money, costs, costs, money. We have become a nation of accountants, of wretches, of rich, of lower middle class wanting to be emancipated. Of temporary loans, mortgages, reduction in ICI and increase in the refuse collection costs. The poorer we are the more we think of money. The richer we are the more we think of money. The Finance law, consumer credit, the Tan {annual rate}, Taeg {global effective annual rate}, inflation, interest rates, variable rates, fixed rates. Bank returns, shares, bonds, futures, derivatives. The public debt that is above us and nullifies every public discourse. Everything depends on the public debt. Financing, repurchase agreements, refinancing, loans for a quarter, fifth, third of your salary, for everything. Advertising communicates money, asks for money, offers money in exchange for debts, for other money. Lower rates, higher rates. The job offers money. Work is a risk and a commitment. Italians want a job, money. The future of the country has disappeared for public debate, from private debates, from discussions in the local. In the United States, the first question is: “How much do you earn?” In Italy: “How big is your debt?”. The more you have debts, the more you are important. The more you create, the more you are respected. You can become the President of the Council or of Mediobanca. Debt is the engine for social promotion. Whoever doesn’t have debt can have it. Evolve. It’s an inverted wage-inflation linkage. A commercialization of the State, of the parties, of society, of the family. A virus that sucks out the future. What are the priorities of the country? The big step, the increases in public sector pay scales, the democratic party? Or the regions in the hands of the mafia? Information that is eaten up by the local house of liberties and by the party secretaries, the incapacity to innovate, research that is betrayed, the brain drain? To be or to have? Italy is not and has not. It’s a hybrid, a cross, a chimera. A country in a coma that is counting the small change with the spectacles of a blind man.


PS: Monday 30 July 2007, the excavators of Idrea srl will move into action.
Make haste in great numbers to join with the Committee to defend rio fergia, to suspend this injustice until all the anomalies denounced by the committee, the people, the meet-ups, and the Minister for Culture, have been clarified and sorted out.
The place to meet is at the headquarters in the Boschetto zone, a few kilometres from Gualdo Tadino (PG)

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July 21, 2007

Unending Steps

by LMDocherty

The little steps, the big steps and the related step-words are in the war of words between the government and the Trades Unions. They create confusion. It’s of little interest to young people, they are the modern slaves and they won’t have a pension. They’ll die before that. Meanwhile they are paying for the current pensioners. It is right that those who do not have other means of support should have a minimum dignified pension. It is however a way of laughing in your face when millions of pensioners get a pension that is worth more than they ever paid in. And that the difference is paid by the young people.
I’m publishing a letter from prof. Gallegati about the Prodi reform

After that I’m publishing the umpteenth testimony from the book Schiavi Moderni (150,000 copies downloaded).

“Dear Beppe,

The Maroni reform established pensionable age to be 60 for those workers who retire from January 2008; the Dini reform sees the ten-yearly revision of the transformation coefficients that determine the value of the pensions with the new contribution system, bearing in mind the lengthening of a lifetime.

Prodi has reformed the reforms. I would like to invite the blog readers to reflect on this question: what will happen to the pensions of young people and of the so-called oppressed workers (including modern slaves)?

Because of the “discontinuous” work and the aging of the population, the young generations (the pensioners of 2025) will realise that they are poorer than their parents and won’t be able to retire at age 60, but will have to go on and work until age 70 so as to survive. To avoid such a drama, we must increase the pension age and review the transformation coefficients: it would be an element of inter-generational equity not to load the costs of getting old onto future generations. In a society where we live now to more than 80 years of age, it’s not fair to work for 35 years and then spend the next 20-25 years being supported by young people.

The ratio between the number of workers and the number of pensioners has made a major leap down (it has gone from 4 to 1 in 40 years). To Italy's disadvantage, there are two elements:

- lower levels of fecundity and higher levels of longevity with respect to other developed countries: aging is more marked than elsewhere,

- the number of workers doesn’t grow fast enough, because of the progressive stalling of the economy: the GDP of the promised “Berlusconi economic miracle” has grown by 2.2% in 4 years, the same percentage that “the economic miracle of the 1960s” saw in a bit less than 4 months, and the lowest participation in the workforce of women and young people.

Alternative ways of getting pensions for the “over-50s” are an important objective, but what must have priority are alternative mechanisms to those established by the Biagi law that encourage the stable entry into the labour market of young people and an increase in female participation with a reform of the welfare system.

Employment levels for young people in Italy are among the lowest for developed countries. The time needed to get the first job has increased, and all this with low starting salaries and a welfare system that gives no social protection for young people and gives the lowest rate of female participation in Europe. We will have to adopt measures that redress the delayed entry of young people and of women into the labour market (and working conditions at the beginning of the career that are less precarious) together with the reform of the welfare system and the transformation coefficients that give fairness between the generations.” Mauro Gallegati.

240 contracts before getting a pension

“Since 2000 I’ve been working in civil aviation. First in a company where they filled their pockets really well and then, obviously it went bust (false accounting meant that hundreds of workers stayed home: it’s not just a crime against capital, it’s a social drama).

Then even the other companies feel the weight of the crisis, a forty-year old with an enviable CV looks around and only finds jobs at 900 euro a month for a contract lasting a maximum of two months. With the new regulations, should I be working for another 20 years? Do I have to build up 240 contracts? Can I no longer make plans, receive loans? Does it have any sense to live like that? This is not life, it’s survival, to make someone rich. I’m wondering whether it’s worth renouncing even to survive.”

B. C. 12.03.2006 09:21

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July 17, 2007

The New Bankers

photo by Julien Magnat


Draghi, the Governor of the Bank of Italy, has asked the banks to reduce the cost of services. And to get in line with Europe. Profumo has replied.

He shouldn’t have done. Since he’s been living with Geronzi, the convict, he’s not been himself. Every morning he asks his private mirror: “Who is the most beautiful banker in the realm?” And the mirror always replies: “It’ll go to Banca Intesa”. He’s destroyed, he’s a man injured by banking love. But not for this must he put into the market the thoughts of usurious banks.

The cost of mortgages, he explained, are higher in Italy than the average in Europe because there are “different conditions”. “In Italy it takes 7 years to get a house for those without a mortgage, in Germany 12 months”.


A Cartesian way of reasoning, the entrepreneurial risk all falls on the client, on everyone: on those who pay for a mortgage and on those who don’t.

Thus, every citizen should be able to invoke the “different conditions” in case of difficulty. And act accordingly. Not pay taxes because the State doesn’t provide adequate services. Not pay for the motorways because the travel times doubles because of road works. Not pay Ici because the State doesn’t reimburse the tax credits. Not pay the insurance because it’s too costly. Not pay more than 50 cents for a coffee.

Furthermore, when faced with “different conditions” the Italian unilaterally increase the prices of what he sells, including his own labour. Basically copy the banks.

The cost of money has reached the stars, those that can’t manage with a variable rate mortgage , have two choices: either they “let the bank take the house” or they finish up in the hands of usurers. Tens of thousands of families are losing their homes, perhaps after 7 years, as Profumo says. But who advised the families to get a variable rate mortgage? Perhaps the banks? And who gains in the end, as always, from the “different conditions”? To find out, read the Unicredit quarterly report : 3,191,000,000 euro as operating profit in the first 3 months of 2007.

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June 29, 2007

Precarious State

drawing by The Hand from "Schiavi Moderni" {Modern Slaves}

Prodi, our precarious employee has said many times that the fight against precariousness is a priority of his government. Thus one could ask why precariousness is so widespread right inside the public sector employment.
Those who are precarious, apart from the usual teachers, are even those who supply information to the social insurance bodies, work and pensions. A paradox.
I’m publishing a letter from professor Gallegati of the Economics Department in the Università Politecnica delle Marche about the government’s proposal to modify the Biagi law.
After that I’m publishing the umpteenth witness statement from the book Schiavi Moderni (100,000 copies downloaded).

“Dear Beppe,
Roberto Leombruni and I have considered the government’s proposal to modify the Biagi law.
Precariousness, here’s the slowly-slowly plan of the government.
There are three proposals and for these Damiano deserves a “plus”, an “equals”
and a “minus” on the record sheet.

- on fixed-length contracts. By definition they are contracts that have a duration with a limited time: if a company wants a worker for longer than that there’s a normal contract, with unlimited time. However since 2001, these can be repeated as often as required as long as there’s a gap of 20 days between the end of one contract and the beginning of the next. It’s the vision of virginity of the Centre Right, after 20 days of abstinence, the lasses regain their virginity. Quite rightly, Damiano would like things to return to a natural state without an employee having to wait 20 days without a salary waiting to be once more appetising to the company. “Plus”

- On minor contracts according to Biagi. The government intends to cancel staff leasing and on-call working. As Ichino has rightly observed in il Corriere, there are methods for laying down rules (that support the workers) for practices that exist even independently of the Biagi law. Because the “one day waitresses” will always exist, and because the cooperatives that take on a contract for cleaning the mayor’s toilet and get a cococò to do the work, are worse – for the worker – than staff leasing. The fact is that the Biagi law has a “bad reputation” and to reform it will present a good image. “Equals” (not “minus” because anyway, the Confindustria admits that these are hardly ever used by the companies)

- Parasubordinato. What is proposed is also a new increase in the social security contributions for the “parasubordinati”, who already in the last Budget went from 18% to 23.5% and who could go up to 25-26%. The government tells us that the measure would guarantee the young people a minimum pension.
Good, at last they have confessed.
At least a million young Italians for ten years (from the time when Treu brought in the separate management in 1996) have worked without putting aside sufficient contributions to guarantee them a minimum pension, often with an income that would not have allowed them to even remotely consider paying for alternative pension schemes.
Given that the guilt has been confessed, the solution is not "scurdammoce o
passato": the correct amount is 25-26%? OK, let’s give those million young people a notional contribution that goes towards filling the gap of unpaid contributions over ten years. “Minus”, expecting a “plus”.”
Mauro Gallegati and Roberto Leombruni



Training programme/work
”I’m 34 years old and for a good four years I have been a precarious worker with a public administration of red political beliefs (the Training programme/work of a beautiful Tuscan Province) Yes, exactly, the service for training for work, active in making policies for employment to combat unlawful working and unemployment, the one that was the first to use the loop-holes offered by the Biagi reform and even before the contracts brought in by minister Treu, whose names remind one of birds who are not particularly intelligent!
Known as co.co.co. I am right in the employment centre (previously placement
service) and my job is to look after young people and apprentices, and I see things…. To be in the employment centre as a precarious unemployed (my job is about to finish) and help others find a job is like being tied up and gagged on the throne of the chef in the kitchen of a Grand Hotel with stomach cramps eating away at you because of hunger. Not just the swindle, but the sick joke… I got the job with a public selection process: first prize: a co.co.co contract (8 months of work alternating with 4 months of an iron diet of air and swearing) then with time transformed into a costly registration as a freelance worker (the cost was halved for half the hours) that is useful to give a living wage to my dear accountant but not to me (poor thing, when he calls me to tell me of the regular costs that I have to pay, he mutters with embarrassment as though he had just suddenly realized that he’s got his flies open in front of the incredulous gaze of a young virgin nun!
He’s a good person and his empathy these days is really moving… and at times I feel like calming him down saying things like “you know now I’m going to get another job and by the end of the year I’ll have finished with all this”, “Good… Let’s hope it works out”, is his reply.) Registering with the tax authorities as a freelance (a device to camouflage working as an employee) was not suggested to me by the Public Administration, it was imposed as an ultimatum.”
L. A. 09.05.2006 10:14

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June 24, 2007

Old and Poor

Old folk will finally be able to ask for a loan. Even if they are 90 years old. And they can make a future for themselves with a 40 year mortgage on their first house. It's never too late. Only one requirement is necessary: to be a state pensioner. The loan will be laid on by Inpdap thanks to a "solidarity contribution" taken out of the pension every month.
Tacitly and elegantly. In the style of Arsène Lupin, with the usual trick of silent consent.
Once upon a time, silence was golden, now it has the smell of shit. The dextrous withdrawal from the pension will make the pensioners poorer but at the same time it will allow them to take part in the loans lottery. It's a lottery because the loan is discretional, and is decided by Inpdap on a case by case basis.
It's all true. It's a decree from the Ministry of the Economy. Believe me, it's always them. Always ready to pounce. From the night-time withdrawal from our current accounts by Amato, to the snatching of the TFR.
The letter from a blogger explains all:

"Dear Beppe,
The Ministry of the Economy has made a decree that establishes that public employees must accept a tax (more than anything it's an extortion) called "Solidarity contribution", that obliges them to be signed up to the Unified Management of credit and social loans of Inpdap. Those who must sign up are those pensioners getting pensions through Inpdap as well as employees and pensioners of those bodies and public administrations that have pension arrangements with pension providers other than Inpdap itself.
The decree establishes that the employees who are still working and the Inpdap pensioners (but even those who that have pension arrangements with pension providers other than Inpdap) starting from the month that follows 6 months after the regulation comes into force are automatically signed up.
The regulation is Regolamento di attuazione dell'articolo unico, comma 347 della legge 23 dicembre 2005 n.266" (Legge Finanziaria 2006). They are signed up to the Unified Management of credit and social loans and are obliged to pay contributions equal to:
- 0.35% of the pension contribution (for those still working)
- 0.15% of the pension received (for pensioners)
The "gabelle" will be deducted monthly from what is paid out to workers and pensioners starting from the date of their forced signing up (the relevant period started 25.04.07) unless a notification declining the registration arrives from the worker/pensioner. Naturally if someone doesn't want their money to be taken for a ride, start writing the little letter to Inpdap and do that within 6 months, otherwise the rule of silent consent will be applied.
That's how the government acts with the weak. They squeeze you on salaries and pensions, which among other things are among the lowest in Europe, but they give you the chance to not be robbed with a light heart.
According to the Cisal Fipal this operational trickery is similar to the one for the pension funds that will replace the TFR. And anyway, just as for the funds, the obligatory registration with this Unified Management is a disadvantage for the workers.
Especially for those who are a long way from their pensions. They can already access socially-assisted loans and mortgages from INPS without any important limitations. Whereas, Inpdap creates a complicated points system every year to establish access to these benefits, with time scales that vary as time goes by.
Furthermore, it's not economic even for all employees near to pension age who have no intention to get a loan after their pension or who don't want to keep on with loans they have already taken out, which could make a difference to their end of work lump sum payment.
Which means that we have a big tax brother with a sinister face watching over us and who establishes (according to well known studies in the sector) what we have to earn to be on the right path with their pathetic forecasts.
Now they even try to grab our cash without letting us understand a thing and with the formula of silent consent. More sinister than that is really not possible."
AM.

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June 23, 2007

The outbound slave

Anyone who denounces the effects of the Biagi law or of the Treu law (1997 employment law) is a visionary or a terrorist. In Italy everything’s OK: unemployment no longer exists, we are at record lows. And it’s true, from unemployment we have passed directly to slavery.
Professor Gallegati of the Economics Department of the Università Politecnica delle Marche has made some remarks about the latest data on unemployment. Is it that he too is a terrorist?
Together with his letter, I am publishing one of the 20,000 cases of slavery that have been made known to me. This one is in the book Schiavi Moderni {Modern Slaves} (71,000 copies have been downloaded). You laugh to not cry.

“Dear Beppe,
It seems that the government will try to get its hands dirty by altering the “Biagi law”. Before considering the value of the action, let’s take a look at the data, for once really timely, updated the other day, on the precarious workers.
The length of the new contracts offers, on its own, a worrying signal: for more than 60%, it’s less than 3 months and only 2% have a duration of a year or more. Of the first group, half have a contract of one month, while one in 5 workers have a contract of one week (obviously 5 days).
The Economic Bulletin of the Bank of Italy tells us that almost 50% of young workers are taken on with short-term contracts. It’ll be said that’s worrying.
Well then what can be said when you discover that of these people newly taken on, less than 10% in a year see their contract transformed into a contract without time limit.
Apart form some “market fundamentalist”, there is by now too much evidence that the Biagi law has not been able to offer a serious response to the persistent fragmentation (by territory, by generation and by gender) of the employment market.
As well as that (see the postscript to Schiavi Moderni) how will these “precarious workers” pay their pension? What would be needed is a long lasting reform that can offer these young workers a possibility of stability. The data shows that once a short-term contract ends, there’s almost no prospect of a long term one.
To safeguard the flexibility without making people’s lives precarious is what must be demanded.
A possibility to promote a lasting entrance into the labour market is the French model, this uses a gradual introduction of forms of protection of the position, as a safeguard against losing the job, that increases gradually, as the time spent in a job with a company increases.
All this should happen within the realm of an open-ended contract, the same for everyone and independent of the age of the worker. At the same time, the maximum length of a short-term contract should be reduced to 10-12 months.
The challenge is: will young workers accept a route towards stability by starting out with a contract that only in theory has no limits on the time frame?
A second possibility is proposed by the Danish model with its "flexsecurity", that is economic flexibility with social security.
In Denmark a job lasts an average of 4 years and every Danish person changes employer at least 5 times during their working lives.
Entrepreneurs have great freedom to dismiss, while the worker who has been sacked, from the first day of unemployment gets a payment from the State equal to 80-90% of their salary for 4 years.
It’s a social model that aims to save people rather than jobs, investing in the training of workers to get them ready for new sectors.
A model that is fairly costly. And Italy, with its debt, could only allow itself this by recovering the taxes that are dodged (just remember that this is equivalent to 5 substantial budgets each year).
The “Biagi law” has become the litmus paper of the visions of capitalism, of 2 fundamentalisms, between State and market. The State must and can transform the precarious working into flexible working. The plan to reform law 30 is going too slowly.
warm greetings
Mauro Gallegati
A Master’s under my belt from "Schiavi Moderni"
"I too am a Call Centre worker. I’m 27 years old I’ve got a degree and then a Masters under my belt. I am one of those who are highly qualified but struggle to find a dignified job who falls back onto a Call Centre to have a few hundred euro extra in my pocket.
I too am a modern slave. About a month and a half ago I was taken on as an Outbound operator (basically you have to annoy people until 9:30 in the evening!) for an English school in Naples at 5 € gross per hour. It’s useless to tell you that in this Call Centre we are all graduates or on the way to being graduates (as they can choose, they choose the best obviously!).
This morning I was called in by my line manager to discuss my recent productivity: and according to him it’s low and it’s compounded by my behaviour “arrogant towards him”. Which when translated means that I refused to come to work early without having the extra time counted, asking for the copy of the contract that we have signed without the end date, and the most serious of all, expressing my ideas
(I’d like to make clear anyway that my productivity is not so low: I have never been absent in the month of March and I have already made a couple of useful contacts towards the objectives of the month)
I’m sure that all those who work and have worked, and will work in this Call Centre, sign short-term work contracts with the end date left blank and above all without ever receiving the signed copy (the luckiest have at the most a photocopy!)
The line manager, after pathetically talking about my “subversive” behaviour invited me to sign a letter of resignation and when I refused he got cross and said that just for that I deserved to be sent home (not wishing to sign a resignation letter?) As he was evidently in difficulty he invited me to talk to the director saying that he didn’t want any more chaos and that I was annoying.”
L. F. 10.03.2006 18:14

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:14 AM in Economics | Comments (3)
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June 07, 2007

TFR muttering…….

Piave murmurs: Don’t let the pension fund pass. Defend your TFR {lump sum you get when you end your employment}.
If you work in the private sector and by the end of June you’ve said nothing, then your TFR will end up in the managed savings.
An adventure to make your pulse flutter. For twenty years the common funds have been making people lose money. And the pension funds are ready to repeat the same disasters.
The silent assent is a trap. They change the cards on the table without asking you anything. It’s the game of the three tokens with a lifetime’s load of money. It’s not true that they construct an integrated pension: they give the TFR as scrap to the industry of the managed savings. The TFR has been in existence since 1982. It has worked well for 25 years.
It is dangerous to play for the pension at roulette. To play on the Stock Exchange. If you are lucky you gain, but if it goes badly you lose a chunk of your savings.
If a financial consultant is ogling your TFR, your treasure chest, ask him to respond to these points:
- no pension fund protects from inflation like the TFR, the tax advantages of the integrated scheme are eaten up by the costs
- in lean years a big part of your savings go up in smoke
- if you sign up to the integrated scheme you are tying yourself in until you get your pension
- the TFR is safe even if the company were to go bust because it is guaranteed by INPS
- if you are sacked you get it straight away, that wouldn’t be the case for the pension fund.

The TFR reform is a perfect example of the bipartisan law. Berlusconi created it and Prodi hasn’t changed anything. There’s a book that explains how to defend yourself, it’s “La pensione tradita” by Beppe Scienza. The message of the book is extraordinary: don’t move, stay where you are, every tiny movement could be used against you. At least don’t give them the chance.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 03:53 PM in Economics | Comments (6)
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June 02, 2007

The Strange Couple

The magazine, Internazionale, has published my article on the strange couple Profumo and Geronzi, the banker admired in Europe and the one convicted for bankruptcy. An all-Italian miracle.
Economy and the rule of law are two sides of the same coin. Without the rule of law, the economy is subject to a transformation: it becomes spaghetti-economy. What does this deviation from Adam Smith’s principles consist of?
There’s a text-book case to be taught in all Italian Economics Faculties. Imagine a block of cold spaghetti, a few days old, a white block, disgusting to look at. Select any single piece and try and pull it.
It will resist courageously. It will obstinately stay twisted up with the other strands.
You’ll never know where it finishes, or how long it is.
If you pull the spaghetti strand called Parmalat, where does it end? And the ones called Cirio, Banca Popolare di Lodi, Banca 121, or tango bond?
You have to make do with a view of the whole lot, outside the ball of spaghetti. It’s disgusting and that’s that. You can’t investigate further.
The conflicts of interest are so intertwined that a banker can also be a publisher, for example of il Corriere della Sera, an industrialist, on 2 Boards of Directors, can sell and buy from himself, an auditor can also be an administrator, a convict can be a president or a manager.
Economics, politics and publishing are a single thing. A triad that controls the System. An organisation defined by not snitching, much more powerful than the Camorra System denounced by Saviano in ‘Gomorra’. The merger of the two banks Unicredit and Capitalia is a demonstration of how the system protects itself.
In recent years Capitalia has been partly cleaned up, reorganized, returned to its ‘core business’ from the previous commercial management carried out in the corridors of Montecitorio. Before it was a bank to facilitate bipartisan politics.
Thanks to the CEO, Matteo Arpe, just a bit more than 40 years old. Arpe is one of the few bankers held in high esteem in the international financial world. He was against a series of manoeuvres by Cesare Geronzi, Capitalia’s 70-something president.
Geronzi tried to get rid of him. Arpe stayed in place thanks to the backing of foreign investors.
But who is Cesare Geronzi? His CV would be the envy of Al Capone.
The prosecutor of Parma asked for Geronzi to be debarred from being the president of Capitalia.
A Capitalia director, Andrea Del Moretto, had already discovered in 2002 how things were going in Parmalat, with bonds worth 7 thousand, million euro as opposed to the one thousand two hundred million declared on the balance sheet.
Geronzi did nothing. He didn’t withdraw credit to Parmalat and for more than a year they sold bonds with a hole inside.
Geronzi was convicted of preferential bankruptcy and sentenced to one year eight months in prison for the Italcase collapse by the Brescia Tribunal. The Board of Directors has obviously confirmed Geronzi in his position.
The merger with Unicredit creates the biggest Italian Bank. Profumo and Geronzi are triumphant on the pages of the newspapers. D’Arpe has resigned. Perhaps he’ll go abroad. The umpteenth brain drained.
D’Alema and Berlusconi are happy together with a well nourished group of politicians. Very happy. Perhaps too happy.
Geronzi is vice president of the Unicredit group, a 100,000,000,000 euro bank with shares quoted everywhere. In the media, with RCS, with the commercial banks, with Mediobanca.
It is said that Profumo will take care of the bank, and thus of the business, and Geronzi will take care of participation, thus of politics.
The best Italian banker at the side of Geronzi, the convict, is the photo of a collapse. The economy is based on reputation and we have lost that some time ago.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:12 AM in Economics | Comments (1)
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April 27, 2007

To come is the important bit

image: Flesh Eating Beagle

There’s a new economic theory around. It’s about the rules of the race. It’s the economy compared to horse racing. The Confindustria and the main financial newspapers are convinced of that.
They are the new jockeys, of the equestrian circus. What’s this new theory all about? I’ll use a metaphor to explain.
Imagine that you see two thieves stealing, two rapists raping, two thugs shooting. What they are doing is happening right now. Now let’s change the field of vision. Let’s go to the world of economics.
I know you feel a bit disgusted, but imagine that you surprise some financiers who are drawing blood from a company, some State concessionaires who are not making investments, some companies who are not providing essential services.
In both cases, an observer, perhaps the government, would say in a loud voice: “If there are any rules that allow this disgusting stuff, then they must be changed. And not just during the race, but now!
In the former situation, the observer would be robbed, raped or shot. In the latter case, derided.
Treated like an ignoramus who doesn’t realize that in economics, you don’t change the rules of the race while the race is on. In fact for Tronchetti, Benetton and Montezemolo you can only change the rules when the race is over. When the dividends have been cashed in, the enterprises reduced to Chinese boxes, the stock options distributed.
If a law is in error, then you have to take action. I have never seen a law being changed while nothing is happening. It’s against the laws of nature. Even though I understand the friends in the Confindustria, a coitus interruptus, is never a pleasure for anyone. You don’t interrupt a fxxk.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:33 AM in Economics | Comments (54)
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April 20, 2007

From the Stock Exchange with Envy

“Italian capitalism is at an extreme of unpresentability”, explains Bertinotti, “as the Telecom affair shows us.” The Confindustria has responded with talk of “anti-industrial livore”.
The Italian word “livore” is defined by Garzanti 2006 as “a feeling of bitter and deaf envy”. Bertinotti would be envious of Italian capitalism that is nourished by stock options, State concessions, the absence of regulations and the State’s fund for laid-off workers? Pull the other leg. In Italy there is no longer capitalism nor industry. No serious capitalist envies our Stock Exchange. The capitalists that use their own money and not someone else’s. Foreigners stay well away from the Milan Stock Exchange.
The figures for 2005 show that with any Government, foreign investments are always miserable.

The reason is the control of the economic terrain. Just as in some regions of the South, the multinationals don’t invest because of the presence of the mafia, in the Stock Exchange there’s no investment because of the presence of the “salotto buono”. The Takeover Game is controlled by 20 to 30 people. The rest is just telling jokes.
“According to the Federation of European Securities Exchange, foreign investors buy shares anywhere rather than in Italy. “ (Financial Times 28/3/2007).

The Italian Stock Exchange has the lowest percentage of foreign investments in the whole of Europe: 13%. Elsewhere, from Malta to Estonia, the average is 33%. In Italy, there’s the syndicate pact, the Chinese boxes, and the conflict of interests. A Vietnam.
The syndicate pact works like this: two or three shareholders make an agreement and remove all power from the majority. The Chinese boxes works like this: A ragamuffin with patched trousers owning a tiny amount commands everything. The conflict of interests works like this: the same people are shareholder, manager, supplier, member of the Board of Directors and supervising auditor in more than one company quoted on the Stock Exchange.
They are unsettling people because of their multiple personalities and multiple foreign current accounts. Everything OK, everything according to law, and Consob regulations.
Corporate Governance, the rules that should protect the shareholder and the company, where are they? Cardia enlighten us.
Meanwhile the Telecom shareholders meeting decided on stock options for the Board of Directors. The first and most important priority. And Tronchetti, absent from the shareholders meeting for health reasons, was present in the box at San Siro, healed by the spring sun.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 01:57 PM in Economics | Comments (9)
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April 12, 2007

Consob, Di Pietro and share action

photo by Razor

I have received a letter from the Minister Antonio Di Pietro who has received a letter from Consob about me and the share action campaign. I didn’t think I was so important. I’ll give a response to the Consob letter in the next few days on the blog.
Make sure you are all at Rozzano on April 16!

“Dear Beppe,
As you know I have decided to sign up to your initiative aimed at giving a voice to those people holding small numbers of Telecom shares.
A very important battle in as much as it is emblematic: if it succeeds it could be repeated for every company quoted on the Stock Market and thus introduce into our economy principles of true representation. My support triggered an immediate reaction from the National Commission for companies and the Stock Exchange (Consob) with a letter signed by its president Lamberto Cardia that I am attaching.
The letter tells me to watch out because of the non-lawfulness of your initiative. It could be up to you to respond if you would like to.
Through your blog, I would like to tell the Consob that such precise attention should also be given to the conflict of interests that are normal in the Stock Exchange. Otherwise how is it possible to explain the presence of the same people on the board of Directors of clients and suppliers, in companies that are controlling and controlled?
The mechanism of Chinese boxes, that diabolic mechanism that allows big companies to be controlled by a ridiculously small package of shares and for Olimpia to nominate the majority of the members of the Board of Directors even though it only has 18% of the shares.
Finally, the representation of the people holding small numbers of shares should be facilitated and this is why Italia dei Valori will present a draft law. The current regulations in fact make this impracticable.
Telecom’s shareholders meeting on 16 April, will see perhaps for the first time in Italy, the presence of the people who are shareholders. A display of democracy that I hope will finally bring in the industrial theme, that up until now has been overlooked for the biggest company in the country.
With Telecom there’s part of the future of Italy at stake, but unfortunately there’s only a discussion of Olimpia and its need for cash.
A story that has gone on for months and that is destabilizing the company.
First they tried to sell Tim, then Tim Brasil and in the end they set up an auction for the best offer while showing indifference to the interests of the country.
The infrastructure of the network should be separated from the services. Whoever buys it will have to get a new authorization from the State. The State must examine the preconditions, and in the end it must be possible to count the votes, not weigh them.”
Antonio Di Pietro.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:05 AM in Economics | Comments (26)
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April 08, 2007

The Market

photo by Guano

The market is the new ideology of our employees. A company is closing down? It’s the law of the market. A few hundred families are left on the street? It’s the market.
A company that is fundamental for Italy like Telecom is plundered and sold at auction? It’s the market. The motorway company Autostrade increases the tolls, doesn’t do the maintenance work and distributes the dividends? It’s the market. No one can oppose the market. It would be against liberalism, against Boninowhodoestheshopping, against Prodiofclosedgames.
Against the European Community that is always on the side of the market, never on the side of the citizens. The market is the new divinity to be celebrated with Easter. A little saint of the Findomestic or of the psycho dwarf in his wallet. A god without “competitors”.
Though Christ had to be resurrected, the market has never died.
A discussion about water, energy, electricity, building is immediately extinguished with the magic word: market. A superior being that operates with its own rules, that cannot be fathomed, but that are a priori right, not to be discussed. Do you remember the applause given to Tronchetti by Bertinotti and Fassino?
That was the market. And all the fans of Coppola, Ricucci, Gnutti, Fiorani, Tanzi and Fazio of the local house of liberty? That was the market. And the indifference to Geronzi’s bankruptcy conviction? It’s always the market.
And the fact that Buora stayed in Telecom after the spying scandal? It was still the market. But even the intercepts were (are?) a market.
If it’s the market with its Chinese boxes, its miserable capitalism, conflict of interests, its total lack of rules, is deciding our lives. If this is true, and it is, our employees are good for nothing.
We can employ directly the state concessionaires, some assisted industries, some modern vampire holdings. Or perhaps they have already been employed? Just for a bit of speculation, we could have the Parliament quoted on the Stock Exchange.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:57 AM in Economics | Comments (9)
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April 05, 2007

The suk and the zero point

"This market is not a true market but a suk, and whoever invokes it is acting in bad faith."
"My presence in Telecom is negative for Italian capitalism, where the one with zero point and loads of debts does what he wants."
Guido Rossi, president of Telecom Italia.

Well, I didn’t know that Guido Rossi reads the Blog. His words are the same as the ones I’ve been using for years. Words of a comic. To be precise words of a comic from Genoa with a diploma in accountancy.
Telecom is ours. Generations of Italians have paid for it with their taxes and their fixed payments. Let us take it back. Everyone at Rozzano on 16 April! Read the instructions in the icon on the right and spread the word.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:02 PM in Economics | Comments (11)
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April 04, 2007

Tronchetti 0(point)08

Consob loves me. Since I launched the ‘Share action’ initiative they write to me regularly to ask for my advice. I’m not stand-offish and I reply. A dialogue that has been going on for months.
The Genoa-Style Takeover is going ahead. Don’t worry. The formalities to be respected are slowing things down but cannot stop it. About 4,000 people have written to me. At the next shareholders meeting I will not be able to represent them formally but I will be OK by the one after that.
The Telecom Italia shareholders meeting will be at Rozzano on 16 April. Anyone who possesses Telecom shares can take part. I invite everyone to do so. I invite all those who have told me of their interest to participate. Each one with their voice.
Each one of you counts for more than Tronchettizeropointzeroeight. The more there are of us, the more this shareholders meeting will be an important event. A true representation of popular shareholding. I’ll be there.
I hear invocations of the market from the psycho dwarf and his spokesperson in a Fez. People who really know about markets: cattle markets.
The triad tronchettibuoraruggiero has sold what is sellable from Telecom Italia in recent years. It has transformed the profits into dividends, stock options and mega salaries, golden tokens for the members of the Board of Directors always lined up.
Telecom property was sold to Pirelli Real Estate with a tiny weeny conflict of interests? They agreed it. Tim e Telecom were merged? They agreed it. A year later Tim and Telecom were separated? They agreed it. It’s the famous “token” agreement.
The biggest intercept scandal in the history of Italy escaped them. It was carried out by Telecom men, Telecom structures, Telecom money. A group of directors like that in another country would have lost their position months ago.
And they are still there. The director Ferrarini who pontificates and the director Moratti who consoles us with his smile like a good oily. The market. This is the market.
Has the Telecom spying damaged the shares and the company? I say it has. Those who were managing the company must respond and get out of our hair. Tronchetti wants to sell to the Mexicans and escape. The Milan prosecutor gets Tavaroli to say who are the “brains” behind the intercepts. These shady “brains”. But whoever could they be, these “brains”?
Everyone to the Telecom auditorium in Rozzano on 16 April!

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 03:45 PM in Economics | Comments (26)
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March 26, 2007

Power Mapping

I want to ruin my liver and talk about the Stock Market. An unsavoury place that everyone is fleeing from. It’s an orgy. Anyone can make a killing except for the small time shareholders. Those people can just stay and watch, find greater safety with “sell now-buy later” or get peace of mind with Treasury Bonds.
The Stock Market is a great family. Our people on the Boards of Directors know each other like old friends. And they have the gift of ubiquity. They are present in the companies that buy and in the companies that supply. They sell and buy from themselves. A spectacle of conflict of interests. And they can be in the company with shares and in the one they control.
Shareholders in the morning, managers in the evening. At night dreamers, not just dreaming but also cashing in stock options and dividends.
If the Stock Market were to close, only the genteel people would notice.
The one who has a decimal fraction of ownership and loads of Chinese boxes, decides everything. This is the Map of Power. The true one that brings you breakfast in bed from Palazzo Chigi.
Do you want to know the details of every incestuous relationship in the Stock Exchange? Today you can. Click on the zone saying “Power Map” on the right. It contains all the companies, all the Directors on their Boards. It’s the best financial consultant for deciding on making an investment.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:24 AM in Economics | Comments (1)
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March 20, 2007

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate 2006

I’ve met a great man. A true economist who has saved the life of an incredible number of people. His name is Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate 2006. Thanks to him even beggars have been able to get credit.
And they have paid back the money. A big difference from the financiers of these parts. 85,000 beggars are the estimated number of clients of Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank and thanks to him they have the chance to change their lives.
In Italy the opposite happens. You go into a bank with no problem and you come out needing to ask for alms. Yesterday at the University of Bologna they asked me to make a short speech in the Aula Magna. There were bankers. There was Yunus. Watch the film clip.

Text:

Speech by Beppe Grillo at the University of Bologna.
I’ve listened to people who are specialists in their own field, talking about things that from my point of view have hardly any sense. I hear economists talking and confusing the economy with finance. I hear talk of microcredit confused with microfinancing with microfinance.
I think I’ve got doubts because the work of this man is the work of a professor who has seen his country disintegrated with debt and who has tried in every way to get people to save which together with work, is the only way to beat debt.
For example, we have heard the ABI representative who said that he feels perplexed and embarrassed: it’s a sense of shame.
Here we are talking about microcredit, whereas we have consumer credit. The banks no longer are satisfied with the savings of the people, they are no longer interested in the money but they want the lives of the people. That is not selling things but selling the debt on things.
The concept of transparency for our banks is to not let anyone understand anything of what they are doing, to get people into debt, for example, on a TV set to have it paid for in 6 months, but not earlier than 6 months. But on that day in 6 months time they send out a bill to get the people into a trap and make them pay for the TV double its value with interest rates of 17-18% which is a usurer’s interest rate. We are in the hands of usurers.
So there! That’ll teach you to get me to talk!
Muhammad go away from here! Go away from here Muhammad!

Interview with Muhammad Yunus.
Greetings to everyone! I am happy to be here with Beppe, it really is a great experience. I’ve heard him speak. He has clearly said what I would have said. He’s talking about what is happening, about real problems.
The banks don’t ask questions. They continue to do what they have always done. They should have done many things that they haven’t done. We have shown that it is possible. We can help every individual with no problem.
Grameen Bank lends money to the poorest. We started off 30 years ago. Without guarantees or recommendations. Without legal instruments. Money is needed to make money. That’s how we started off. But no one believed that we would have made it. But we succeeded.
It’s a banking system based on trust that works and that is spreading throughout the world. Millions of people have had access to microcredit. It can be done. Credit is a human right and it can change the life of everyone. The banking system must be for everyone.
We lend money to everyone. Even to beggars. So that they can sell something, tiny objects: toys, candies. That way they can earn money and change their life.
More than 85,000 beggars are changing their lives. This is exactly what Beppe has been talking about today. Warm greetings to everyone!

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:51 AM in Economics | Comments (13)
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March 14, 2007

The dwarf log

I made a mistake with Tronchetti the log. I overvalued him. I believed that he controlled the biggest Italian company with a 0.8% share. Hardly anything, but still a little bit. But it’s not like that.
Tronchetti is less than a log. He’s a dwarf log. Visible only with the special electron microscopes used by directors of newspapers. Who always considered him to be a giant for the publicity that Telecom sent out as information thanks to our landline rental fees.
The dwarf log possesses (WAIT FOR IT!!!) only 0.08% of Telecom. If I’d have known earlier, I’d have made him a little offer.
The newspapers headlines say: “Tronchetti offers for sale the company that controls Telecom”. I’m up for it!
I want to participate in the auction! How much could it be worth, this controlling packet of 0.08% with which the dwarf log has been able to do what he wanted with Telecom? 10-15,000 euro? Bersani keep calm. I’ll put down this money to avoid any temptation for the foreigners.
In 2006, Pirelli has lost 1,000,000,000 Euro thanks to the dwarf log. Pirelli has had to devaluate its participation in Telecom to 3 Euro a share. But the purchase price was 4,175 Euros.
Shame that the share value is collapsing in the absence of industrial strategies and investments in the Internet over many years. Telecom is worth a bit more than 2 Euro. Will Pirelli have to devaluate again? And hang on to its dwarf president losing 1,000,000,000 Euro a year?
It’s said that calm will return to Telecom with the conclusion of the judicial inquiries into the intercepts that will do a clean sweep. I’m not happy, I would prefer the class of top management and the major indebted shareholders to all be judged and moved away for the lack of results, for the stock options that they have cashed in on top of their mega salaries, for the tens of thousands of workers shoved out into the streets. And finally there is something that I can’t swallow. They can’t run off with the booty. That, they must give back to the Italians down to the last cent.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 03:05 PM in Economics | Comments (6)
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March 13, 2007

Fiat Suppositories

A news item that has gone just about unnoticed. Last month Consob took courage, or perhaps it couldn’t help it, and it declared temporary incapacity to take on official positions in companies quoted on the Stock Exchange for Ifil’s Andrews Sisters (and Ifil controls Fiat) whose names are: Gianluigi Gabetti, Franzo Grande Stevens and Virgilio Marrone. Gabetti got fined 5 million Euro. In reference to Gabetti, Consob said:
“intentional character of the violations to be reconnected with the complete falsity of the communications following on from the participation (reconnected also with duties taken on in relation to the Agnelli Group) in the activities relating to the equity swap operation…” The magic of the words that let us understand zero. Equity swap, try and say that slowly to your wife in an intimate moment:
e..q..u.i.t.y..s..w..a..p. She’ll think of a new erotic game that’s slightly painful. And that’s how you’ll forget about your Fiat shares in the cash box. The ones that your trusted Bank advised you to buy. .

According to the Consob, Gabetti has manipulated the market, but let’s look at the facts:
- The value of Fiat shares plummeted in Spring 2005
- Exor in Luxemburg (whose major shareholder is Giovanni Agnelli & Co.) buys almost 10% of the whole of Fiat from Merryl Linch at a value of about 5 Euro in an equity swap, thus at an agreed future price
- Ifil buys 82 million ordinary Fiat shares at a price of 6.5 Euro.
- An ordinary shareholder could have bought the shares at that same time at a price of 7.5 to 8 Euro.

The Agnelli family headed up by Gabetti, like Exor, bought Fiat shares at 5 Euro and it sold Fiat shares to Ifil at 6.5. All within the family. It didn’t inform the market in a transparent way. It maintained the control of Fiat with 30.06% only thanks to this operation. What a delightful family. But Fiat, wasn’t that the company that when it was losing money, laid off workers who were then paid with our money and when it was doing OK kept the money in its own pockets? And when will we have an “equity suppository” for the Agnelli family?

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:30 PM in Economics | Comments (2)
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February 26, 2007

Nostradamus’s taxes

A Sunday question. Perhaps someone will reply. Why should companies pay taxes in Italy? An entrepreneur opens a company. He manages to make a profit. He’s so honest that he doesn’t run away, dodge taxes or do corruption. He declares the lot.
The State, to reward him, taxes him immediately double.
In fact if the company has made a profit, the State has the maximum trust that next year it will do the same.
This trust in the ability of the taxpayer is translated into an advance on the taxation.
Almost equal to the value of the current year, a presumed income in advance. The income is hypothetical but the taxes are real.
The money from the presumed income is taken away from the investments in the company. From employment, technology, machinery. And above all it’s presumed. Why do you have to pay on the presumption of future income? They are Nostradamus’s taxes. And for the companies that have recently been created, if they make profits in the first few years, it can be such a heavy burden that they have to close. Thus it’s better to make a loss.
Only a saint or a madman can declare all the profits with this hellish mechanism. The State wants money. More money.
It wants cash. Always more cash. But it takes it from the honest taxpayers. Not from the tax dodgers. Too difficult. It’s better to send a request asking for a payment of 20 Euro in taxes plus penalties (yes it does happen) – than to attack the tax dodgers.
At this point the State could insist on a presumed advance of taxation on every income. On inheritance, for example. In the year following the first, another relative could die. On the lottery winnings. On scratch cards.
If Padoa Schioppa reads this post, I’m sure he’ll do it.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:55 AM in Economics | Comments (13)
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February 16, 2007

I’m in debt therefore I am

The debt industry is eating up Italy. The public debt will soon become motivation for national pride, a moral reference. Private debt can’t do less than that.
It has to increase. But the indebtedness capacity of the Italians needs help. If at one time there were loans for 10,000 Euro now you can borrow 1,000/1,5000. It’s now raining throttling ways for everyone. Debts for every type of household. For the weakest.
Parents are invited to get into debt for their children. Once they simply sent them out to work. But today to be a precarious worker costs more than the salary. It’s best to get into debt straight away. The loan sharks are thinking, working things out every day. The objective is the rate of interest (TAEG). Their jackpot is the repossession of the house from whoever doesn’t keep up the repayments.


“Do you need money. It’s in your home” is sublime. Everyone looking for money that doesn’t exist underneath the sofa. To then go on and mortgage the home. Payment is made with debts, not with cash. The gain is in the interest that’s added, the product purchased is only an attraction.
When all the money is completely gone, then you can get the debt into debt. The debt on the debt could open up new horizons, new possibilities, new monetary perdition. There will be the multiple debts, those that are complex and derivatives and from time to time the suicides from jumping a repayment.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:43 AM in Economics | Comments (23)
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February 13, 2007

Mobility and taboo

The taboo of mobility. Anyone who doesn't move is against progress, anti-modernist. One who doesn't want to work, to enjoy oneself, to socialize. Mussolini taught us, from "He who stays still is lost" to "The one who doesn't move is no-global".
It's still fascism. Who ever said that a person must get up in the morning and move 50 kilometres to go to work? Or at the end of the week flee from their home in the city and travel hundreds of kilometres?
The taboo is not discussed by anyone. Not in politics. Not in the economy. Not by the people who are drugged by advertising about cars. That always run around in open spaces, empty like deserts, limpid like the sky in spring.
Petrol is the sail of a yacht that is getting bigger, a liquid with no weight, green and blue, beautiful to behold, good to breathe.
Among the top 16 companies in the world there are 5 that are oil companies: Exxon, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron. Together they have a turnover of 1,214,000,000,000 dollars. Thousands of millions that cannot be beaten when creating the taboo of mobility.
Among the top 10 companies, apart from the oil companies, who it must be remembered resell a natural resource and gain mad sums of money, there are almost only banks and insurance companies: Citigroup, Bank of America, America International Group, HSBC, JP Morgan, UBS.
With this lot in command we can be certain about the extinction of the planet. As long as it is they who decide, we have to move around in cars and not on bicycles. Use the planes and not tele-work. Get out of the city instead of living in it.
It's useless talking about reducing emissions, about cars that pollute less. The problem will be resolved only by eliminating mobility every time it isn't necessary. Thus, just about all the time.
To move around must be a choice. Organisations must be distributed, decentred throughout the territory. It's really idiotic to bring millions of people into the city when with the Internet they can work at home, or from an office near home. We need to start to hate cars. They are a fetish, a taboo from last century.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:15 AM in Economics | Comments (10)
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January 16, 2007

The loan sharked

Instigation to get into debt is not a crime. But it should be. Interest rates of 15-20% are not considered usury. But they are usury. The producers gain on the interest on the repayments, not on the product value.
What's most annoying about these debt-mongers, of these open-the-route-to-family-bankruptcy people, of these usurers with the manager's tie, of these vultures of the TAEG is there face like a backside. The lira won the Oscar of currency when Italy saved.
There was the day of saving. Italy had no public debt. The children were given the little money-box pig as a present. Now there's the day of debt. It lasts 365 days a year. Usurious interest rates are the aim of those who sell. The car, the plasma screen, the kitchen are accessories to consumer credit. If saving was the engine of development, debt is the engine of underdevelopment.
The Statistics Bulletin of the Bank of Italy: "Monetary and Financial Institutions: banks and monetary funds" explains with its tables how Italian families are being transformed into beggars. In the 1960's we were poor, but without debts. Today we are precarious but with debts.
In the month of November 2006, loans for a value of 431,000,000,000 Euro were arranged. That's 10% more than in November 2005. The porky-pie that we are behind in relation to other countries. That we have to get ourselves more into debt to keep up. It's a the work of vile ruffians. Il Mondo has published an indebtedness table:



And a series of interviews about our debts. Personalities looking for a psychiatrist.

"A country like Italy today, where there is greater level of guarantee, for earnings, for health, for services, has less need of savings." Giuseppe Zadra, Director General of the Italian Banking Association.

"Once upon a time, repayments had a moral weight, they shouldn't be done, but now getting a loan has become normal for lay people. And this is an element in the modernization of Italy." Giampaolo Fabris, sociologist and university lecturer at San Raffaele in Milan.

"Consumer credit started off as an alternative to the "IOU" in the 1960's, then it was considered psychologically as getting into debt. In recent years it has become a payment tool… and there is strong demand to bring it in even for expenses like furniture removal, funerals and general medical expenses." Massimiliano Becheroni, Director General of Prestitempo.

"If in a recession phase, credit goes up, that means that a part of the Italians have managed to smooth out the fluctuations of their own income. And this is an indicator of the health of the markets." Tullio Jappelli, Economics lecturer at the University Federico II in Naples, editor of lavoce.info.

I invite those who have had negative experiences with consumer credit to write them down as a comment to this post. The most important evidence of insolvency, bankruptcy, usury will be collected into a book: : "I cravattati" { The tie wearers, Italian for The loan sharked}.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:57 AM in Economics | Comments (25)
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January 12, 2007

Bersanator

In Italy there's a new character. The liberalizator. One who the Cip6 if it weren't for him, who the recharging if it weren't for him, who the telephone tariffs if it weren't for him, who the electricity tariffs if it weren't for him, who the price of gas if it weren't for him, who the costs of bank services if it weren't for him. If he had had a free hand we would have European prices and services.
But he didn't get the chance.
He has only been the Minister of Industry, and of Commerce, and of Artisans and of Tourism, and of Navigation and now Minister of Economic Development.
Clearly he's not the one responsible, it's someone else born on the same day. The one who has been bypassed.

The liberalizator even takes on liberalizations belonging to others as is explained by Andrea D'Ambra for telephone recharging. The liberalizator is serene when faced with the price cartel denounced by the EU. In Italy, electricity and gas cost like diamonds. But what competition is there if a company pays everything at a cost greater than in the rest of Europe ? What savings can a family make if they have utility bills at usury prices? Who is leading Enel and Eni? To which politician do they have to answer? The Finance Law is useless if the primary services cost double.

1. Eni/Enel: the voice of the EU
Neelie Kroes , head of the EU Antitrust body, has proposed the separation of the production from the management of the distribution networks and has called on Italy to "worry" as Eni and Enel "maintain a dominant position and exercise a substantial power in the market"

2. Eni/Enel: electricity and gas prices in Europe from today's Financial Times

3. Eni/Enel: the declarations of the companies and of the liberalizator
The requests from Kroes are "in line with the changes already in action in Italy over the last few years" Fulvio Conti , Enel CEO.

We have been among the "first companies in Europe to start pro-competition measures" Eni Declaration.

"The initiatives that Italy is taking are, on many points, are along the route that the European Union has indicated in its report." Pierluigi Bersani.


And finally the letter from Andrea D'Ambra:
" Dear Beppe,
As you know, the other night on Ballarò, Bersani 'discovered' the recharging costs at the best moment for political manoeuvring. That is when the decision from AGcom is about to arrive. That way everyone will say: "oh, what a great guy, this Bersani! He's abolished the recharging costs!" But no! I'm not having that! Political manoeuvrings have never gone down with me! Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar! You know that this initiative, if it weren't for you who has supported me that created it and for more than 800 thousand people who signed in support, that it wouldn't have got to this point. It's only thanks to the petition at www.aboliamoli.eu that the Authority has made a move after I made the denunciation to the European Commission in spite of what Bersani says…
Please make his clear on your blog because:
1) The press, friendly to Bersani is censoring this initiative for political interests
2) The press, friendly to the operators is censoring this initiative for economic interests.
Thanks from my heart".
Andrea D'Ambra www.aboliamoli.eu

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 01:15 PM in Economics | Comments (14)
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January 11, 2007

The pact with the devil by Joseph E. Stiglitz

The Nobel prize-winner for Economics, Joseph Stiglitz has sent me a letter and given two interviews. One is on globalisation and is published below. The other is on video and is about work and poverty.

"Dear Beppe,
maybe we need a RESET; before that we can try to put a grand of sand in the machine. This is what I'm trying to do as an economist.
For much of the world, globalization as it has been managed seems like a pact with the devil. A few people in the country become wealthier; GDP statistics, for what they are worth, look better, but ways of life and basic values are threatened … This is not how it has to be.
We can make globalization work, not only for the rich and powerful, but for everyone, for those that live in the poorest contries too. The task is difficult and requires time. We waited too much: the time to get working has come.
Greetings.
Joe
"

1. In your book you suggest a non-Washington consensus approach to globalization. How can it be applied if the "powerful" institutions (FMI, Treasure etc) are against this approach?

First, developing countries are working to achieve independence from the IMF—and trying to make sure that they do not again become subjected to its dictates. Almost all have paid back was owed, earlier than required, simply to get the IMF off their backs.
Secondly, Argentine has shown that strong willed governments can stand up to the IMF. It simply refused to be cowed. It said that it wanted to have an agreement with the IMF, but it recognized that a bad agreement was worse than no agreement. Not only did it succeed in negotiating a better deal with its creditors than it would have done, had it listened to the IMF, it managed to grow, and grow rapidly, for the first time in years; and for the first time in years, it managed to balance its budget—bitter irony for the IMF who had subjected Argentina to all kinds of misguided policies, all in an attempt to get rid of its deficit.
Finally, there is a drive to reform the IMF itself, a drive which is bearing some fruit. At its meeting in September in Singapore, the IMF admitted the flaws in its governance (though it itself has severely criticized governance in developing countries), and gave more voting power to four of the most underrepresented of the developing countries. But some of the most important flaws remain—the U.S. remains the only country with the veto power, the way its head is chosen does not accord with the kinds of democratic procedures that we take for granted in our own democracies, and it is still not conform to principles of transparency that are accepted in the United States, Sweden, and other democracies.

2. Do you foresee a role for a consumer-network via internet? (e.g. boicott strategy of polluting firms etc)

Global civil society has already managed to show its effectiveness, for instance in getting debt relief (in 2000, the Jubilee 2000 movement) and in the Lands Mine treaty. The internet is an important tool for organizing across the world—and so I do for see a potential role for a consumer-network via internet, to help organize and mobilize consumers on subjects of their concern. Consumers are one group in our society whose voices are not heard, or at least not heard as much as they should. For instance, in government, there are several ministries devoted to looking after producer interests, but in few countries is there a ministry to look after consumer interests.

3. Can capitalism self-correct its behavior? After all, your asymmetric information approach discarded the mainstream economics (which justifies the Wash. consensus), but it is still dominant in the economic profession.
The theories that I (and others) helped develop explained why unfettered markets often not only do not lead to social justice, but do not even produce efficient outcomes. Interestingly, there has been no intellectual challenge to the refutation of Adam Smith’s invisible hand: individuals and firms, in the pursuit of their self-interest, are not necessarily, or in general, led as if by an invisible hand, to economic efficiency. The only question that has been raised concerns the ability of government to remedy the deficiencies of the market.
Within academia, a significant fraction of economists are involved with developing and expanding on the ideas of imperfect information (and imperfect markets) that I explored. For instance, Edmund Phelps, this year’s Nobel Prize winner, belongs to this “school” of thought. But in political discourse, simplistic “market fundamentalism” continues to exert enormous influence.

4. When US refuse to apply the Kyoto protocol, one may say there is a Government financial aid in action?

In my new book Making Globalization Work, I devote a chapter to the question of global warming. As with so many other aspects of globalization, it is the poor that are most vulnerable, the most likely to suffer. For instance, a third of Bangladesh will be underwater, and the country will suffer from increasing flooding—an already impoverished country will become even poorer. It is not a question whether the American economy can afford to take actions—indeed, it is increasingly clear that the question facing the world is whether we can afford not to take action. But by not forcing American firms to take account of their global pollution, American firms are given a financial advantage over firms from the rest of the world. This is unfair, and I show in my book how the WTO—which is suppose to create a level playing field—can be used to force America to withdraw what are in effect unfair subsidies to its polluting producers.

5. Which kind of jobs for our kids: flexible and precarious?
Increasingly, life time employment will be a thing of the past. People will have to move from job to job over their life time, and one of the challenges of our educational system will be to prepare our young people for these transitions; and one of the challenges of our social system will be to enable people to make these transitions with as easily as possible. There will more precariousness than in the past, more risk, but we can reduce the social consequences. For instance, in America, individuals depend on their employers for health insurance; when they lose their job, they lose health insurance, and, if they should have an illness during these periods between jobs, it can have lifetime consequences. This should be intolerable. Globalization has been used as an excuse for weakening social protections; rather, the increased precariousness of employment is a reason we should be strengthening social protections. (Of course, we need to work to make sure that they are well designed, and sometimes, in the past, they have not been. But this is not a justification for doing away with social protections.)

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 06:04 PM in Economics | Comments (16)
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December 18, 2006

The posthumous discount

Italy is a nation founded on the Public Debt. It has solid debt foundations. A secure alibi for the Finance Law. An alibi for new taxes, for the increase of existing taxes.
The Finance Law preserves the public debt. With an imposing public debt reforms are not possible. And everything stays as it is to the happiness of our employees. No government has intervened on public expenditure. Not even Prodi and the Padoa-Schioppa.
If costs go up, taxes go up and the debt holds. The debt is by now a condition of the spirit. It is in the air. To get into debt is a life style. The one who is in credit is a failure.
You need to show off your debts to be somebody. The bigger your personal debt, the greater are your opportunities. You can even become the President of the Council or the director of Telecom. The words… “access to credit” are reassuring . Access to debts sounds worrying. Let us become people in credit not in debt. Banks, finance people, big retailers are all in the front line for the creation of poverty. Through credit.
If I had said to my father that I was taking out a loan with TAEG 20% to go to the Antilles he would have given me a kick up the backside. And then he would have denounced the bank.
The banks always think of our dreams. They want to see them coming to fruition together with the bank interests. At Christmas you are offered the discount if you pay later. A mystery.
If you pay after 6 months you are entitled to the discount with no interest. Not if you pay straight away. A lovely LCD colour TV costs about 1200 Euro. If you pay cash after 6 months it costs you 20% less.
A bargain. But if after 6 months you forget, and the invoice doesn’t arrive or you don’t have the cash what happens? With TAN {annual rate of interest} 17.48%, TAEG {overall rate of interest}18.45% (but they could be higher) for 1000 Euro they arrange 24 monthly payments of 53.40.
The result is 1281.60. The great retailers gain from the debts of their clients. Assisted by the Finance law.
RESET. Return to the culture of saving.
The public debt should be forbidden. Just as has happened for smoking. It is an act of social obscenity. A way of encouraging us to be delinquents against ourselves. For Christmas give yourself a gift. Buy less and only what you can afford.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:54 AM in Economics | Comments (40)
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December 16, 2006

Take the Dividends and Run

Now we know who was the real boss of Telecom. It was Tavaroli. In charge of Radar. Of the illegal intercepts of hundreds of bankers, managers, politicians and also relatives of Tronchetti. It was Tavaroli.
He moved hundreds of people in Telecom. He moved tens of millions of Euro. All to the detriment of Telecom. He was spying on Afef’s brother. The Chairman and the CEO were the last to know. They were distracted by dividends.
It was Tavaroli the puppet-master. Here there are two possibilities. His bosses were inadequate or colluding. Will Tavaroli end up like Litvinenko? Will he be polonium-ised or will the cup of coffee be enough?
The politicians who fell to the ground for fear of the computer output, keep silent. The TV keeps silent. A silence that is convenient for everyone. To enjoy Holy Christmas together.
Tronchetti continues to manage Telecom through the srl administrator Buora. And he tries to cash in every 2 for 3. Sell Tim Brasil. Increase the fixed line rental. Here the shame of the Authority has won out. And Calabrò has not permitted the increase to go ahead. However it was proposed.
If this is the new approach, Rossi is the same as Tronchetti.
Just a bit of make-up, some cosmetics, some red lips {Rosso = red}.
Next year I hope to meet up with him at the shareholders meeting. And to talk about this and that. About Skype, for example. Telephony via the Internet. That costs nothing or almost nothing. The service that has had the fastest growth in history.
And I will ask him why the Italians have to pay a tax called “canone”. A tax that is poured into thousand of millions of dividends for the usual economic groups. That get translated into salaries in the millions for the top managers of Telecom.
Directly from our pockets. From the citizens to the usual few. It’s the famous “bottom up”. And the bottom is always ours. Let’s abolish the canone. RESET!

PS: Share action continues...

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:06 AM in Economics | Comments (2)
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December 08, 2006

Alitalia and counting

Winged numbers. An individual wanting to buy Alitalia would have to fork out 2,000,000,000 Euro. Alitalia is worth zero. At the end of January the money to pay staff salaries will have run out. It has 20,575 employees. Half would still be too many. A third world fleet of aircraft. Beaten only by the Tupolev.
A CEO with an annual salary of 2,700,000 Euro. In Europe, the one with the highest pay in the sector. Earning 6 times as much as his colleague in Air France.
Prodi wants to sell. Who will buy? The banks are keeping clear. They’ve even tied their feet. Alitalia is losing 51,000 Euro an hour. Let’s stop the taximeter.
There’s only one solution to put a stopper on all this loss: pay 2,000,000,000 Euro to Gaddafi to buy it. The employees would have to move to Tunis. Their forced transfer would be part of the validity of the contract.
20,575 fewer mouths to be fed by the State. Great business. Even if it costs us a little bit.
There’s still the Cimoli problem. What to do with a manager who is so highly regarded by both Prodi and Berlusconi?
If a manager is paid well for what he is worth, he is paid really a lot for what he is losing. It’s a shame that the money he is earning is coming from our pockets. He’s not the only one who’s guilty.
He’s a goat but not the only scapegoat. But as long as he stays there, with that salary, with those results, with that satisfied smile there’s no hope. Let Prodi give him a job as a majordomo.
Then that’s the reason why he’s still there. Air. Fresh air. But what do you want?

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:55 AM in Economics | Comments (50)
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December 05, 2006

Scent of Money

There are simple bankers. There are former prisoners like Fiorani. Those that will never get to prison like Geronzi. And the best among equals: the bankers of the left. Their champion is Alessandro Profumo of Unicredit. Profumo has given an interview to il Corriere della Sera. And he said Left things. Better than D’Alema. More than Fassino. A bit less than the pawn broker’s. They are words that can be interpreted.

AP: It’s not the task of the banks to develop the country. Our duty is to create value for our shareholders.”
Can be read:
”The shareholders decide the policies of the banks. The country and the clients come after that…”

AP: The interests of the development of the country coincide with the increase in our turnover”
Can be read:
”If the country doesn’t increase our turnover it can go and screw itself…”

AP: If Autostrade were to make investments in Italy simply because the ownership is Italian, in reality it would not be providing a service to the country.”
Can be read:
“Unicredit and Benetton, are shareholders of Autostrade. If Autostrade were to make the investments for 2,000,000,000 Euro that it should have made in Italy it would not be providing a service to Unicredit and perhaps it would not be able to distribute dividends of almost 2,000,000,000 Euro to its shareholders and furthermore, it would not be a service to Unicredit.”

AP: With reference to the company Autostrade:
”If the rules are changed ex post, perhaps even concerning the motorway concessions, the result is more general: that of destroying the international credibility of Italy.”
Can be read:
”The profits of Unicredit and the international credibility of Italy coincide”

Spectacular Alexander the Great. He’s two-sided. He takes action and he holds shares. He’s always on the right side: that of the shareholders.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 12:41 PM in Economics | Comments (4)
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November 25, 2006

Pink Tax

There’s still not the pink quota. But there is the pink tax. The article in the Finance law cited in the letter about separated fathers will produce some side effects. The number of divorces will fall. The number of legitimate fathers will fall. Some of them will dress up as Batman. The maintenance allowances paid to the separated mothers will go down. However the court cases for the custody of children will increase. And fathers will go mad.

“Dear Beppe,
I’m writing about a topic that relates to the millions of “separated fathers” (or miserable ones, you choose) present in Italy Article 3 comma 1 of the Finance Law approved by the Lower House, fruit of the mind probably suffering from homophobia sickness of a legal adviser to our employee Visco, has established that all fathers who are separated, divorced or with civil annulments to their marriages, unless they have shared custody of their children (a really rare occurrence as the law has only recently come into force and there’s strong opposition form the women), will no longer have the right to a 50% tax deduction on their salary for the dependent children.
Even though they rightly have to pay (often beyond their capacity) a maintenance allowance plus 50% of all the costs for health, schooling, sport etc. no father will have the benefit of a fair tax deduction from their wage packet.
To clarify: the new norm says that the parent without custody does not have the right to a tax deduction when faced with the obligation to support the expenses for the maintenance of their children.
For the parent without custody the norm is particularly detrimental as they are obliged to maintain their children with regular payments but the tax regulations don’t allow for the tax benefit. With this new arrangement the parent without custody has to support a burden that cuts into their capacity to pay tax.
On top of this disadvantage, there is another one that is even more serious: even though I, like other separated fathers, have to pay 50% of the health costs for my child shared with my wife (costs that are often high) I cannot deduct them from my taxable income, but the whole sum will go to the parent with custody, who is almost always the mother.
There’s the risk of losing the possibility of health cover for illnesses of one’s own children for those dads who work and have health insurance that they pay with monthly deductions form salary, in as much as these children will no longer be recognized as relevant to tax benefits.
Fathers will have to continue to pay 50% of all expenses for their children but the benefits and the tax advantages (unless there is joint custody) will go only to the mother.
We will all be obliged to ask for joint custody. Many fathers including myself have not yet requested this only to avoid new conflicts with the former spouse, who is generally contrary.
I wonder what country I’m living in and why I, who voted for the Centre Left, find myself thinking about one of the few advanced and civilized laws of this country, that is the one about joint custody, that puts us on a level (at least in theory) with Germany, England and the Scandinavian countries, that was passed by the Berlusconi government, and yet now they are trying to take us back to the Middle Ages. “
Stefano T.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 07:17 PM in Economics | Comments (3)
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November 20, 2006

The Cat of Competition and the Fox of Communications

image from www.rtsi.ch

Two Authorities have set up an exploratory investigation into telephone top-ups. The Competition Authority and the Communication Authority. The Cat Catricalà and the Fox Calabrò.
The in-depth investigation has allowed one important conclusion to come out about the costs of top-up: “it represents an Italian anomaly”. In fact it’s not present in any European country. How much will it have cost us to do this in-depth investigation?
But the Authorities go further and using a language associated with a psychiatric report they hope: A remodeling of the top-up charge for mobile phones, to restore to competition level all the price components relating to mobile telephony and so in the future bring about relevant tariff reductions.”. And they go on just as though they had only just now discovered the top-up charges.
Perhaps they have been blinded on the road to Damascus by the 600,000 signatures of raging citizens: “a revision, even total, of the fixed contribution, would make clear what is offered in the market and would make it easier to do comparisons”.
It would have been enough for them to say: “top-up charges are theft, they are the fruit of a cartel of the mobile telephone companies in Italy and they should be abolished”.
And they should add: “It is a wholly Italian anomaly for which we too can be thanked as before we have taken action we needed a really strong kick up the backside from the Italians.”
I want to invite the Italians to do two things:
- sign your name for the abolition of top-up charges
- DON’T TOP-UP YOUR MOBILES until top-up charges are abolished.

And one for the Government:
Abolish the two Authorities. Their function that is taking Italian citizens for a ride is costing us more than the top-up charges.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 02:25 PM in Economics | Comments (14)
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November 15, 2006

Olivetti

I haven’t heard anyone talking of Olivetti any more. What’s happened to it? Does it still exist? Camillo Olivetti, a young engineer, the founder, went off to the United States at the end of 1800. On his return he designed the best typewriter in the world.
Camillo spent his Sundays with his workers. He built a city for them ready for real people. He was years ahead in terms of Trades Union gains. A utopia that was then continued by his son Adriano. In the 1980s Olivetti was competing at a world level with IBM, HP, Bull. It had research laboratories in California. It had sites everywhere.
Thousands of technicians and engineers. To say that today seems to be dreaming with eyes open. But it happened yesterday. Only yesterday. What is Olivetti today? Who is the director? What does it produce?
How many employees does it have? Why does the world of politics never talk about it? Just as it takes no interest in the development of Information Technology apart from sfilatecarnevalate {streams of people like at a carnival} at the SMAU {ICT Fair} in Milan once a year.
If Olivetti, (one of the few Italian companies whose brand name is still well known in the world), is dead then it should have a funeral. A State Funeral. With magnificent pomp. To remember a grand Italian and some who were less grand and ditched it. And so that the funeral can be an occasion for reflecting on the future.
If what we want are bridges, supermarkets, roads, viaducts, sidewalks, tar, bricks, car parks, the only future that is understandable for this sub-species of politicians and industrialists. If this is what we want, then let’s bury together with Olivetti also the technological development of our country. However it should be done officially. At least that much is owed to Olivetti.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:26 AM in Economics | Comments (11)
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November 05, 2006

I’m the Co-op

After the stories of Antonveneta, of Unipol, of Banca Popolare Italiana, of Fazio, of Consorte, of Gnutti, of Ricucci, of Fiorani, of the defence of the quality of being Italian and an affair in which the only ones not to go to prison are the politicians.
After all this we are right back at the beginning with the defence of the sacred earth of the mother country. It appears that Caprotti of Esselunga wants to sell to the English multinational, Tesco. The Co-op doesn’t agree. The Co-op is you and also Fassino, Bersani and D’Alema. It is the strongbox of the votes of the new Italian socialists: the DS.
Esselunga has purchased 2 pages in today’s Corriere della Sera. There are some interesting declarations from the last few years. In spite of Bersani’s liberalization.

“They tell me that Caprotti wants to sell. Beware not to lose Esselunga. It has to remain in Italian hands. Have I been understood?”
Cesare Geronzi

“ … I believe that the administrative system also has possible levers. Just as the Government has. It’s certain that no one enters a market without respecting its political and economic ruling class.”
Pierluigi Bersani

“…there are still the Co-ops and there’s still Esselunga… the government can put them together … it can have a policy to keep them together…”
Romano Prodi

Let Caprotti sell to Tesco. Let’s have retail prices in Italy at the level they are in other European countries.
Let’s import competition. Let’s avoid the family outings each weekend to France or Switzerland to buy products at half of half the price.
Let the government take care of prices and not Esselunga. Let it observe that all the on line distribution (the future) is already in the hands of foreigners.

PS: The Fruttagel factory of Senigallia with 200 employees, is closing. Let the Co-op intervene if it wants to and if it can.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:33 AM in Economics | Comments (5)
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October 23, 2006

Stock Exchange Games

Imagine that you’ve got some shares.
And that after 5 years these shares have halved in value.
And that these shares allow you to keep control of the biggest Italian company.
And that the company is called Telecom Italia.
And that no one draws your attention to the fact that you have to devaluate them.
And that if you devaluate them you lose control of Telecom.
And that to avoid devaluating them you have to fork out the difference, but you don’t have the money.
And that the company with the shares halved is called Olimpia.
And that 80% of Olimpia belongs to Pirelli.
And that the other 20% is owned by Benetton that has however updated the value to that of the market.
And that the tronchetto dimezzato {Tronchetti who has been halved} has still got all his team in command at Telecom.
And if the value of Olimpia’s shares were brought up to date by more than 4 Euro on the Balance sheet by about a half, then Olimpia would no longer be anything.
And that all Tronchetti’s men would no longer be in the top jobs.
And that Tavaroli is trying to involve Buora.
And that Buora answers in kind in the Gazzetta dello Sport that he is a CEO ltd. A CEO of limited responsibility.
And that he didn’t know anything.
And that perhaps Sismi {Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare = Italian secret service} replies to Buora with a communication about Mickey Mouse.
And that all the small Telecom shareholders want to have the value of the shares at more than 4 Euro.
And that they ask their banks to do this.
And that their banks give them written explanations why it’s yes for Olimpia and no for them.
And that the shares must all be the same.
And that it is incredible the extent that they are playing around with us.

PS The Shareaction initiative is continuing. Soon I will give you an update.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:26 AM in Economics | Comments (3)
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October 20, 2006

A future as a beggar

TFR stands for Trattamento di Fine Rapporto {money given to employees at the end of their employment}. It’s money that we put on one side for our old age. Or if we loose our job. An investment for the future, for emergencies. A life jacket that gets heavier, more important each year that goes by.
One thing needs clearing up. This is our money. The employer keeps it in the bank for us. It doesn’t belong to the State, nor to the company, nor to the banks. If they make us angry and we resign, the money goes straight into our current accounts. If we want to buy a house, we can ask for a part of it. If we get nightmares in the night about Italy going down into the depths (with us on top) then the TFR is a tiny bit of relief. A gentle breeze that allows us to get back to sleep again.
INPS {pension body} is by now an old slut that no one pays any longer. The money that we gave them, when it was more attractive than it is now, (it’s always been a toilet but at least it was younger then) it doesn’t have any more. However, pensions have still to be paid. If they weren’t paid in Italy there’d be a revolution. Far beyond Argentina’s.
Metaphorically many heads would roll into the baskets. The Government’s idea to transfer with dexterity 50% of the TFR to INPS is a clear signal to the country: “No-one, if they pay taxes, is untouchable.” Accompanied by another one: “INPS has gone bust.” And even by another one: “What belongs to the citizens is the property of the State.”
Everyone knows that the companies use a tiny or big fraction of their employees’ TFR capital for their own financing. Let’s not hide behind a finger: the banks finance Tronchetti and Benetton, but not the small and medium sized companies. And these are the ones to loose the TFR.
From the only part of the country that still produces something. But isn’t it better to declare bankruptcy? It would be more honest.
A full stop and then start again. Instead of getting deeper into a daily bog created by Cimoli who resists (but why is he resisting?) by Tronchetti, by Benetton who wants to increase the road tolls. Because this and nothing else is the economy of Italy.

P.S. On 9 December the mythical book ‘Bar Sport’ by Benni will be 30 years old. Let’s celebrate together! A group of readers have launched Luisona day. Organise the reading of a book in a bar, or somewhere else and make it known to Benni’s website. Luisona day is the only festival that doesn’t cost tax payers a lira! For details look at www.stefanobenni.it

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:11 AM in Economics | Comments (23)
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October 12, 2006

Pigs can fly

"Alitalia is going through its most difficult time in all its history. The situation is completely out of control and I don't see a parachute."
Romano Prodi, currently President of the Council, 10/10/2006

"The competition rules that have favoured the growth of low cost airlines are a contributing factor in the destruction of the capital assets of Alitalia. While Air France and Lufthansa have between 75% and 80% of their domestic markets, because of competition rules, Alitalia has barely 50% even though the State is the major shareholder."
Roberto Maroni (former minister), 25/10/2005

" …..this is the real problem: that the State is the shareholder, the same State that pays mind-blowing sums to the Alitalia directors and that has put the dampers on development and partnerships in recent years. I'm publishing a European classification by Ryanair, even for Maroni, of the revenues and costs per place (pax) and the net margin relating to 2005 for the airlines. Alitalia is showing a loss, the other airlines (low cost or not) are showing a profit."
Beppe Grillo, commedian, 26/10/2005

Alitalia is a flagship company and we are happy with the connection with the flag. We are all 'brothers of Alitalia'. But also financers and benefactors. Or rather parents, adoptive parents. Every Italian family has in fact adopted at a distance for years an Alitalia employee. With their taxes, they pay the employee's salary.
For Cimoli's salary of 190,375 euro a month, we need a middling-sized community.
Alitalia has lost 221,500,000 euro in the first six months of 2006.
Alitalia's balance sheets have been in the red for many years. Its management has been a disaster for many years. It has been going through its most difficult time for many years. Its flights have been late for many years. It has always been making mince meat of the Italians on the Milan-Rome route with round-the world tariffs. It has always been using directors that are "recommended".

If Prodi has a tiny bit of decency, he must give Cimoli the sack (and ask him for damages). He must sack the Board of Directors and the top management. Tomorrow.
Or he should have the decency to keep quiet and fly low cost.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:31 AM in Economics | Comments (36)
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October 09, 2006

Gilbertòn is worse than the hole

Through the Schemaventotto company, the Benettons want to bring a court action against the government and the Fintecna company. In 1999 they took part of the Italian motorway concession from Fintecna.
The Board of Directors has carefully evaluated the decree 262 that redefines the relationship between the State and those who manage. And it has decided that it is not happy. Gilberto Benetton is really not happy with two items in the decree.
The first is that the increase in the motorway tolls is only possible if the work that was agreed to be done is in fact carried out. The second is that motorists have the right to be reimbursed for the extra profits that result from the investment work not having been carried out.

This seems normal to me. It’s a minimum level of protection for the users. But it’s not OK for Gilbertòn helped by the feisty Emma Bonino, the saintly European Union protectrix of the interests of companies (I don’t understand her, Pannella wants to disconnect Welby’s tube and she wants to attach it to Benetton).
I think I have understood that the Autostrade {motorways} company has failed to carry out work to a value of 2,000,000,000 Euro. Where is this money? Why hasn’t it been given back or made available?
That’s not money belonging to Gilbertòn. I also think I’ve understood that using our motorway toll money, Gilbertòn has financed the election campaign for the parties. By taking the motorways he has given money to Forza Italia and the DS and I didn’t know.

The concessionaires are managers, but the motorways belong to us. Gilbertòn is managing our stuff. He’s a modern sharecropper who doesn’t look after the fields and then takes action against us. The management has passed from the State to a private company and the situation has got worse. Travelling on the motorway costs more than a low cost flight to London or Paris. Gilbertòn is worse than the hole.
If Gilbertòn takes an action against the State, then we, who are citizens and users of our motorways, can take a court action against him for not having fulfilled his obligations. Italians are not just navigators and saints they are above all motorists.
And while driving they’ve seen and are still seeing a lot of everything. I want to collect your witness statements in a dossier so that we can bring an action against this sharecropper. A road class action.


P.S. In the Venice language (Benetton is from the Venice region) there is a saying "Xe pezo el tacon del buso" that means "The patch is worse than the hole".

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:44 AM in Economics | Comments (63)
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September 26, 2006

Telecom: an Italian story

The ‘share action’ initiative up to now has got 1750 people signed up representing about 4,800,000 shares. Thanks to this week’s L'Internazionale that has put me on the front cover. I’m publishing my article here. It’s talking about a story that for the moment has no finale. Let’s hope that it will at least be a finale that is sustainable, like Guido Rossi says that Telecom’s debt is. But if the debt is sustainable, what about the credit?

“Tronchetti resigned as president of Telecom one Friday, a few minutes before eight in the evening, dinner time. In Milan it was raining, autumnal weather, no one was around because of the urban transport strike. Sadness was in the air. The voice of Aznavour was singing “Com’è triste la Borsa a Milano”{How sad is the Milan Stock Exchange}, but perhaps it was just an echo in the Galleria.

The next day, a resigned Tronchetti, no tie, was walking with his relatives in via della Spiga. In the evening in the most honoured position in the San Siro stadium, he received expressions of solidarity that were like condolences. Inter drew with Sampdoria and added a note of depression at the end of Tronchetti’s week that was almost surreal.
But in the tradition of the best detective stories, we need to ask the question: who is responsible for the fall of the unhappy Tronchetti? The name that jumped to everyone’s lips was that of Romano Prodi, because of his resemblance to a major-domo cyclist. The major-domo is the prime suspect.

However Prodi can be excluded as he is a person who as always does not know the facts, and what’s more with an adviser, Rovati, who by sending a hand crafted memo to Tronchetti has got the whole of the government into a mess.
The private, extremely private message, speculated on a reorganisation of the Telecom group and Tronchetti like a perfect businessman, one that relies on a handshake, straight away handed it over to il Corriere della Sera, the independent daily of the polite salon where Pirelli sits. Rovati resigned.
Prodi has to refer to the Lower House something that no one is sure what it is, but one of his eloquent silences could be enough if accompanied by the throwing of a tomato. Having excluded Prodi, who is left? To understand this we have to go back in time. To the time of dell’Ulivo and D’Alema.
The time of the privatisations, the time of the ‘captains courageous’, but those without a lira. Franco Bernabè had recently started his reign in Telecom Italia. He was a dignified ruler who had already shown his colours in ENI.
Telecom had practically no debts. And every day generated good money. Telecom owned companies and buildings, just to show you, it had the biggest fleet of company cars in Italy. This was a patrimony built up with the taxes of generations of Italians.
D’Alema, who was then President of the Council, for reasons that no human mind (and perhaps not even any alien mind) was able to understand, allowed the company to be hived off to the Colaninno-Gnutti duo. Colaninno let go of Omnitel and launched a takeover bid for Telecom.
The money from the sale of Omnitel was definitely not enough for the takeover, but it went ahead by taking the company into debt.
Thus a Telecom without debts found itself with debts up to its neck. Franco Bernabè who tried to oppose this move by supporting the merger with Deutsche Telekom, even with a serious confrontation with the merchant banker D’Alema, well known industrialist and economist, had to resign.
From this moment the outcome for the country’s biggest company, the one with the best industrial prospects, and the highest rates of innovation, was doomed.
Furthermore, the block sale of the backbone, fixed and mobile lines is a weight on the development of the telecommunications market.
In fact a true market cannot exist if the one possessing the network is also supplying the services. The network should have remained in public hands, or at least, should be subject to the control of the State with a major participation.
Colaninno and Gnutti, who know how to conduct business, try to reduce the debt by selling Tim, or at least by merging it with Telecom, an action that is 5 years ahead of Tronchetti’s actions, but they are not allowed to do this.
Anyway, Colaninno tries to set out an industrial plan that doesn’t even get the time to see the light. Berlusconi comes to Government and night falls for Colaninno.
In July 2001 Colaninno goes to Argentina for a hunting trip and Gnutti, noticing what’s in the air, takes advantage, meets up with Tronchetti and sells. Tronchetti had the cash from selling in 2000, (during the period of the speculative bubble) the division for telecommunication cables Optical Technologies to Corning of the United States, for the incredible sum of 7,000,000,000,000 in cash.
He shares 1,000,000,000,000 in stock options with Buora (200) and Morchio (300), with 450 for him. Tronchetti acquires control of Telecom with the system of Chinese boxes. This is basically a series of companies which has a tiny company at the top of the chain which controls a bigger one and so on down until you arrive at Telecom.
Tronchetti with 0.8 per cent of the shares (he’s the true small investor) finds that he is controlling an empire through Olimpia in company with Benetton, Gnutti, Unicredit and Banca Intesa.
However the debts remain. The new strategy to reduce them is simple. It’s that of the second hand dealer: sell and get rid of it. Seat, Telespazio, Finsiel, a part of Tim, and Telecom’s buildings are sold for cash. Many activities of the group are encapsulated and got rid of.
But this isn’t enough. The margins on the fixed and mobile phones get smaller and the debt does not allow for the necessary investments. There’s risk of an implosion, or the loss of control if new partners were to come into Olimpia.
Coming to 2005, Tronchetti merges Telecom and Tim with the latter being bought through a takeover. Telecom gets even more into debt but gets access to the cash produced daily from the mobile phones.
The operation is announced as strategic. An industrial strategy that lasts 18 months. Then there’s a return to the old. The fixed and the mobile are separated so that they can be sold in pieces; one or both isn’t known. Unicredit, Banca Intesa and Hopa leave Tronchetti to his destiny. Benetton devalues the Telecom shares that at the time they were bought in 2001 were valued at more than 4 Euro and today are worth half that.
Tronchetti kept the value of the shares at an affectionate value but finally he had to devalue them with a domino effect on the Pirelli group.
He resigns leaving 41,000,000,000 in debts. That’s not counting the bonds and the various pieces of paper (the IOUs to the investors), more or less the same as with Colaninno. But with a minus value as all the companies are sold off.
The guilty one is thus clear. It is the middle finger of the invisible hand of the market. The one that has hit all those who lost their jobs and their savings invested in Telecom shares. It is a finger that sees well. Very well. That’s why it takes no notice of managers and controlling shareholders, which is why Telecom has been a great business. The best in a lifetime.
For Parmalat the Guardia di Finanza {Finance Police}came to fetch me from Nervi. They wanted to find out how I managed to know all the facts. I took with me a folder on which was written Telecom to help them take their work forward.
They didn’t take me seriously. But of course that’s how it should be as I’m just a comic. This time I’m expecting Consob or the Stock Exchange to employ me. From comic to global financial consultant. I’ve decided to take the great leap.
To take control of Telecom without even forking out a Euro. A Genovese takeover. I have started the `share action` to ask the small investors if I can represent them. To go to the shareholders meeting and give a kick up the backside to the directors starting with the independents. Those who want to participate can do so through my blog.”

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:16 PM in Economics | Comments (13)
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September 22, 2006

Stock Exchange Orgy

The directors on the Telecom Italia Board haven’t taken it very far. They aren’t made of the same stuff as Charles Duvall in the Godfather. Marlon Brando paid him to listen to him.
These were paid to listen to Tronchetti. In these years with a great outcome they always agreed with their president.
And even they are in a bad outcome right now. They were admirable in the merger of 2005, in the split of 2006 and I hope, very soon even in the farewell.
Perhaps 82% of the shareholders are not in agreement with them. But it’s not possible to receive the individual wishes of everyone: 18% is far and away sufficient. The newspapers talk about intercepts that went through the top level Telecom people, of invoices for millions of Euro paid to companies that are being investigated for espionage. Did the Board of Directors know that? Had they heard nothing? Had they seen nothing?

It’s all the same anyway. If they knew and kept quiet, they should be removed. If they didn’t know they should be removed anyway for incompetence. The map of Telecom, last updated March 2006, that I’ve presented in part, in my shows, is an orgy. The same persons are everywhere, in the Stock Exchange, Directors, Auditors, multi-roled, multi-paymented.

The diagram needs a bit of explanation. At the centre there’s Telecom. Around that in the first circle, members of its Board of Directors, connected with a green line, and its Auditors, connected with a purple line. The Directors and the Auditors who are also to be found in other Boards of Directors have a green or purple line that connects them to the company in the second circle.

In the third circle there are Directors who are present in at least two companies that are connected to Telecom.
The map that is attached needs to be enlarged to be able to read the names.
Happy reading and happy investing.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 11:02 AM in Economics | Comments (23)
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September 17, 2006

Back to the future

Enzo Ferrari, mechanic, driver and then head of the company. Camillo Olivetti, designer of typewriters and then head of the company. Arnoldo Mondadori, office worker in a stationary shop, publisher and then head of the company.

Ask Ghidella, booted out not for incompetence but because of too much competence. Money, finance are results, a derivative. And today, the derivatives of a derivative command and destroy the companies. They transform the companies into dividends, stock options, into balance sheets in the red, into debt. Their current accounts however are always in the black just like the night.

When they are thrown out (it happens at times) they demand golden handshakes of millions of Euro even if the company is on the edge of bankruptcy. The State, as was seen for the Railways, as will be seen for Alitalia, gives in straight away. It pays them rather than sack them for good reason.

With our money, with our budgets. For the logic of power and appearance. The more they earn, the more they are considered to be important. Newspapers go mad about them. It’s not important how much damage they have done up until now. It’s certain that they will be allowed to do even greater damage in the future.

The enormous salaries given to managers of public and private companies (often not competent to do the job) are an enchantment. They themselves are an enchantment to be transferred to an island. Islands like Alcatraz and l’Isola dei Famosi { The Island of the Famous = Italian version of the reality TV show “I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!”}are OK as long as they are surrounded by sharks.

To put them at their ease. Why does a technician, a labourer, an office worker of a company have to earn 1000 to 1500 Euro a month and the CEO, the president, the general manager earn millions of Euro? Where is the logic?

If the technician makes a mistake, he’s thrown out. If it happens to the manager, he gets a golden handshake. Where is the seat of this great added value of the heads of companies? Modern Einsteins who one year proclaim the strategic validity of the landline-mobile phone merger and the next year exactly the opposite and no one laughs in their face. It’s a value that is hidden, very hidden. Mysterious. It’s time that it comes into the light, that there’s understanding and that they get out from under our feet.

Ps: The share action initiative is continuing. Click and delegate.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 01:05 PM in Economics | Comments (11)
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Back to the future

Enzo Ferrari, mechanic, driver and then head of the company. Camillo Olivetti, designer of typewriters and then head of the company. Arnoldo Mondadori, office worker in a stationary shop, publisher and then head of the company.

Ask Ghidella, booted out not for incompetence but because of too much competence. Money, finance are results, a derivative. And today, the derivatives of a derivative command and destroy the companies. They transform the companies into dividends, stock options, into balance sheets in the red, into debt. Their current accounts however are always in the black just like the night.

When they are thrown out (it happens at times) they demand golden handshakes of millions of Euro even if the company is on the edge of bankruptcy. The State, as was seen for the Railways, as will be seen for Alitalia, gives in straight away. It pays them rather than sack them for good reason.

With our money, with our budgets. For the logic of power and appearance. The more they earn, the more they are considered to be important. Newspapers go mad about them. It’s not important how much damage they have done up until now. It’s certain that they will be allowed to do even greater damage in the future.

The enormous salaries given to managers of public and private companies (often not competent to do the job) are an enchantment. They themselves are an enchantment to be transferred to an island. Islands like Alcatraz and l’Isola dei Famosi { The Island of the Famous = Italian version of the reality TV show “I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!”}are OK as long as they are surrounded by sharks.

To put them at their ease. Why does a technician, a labourer, an office worker of a company have to earn 1000 to 1500 Euro a month and the CEO, the president, the general manager earn millions of Euro? Where is the logic?

If the technician makes a mistake, he’s thrown out. If it happens to the manager, he gets a golden handshake. Where is the seat of this great added value of the heads of companies? Modern Einsteins who one year proclaim the strategic validity of the landline-mobile phone merger and the next year exactly the opposite and no one laughs in their face. It’s a value that is hidden, very hidden. Mysterious. It’s time that it comes into the light, that there’s understanding and that they get out from under our feet.

Ps: The share action initiative is continuing. Click and delegate.

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 01:05 PM in Economics | Comments (11)
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September 14, 2006

Snakes of Cement

Building is a snake that eats its own tail. That devours itself. At the entrance to a city we are welcomed by a forest of cranes as opposed to walls and gardens. In the roads, new exit roads, roundabouts and underpasses. Third and fourth lanes. The villages invest the municipal budgets in building works. ICI { L'Imposta Comunale sugli Immobili = local tax based on property} is the new engine for bricks.

Houses are taxed to build houses. Second houses, third houses. Empty industrial sheds for sale, for rent are strung out along the motorways for scores of kilometres. Cables appear like an enchantment between woods and mountains. Construction isn’t for living in, for a real need. It’s to make money.

To “invest”. Stability and the fall in prices is a risk, a problem, a disaster. But for whom?
Every new construction occupies space, resources, and destroys the territory. Italy seen from on high is a boot of cement with a bit of green all around.

Italian provinces are full of abandoned houses to be restructured and of new houses that are empty. Italian cities are full of empty offices (or empty of full offices) and overflowing with new buildings being constructed. There’s an orgy of cement. But cement produces nothing. Rather, if it’s not necessary it simply destroys.
The request for new construction licences should be granted only if existing alternatives are not present. Give incentives to restructure existing houses. How many offices, apartments, buildings are empty in Italy? How many are being constructed? Construction is justified because it makes money, because bricks are safe. But it’s a game that massacres the territory.

And economic resources that could be destined at least on the part of the public administration, to the territory, to services for the citizens. What’s the sense in investing in cubes of concrete rather than in research? There must be some sense while we are waiting for the buildings bubble that is coming soon. A wind is blowing from the other side of the Atlantic. Towards Europe. After that we can invest in demolition and the recovery of the territory. Snakes that eat their own tails.

PS “Fabbricare fabbricare fabbricare {Build, build, build}
Preferisco il rumore del mare {I prefer the sound of the sea}
Che dice fabbricare fare e disfare {That says build, make and unmake}
Fare e disfare è tutto un lavorare {Make and unmake is all work}” (Dino Campana)

Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:23 AM in Economics | Comments (30)
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September 13, 2006

Share action. Let’s give it a go!

Who does Telecom be