Prodi è infallibile?

[Nelson]

In Origine Postato da Genyo
______________________________________

La riparano Bertinotti, Vendola, Ramon Mantovani, Diliberto, Cossutta, Pecoraro Scanio, Rizzo, Paolo Cento, la Belillo, Mussi, la Rosi Bindi...

Con questi sì che ripari tutti i mussulmani del mondo da noi che c'è posto e siamo buoni, voi avete già abbassato le mutande e siete a 90°, noi abbiamo altri gusti.

Non te ne sei accorto, ma tra l'altro hai nominato anche qualche altro professore universitario.

[brunik]

Amici, qua le encicclopedie internazionali sembrano darmi ragione, mi dipingono Prodi come l'Italiano più importante degli ultimi 50 anni.

Visto cosa viol dire non essere accecati dal pollismo, amici bananas? Quand'è che guarirete dalla vostra malattia?

http://www.uwgb.edu/galta/333/BIOS98/PRODI.HTM

Italy is famous for government instability. Between the end of World War II and Romano Prodi's rise to Prime Minister, a full 54 governments had formed and fallen in the Italian Republic. The Christian Democrats (DC) had a large presence in Italian politics along with the communist PCI, but those parties fell apart early in the 1990s; the DC had succumbed to bribery scandals and the PCI was damaged by the fall of the U.S.S.R. Amid this political turmoil rose Romano Prodi. Prodi faced more than just political turmoil though; the economy was in shambles too. Italy's soaring budget deficit, inefficient and uncompetitive nationalized industries, and chronically deficient pension program all had to be restructured to conform with European Commission requirements in order for Italy to become part of the European common currency (Euro). Romano Prodi's reign as Prime Minister was among the longest in the Italian Republic's history - his downfall as Italian Prime Minister came as he was pushing for ambitious pension reform aimed at reducing the government deficit. Today Prodi is the President of the European Commission.

The following essay traces Romano Prodi's development as a professional economist/politician and his ascendancy to prestigious posts as Prime Minister of Italy and President of the European Commission. It examines the challenges Prodi encountered when he first entered the field of government and the impact he had on leading Italy towards solutions to her economic woes. This essay will lead through Prodi's tumultuous last days as Italian Prime Minister and ultimately to his fall. Though he fell from Italian supremacy, his brilliance was not unnoticed by his European neighbors as eventually he rose to a position of even greater prestige than he previously held in Italy.

Romano Prodi was born in 1939, graduated from Milan's Catholic University with an economics degree in 1961, and continued post-graduate work at the London School of Economics. After completing his post-graduate days in London, he returned to Italy and began an economics professorship at Bologna University. In 1974, he taught at Harvard as a visiting professor. The majority of Prodi's life was spent in the halls of academia until in 1979, he gained great renown for his two month government position as Italy's Minister of Industry. During those two months he shared academic economics know-how with politicians who had previously been running the government's economic program inefficiently. Later, in 1982, he was offered a position in charge of the Italian government's Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI).
The IRI was created in 1933 during the fascist era as a state-owned conglomerate of businesses. The belief behind it was that a large conglomerate with greater capital would exercise significant market power both in Italy and globally at lower costs. A further motive for creating a state controlled business conglomerate was to prevent disparities which were seen as inevitable consequences of private bourgeoisie ownership of the means of production in liberal capitalism. After World War II, portions of the IRI became unproductive and unprofitable but political connections ensured the IRI's continued support of failing holdings. Rather than allowing unprofitable sectors of the IRI to perish and diverting funds towards organizing productive units, lira continued pouring in to keep sinking sectors afloat. Over the course of time, the IRI accrued a significant deficit.

In 1982, Prodi became the head of the IRI and was delegated the responsibility of getting the deficit under control. Putting his economic expertise to practice, Prodi led the IRI back to profitability by 1989. Having succeeded in his assignment, and having had enough with the business of government politics, Prodi stepped down from his IRI post and returned to teaching at Bologna. After his departure, corruption befell the IRI and it began losing money again. Concerned about Italy's reputation in the eyes of other European countries, whose favor was sought regarding admission to the European common currency, government officials called on Prodi to return to the IRI. Hesitant at first, Prodi finally agreed to return in 1993, and he began thereafter a campaign of privatization intent on clearing up Italy's wayward economic policies.

When Prodi returned to the IRI, he faced debts equal to 73 trillion lire ($59 billion)! His first year back was projected to face an additional loss of 5 trillion lire. Making matters worse for the fate of the IRI (and better for Italy's economic reform efforts) the government discontinued funding for the IRI in 1991 and also refused emergency fund requests by the agency. The IRI was a sinking ship and Romano Prodi, a free-market economist, seemed all the ready to tear the ship apart and scrap its parts.

He began by privatizing banks which had formerly been under government control. His first move was to sell ownership of the banks through a public stock offering available to both Italian and international investors. After completing stock sales for two of Italy's largest banks, Prodi's attention turned to the steel making subsidiary, ILEA, which had been one of IRI's most costly assets. Efforts at covering ILVA's 4.5 trillion lire debt included worker layoffs and the massive restructured privatization of the subsidiary into three private firms, each specializing in a particular category of steel production.

While the road to privatization was not completely smooth, labor riots were among the consequences of some of Prodi's measures, the Italian public generally supported the transitions. As public support for Prodi programs grew stronger, the humbly charismatic bike riding academic economist began playing the role of a politician. He was no stranger to Italian politics as a former Christian Democrat, and with his popularity strong he formed a center-left coalition with which he wished to gain influence in the Italian government. By banding together the Communist Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), led by Massimo d'Alema, left-over contingents of the Christian Democrats, and other smaller parties including the Italian Greens, Prodi created the Olive Tree Coalition and was able to mount a challenge against media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi for Prime Minister.

The campaigns for these two men were worlds apart. Silvio Berlusconi owned many media outlets including three national television stations (privatized by Prodi's programs) which he used to deliver his campaign into Italian living rooms. Prodi on the other hand embarked on a five-month nationwide bus tour which brought him face to face with Italian voters in over 100 towns. Incidentally, Berlusconi's networks had almost no coverage of Prodi's bus tour at all! Prodi's campaign focused on free market reforms, deficit reduction, less state control of business activities, stronger social welfare programs, and stronger cohesion between diverse political parties. He also proposed a solidarity fund to distribute central tax dollars to Italy's poor southern regions and a policy called fiscal federalism to transfer up to 60% of tax revenues to regional authorities. These policies were popular with the public and Romano Prodi won the election.
As is typical with ruling coalitions in Italy, the Olive Tree coalition reign was not smooth for long. It was in trouble less than a year after its victory for a number of reasons. Many smaller parties which had rallied behind Prodi began to feel ignored as he focused attention on pursuing his agenda. Prodi assigned his deputy, Walter Veltroni to facilitate communication between coalition parties but many did not take kindly to Veltroni's political agenda. So while Prodi diligently tended to his work, the foundation of his coalition was crumbling as smaller parties grappled for influence internally over issues of electoral reform, some favoring proportional and others first past the post elections, and over whether or not to rewrite Italy's constitution again.

To make matters worse, the opposition led by Silvio Berlusconi began to argue against Prodi's budget proposal for 1997 which included significant tax increases, mostly on middle classes, and a number of spending cuts aimed at saving 62 trillion lire ($41 billion) to use towards deficit reduction. Prodi's immediate insistence that lower houses of Parliament approve the budget quickly awakened the sleeping opposition, Berlusconi's Freedom Alliance, to arms. The Freedom Alliance flatly opposed Prodi's budget, and accused him of fiscal dictatorship. They took their opposition to the streets of Rome in a huge rally by right wing pary members who brandished signs criticizing Prodi and his budget. Yet Prodi stood steadfast, comparing his budget to wings that would allow Italy to join the common European currency.

Even though Prodi's budget proposal faced stiff opposition, his pension reform proposal was what led to his downfall. For the Olive Tree coalition to maintain power, votes from the Refounded Communist party were needed. The leader of that party, Fausto Bertinotti, was a strong opponent of pension reform. Prodi's unyielding call for pension reform caused the Refounded Communist party to split from the coalition and thus the Olive Tree fell.

The Olive Tree's falling was no real surprise to anyone following Italian politics, and even though Prodi fell from his post he had managed to gain positive attention from his European neighbors while he reigned. That is why he was nominated earlier this year by 15 heads of government to become President of the European Commission. His role with the European Commission is similar to his experiences in Italy. The European Commission has budget problems and is in need of economic reform so they have offered Prodi support for his reform suggestions. There are many suggested reforms on the table for Prodi to sift through as we wait to see the development of his reign as European Commission President.

It is likely that Prodi's term as European Commission President will result in many structural changes favorable to economic principles. Economics has been Prodi's game as an Italian student, professor, bureaucrat, Prime Minister, and now as the European Commission's President. Prodi's contribution to Italian economic reform through intense privatization and deficit reductions, and his likely contribution to European Commission economic reform will undoubtedly ensure his memory in history books in Italy, throughout Europe, and possibly the rest of the world.

[--IHSV--]

Vabbè ho capito....forse stai già preparando il discorso di fine legislatura a Prodi (sempre se vince le elezioni)!

[--IHSV--]

Prodi l'italiano più importante degli ultimi 50 anni????

questi ci vogliono proprio male allora......

[brunik]

In Origine Postato da --IHSV--
Prodi l'italiano più importante degli ultimi 50 anni????

questi ci vogliono proprio male allora......

Beh. all'estero lo pensano tutti,anche la BBC, per esempio.

Siete voi Bananas che siete stati educati male, mi fate i sorrisetti e le battute dell'asilo pero' mica mi sapete contraddire sul fatto che un Professore di Economia di Harvard in un anno ha prorto l'inflazione dal 6 all'1,5% e il deficit dal 9 al 2,7%, e che in tre annoi ha portato l'IRI da una perdita di 5000 miliardi (dell'82, bada ben) all'utile,

Purtroppo i fatti dicono anche che è un grande politico, perchè ha sempre battuto Berlusconi ed è stato pure presidente dell'Europa.

Trovami un altro italiano con un curriculum del genere, ti sfido.

[Nelson]

In Origine Postato da --IHSV--
Prodi l'italiano più importante degli ultimi 50 anni????

questi ci vogliono proprio male allora......

Che ci vogliano bene o male è opinabile e soggetto a discussione, che lo pensino è un fatto.
Se devo scegliere per rappresentarmi uno che so che appena lo vedono lo prendono a pernacchie (e quindi di riflesso prendono a pernacchie anche me) e uno che so che è stimato. Cosa sceglierò a prescindere dalle mie simpatie?

[--IHSV--]

:
scusatemi ma non ce la faccio a smettere di ridere......post come quelli di Brunik se ne vedono pochi in giro (per fortuna)

comunaque caro Brunik, devo correggermi....tu non sei l'Emilio Fede del centro-sinistra........sei peggio!!!!!

[proteus]

In Origine Postato da --IHSV--
:
scusatemi ma non ce la faccio a smettere di ridere......post come quelli di Brunik se ne vedono pochi in giro (per fortuna)

comunaque caro Brunik, devo correggermi....tu non sei l'Emilio Fede del centro-sinistra........sei peggio!!!!!

Ancora giudizi da tifoso?

E i giudizi di merito?

[brunik]

In Origine Postato da --IHSV--
:
scusatemi ma non ce la faccio a smettere di ridere......post come quelli di Brunik se ne vedono pochi in giro (per fortuna)

comunaque caro Brunik, devo correggermi....tu non sei l'Emilio Fede del centro-sinistra........sei peggio!!!!!

Sì, ridi che la mamma ha fatto i gnocchi, intanto però non sei stato capace di dire nè a nè bah.

Se ti interessa ti posto qualche articolo in Italiano sul periodo dell'IRI, visto che l'Inglese hai dimostrato di non capirlo.

Interessa?

[Genyo]

Sono tutte MARKETTE, prodi ha fatto un giro in quelle università, anch'io ho vitato Heidelberg, politecnico di Losanna, SOAS di Londra, Berkeley, ed ho anche seguito dei corsi... e allora??

Dove cazzo sta scritto che è stato VISITING PROFESSOR A STANFORD ED HARVARD.

O taroccari.