Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Italy in Crisis: The Decline of the Roman Democracy and Rise of the ‘Super Mario’ Technocracy (Part 1)

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, July 9, 2012

Italy in Crisis: The Decline of the Roman Democracy and Rise of the ‘Super Mario’ Technocracy (Part 1)

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from his website.

By using excerpts of recently written rough drafts from a forthcoming book, the author puts together all the details of Italy's process of surrender to European and US banking elites. This series offers an excellent study that illustrates how banking elites are taking over governments in Europe to serve the needs of bankers and banking shareholders.

Part 2 is here.

To understand what is happening in Europe, it would be desirable to have an understanding of the whole issue of derivative instrument trading on Wall Street that played a major role in the economic collapse. See this, this, and this.

Also, PBS TV has recently run a very good, though flawed in some respects, 4-part series on derivative trading called "Money, Power and Wall Street". They can be viewed online here, here, here, and here. Or you can purchase the 2-CD set that includes all four programs from PBS here for $29.99US.