Yanis Varoufakis - Capitalism will eat democracy — unless we speak up

Have you wondered why politicians aren't what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? Economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it's because you can be in politics today but not be in power — because real power now belongs to those who control the economy. He believes that the mega-rich and corporations are cannibalizing the political sphere, causing financial crisis. In this talk, hear his dream for a world in which capital and labor no longer struggle against each other, "one that is simultaneously libertarian, Marxist and Keynesian."

Italian politics reaching new level of corruption

While the International Press is rightly blaming the Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy for a lavish consumption of alcohol in time of austerity.

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his advisers often consume more than 1,000 euros ($1,286) of alcoholic drinks when they fly on the government’s official jet, Interviu magazine reported in its Sept. 24 issue.

For Italians though, to waste 1000 euro on beer is merely a drop in the ocean of waste the Italian government is accostumed to.
Latest case, Italy's Ambassador to London, Giorgio Maria Economides decided to replace a simple Lancia with license plate "ITA 1" with a more artistic Maserati (shown below in front of the Embassy) at the bargain price of $200.000:




Way to go Ambassador in representing a broke country with class and style!

We must admit though that Italian politicians at home are far classier than our Ambassador in London.
Today Mr. Fiorito, the Regional Leader of the PDL (Berlusconi's party) has been arrested in Rome for embezzlement, he ransacked 1.3 million euro from the Region of Lazio for his many private pleasures, he was not alone 70+ more councillors did the same with public money.

Last week the Governor of Lazio, Polverini resigned after it was found that for more than 2 years the entire council of the Region of Lazio was hell-bent on spending public money like if there was no tomorrow.
The estimate is that in 2 years they spent over 30 million euro.
Some of the most interesting expenses are the following:

14000 euro in a wineshop
16000 euro to pay private electricity bills in arrears

thousands more paid for unspecified "collaboration services" to the fiancee of Mr. Fiorito
5000 euro dinners 
Toga Parties paid with public money: photos here
Hookers
Trips for councillors and lovers/hookers to exotic locations
Houses and Villas
Jeeps bought on the occasion of a rare snow storm in Rome

and much much more...

This is not an isolate case many more regions in Italy are facing the same scrutiny and new stories are surfacing on the Italian press each week.

Last week the Region of Piedmont has been searched by investigators after the discovery that all the regional councillors have requested refunds for travels and activities even during the summer stop of the regional Council.
The best part is that regions do not check if true what declared, it was enough for a councillor to say he travelled 5000 miles in one month to obtain refunds amounting to tens of thousands of euros per month.
For those interested in reading the full details here a link to published data

Although, let us not fool ourselves, this is NOT an attempt to clean up the house, this is action pointing to strike political forces and push them to accept another Monti term or at least to be servile when it comes to vote and accept the Prime Minister diktats.

Italy is between a rock and a hard place, Italian politics is rotten, diseased and inept at ruling the country, hell-bent as it is in ransacking public money for their private interests. They have no credibility left but they are still useful to Monti being discreditable and therefore prone to manipulation.
On the other side, an un-elected prime minister is ruling the country with no public consent and following EU diktats not ratified by the people.
Italians are being told that politicians are scum and they are unable to rule therefore an enlightened technician has to take control.

What if next elections will bring to another rotten parliament or a fragmented one unable to form a government?
Are we going to ask again Monti to rule the country because our politicians are unable to do it?
Are we going to suspend again the right of the people to decide of their future?
Would this still be a democracy?

USA Presidential Campaign Infograph

Another great infograph on the USA Presidential Campaign!

Full size HERE

Population and Peak Oil: where is the debate!

These days certainly we do have an abundance of gloom and doom subjects: the latest in the hit parade, swine flu is joining global warming and recession/depression at the forefront of media discussion.
It remains to understand though why the two key actors Population and Peak Oil are hardly discussed.
Population and Peak Oil are the source of every imbalance we are witnessing today; Global Warming, Water and Food depletion, Wars, Economical Crisis, pandemic etc. etc. are all consequences of these two strongly interlaced factors.
It is true that recently Peak Oil has started to be acknowledged by the oil experts and oil corporations that until 1 year ago were strongly calling everyone proposing the theory a lunatic.
Total, Aramco and others have finally acknowledged the fact that peak oil is here and that we probably peaked in 2005.
The excellent work of Matthew Simmons and Colin Campbell at explaining this potentially catastrophic issue is finally being considered more broadly by the establishment even though a large scale acknowledgment and discussion is still missing.
Population on the opposite is still widely ignored or diminished of magnitude, being the most delicate of the issues is being addressed with soft tones and occasional innuendos that are preventing any serious and drastic remedy. It is quite sad considering that population was a serious discussion in the 60s and 70s when the Club of Rome issued the famous report: The Limits to Growth.
Since then the issue has not been revisited anymore and has fallen in the sands of oblivion.
If the economy and corporations need always more and more clients to increase their revenue; growth in all its form cannot be bad! Right!
Well it is wrong actually! Unlimited and undisciplined growth in a world with finite resources is a monstrosity and a disaster being manufactured. We have had an explosion of population in the last 100 years due to the abundant and cheap oil.
Abundant and cheap oil allowed for the Green revolution which increased 10 fold the food output, allowed for transportation, manufacturing and energy to be readily available for a growing number of people, but now we are at a turning point in human history, oil is no longer abundant and cheap anymore. An oil shock according to many experts is only months away and a gas and food and water shock could follow in various parts of the world in the following years.
Controlling the world's population explosion is now more than ever essential to avoid an armageddon scenario unfolding in the following years.

The obstacles to control the population are first of all moral and political. Democracy and human rights by themselves are blocking any attempt to tackle this enormous problem, a new rethinking of what is a a sustainable democracy and what are human rights is longely due.

Human rights were proclaimed in a very different world from the one we are entering into now.
Western civilization was controlling the entire planet and consuming 90% of the resources.
Today hugely populated countries as China and India have entered the game as superpowers and they joined the party when only scraps have been left on the table.

If the population of China would live according to European standards we would need the resources, food and water of an extra 6 planets.

They will have to compete with the rest of us for those last scraps.

Democracy will not survive when the first signs of resource and social stress will show up and human life in the following years will become much cheaper.
Two paths are available either we continue on this road and then we will face resource wars, disasters and pandemics unleashing each year; or we accept that current population levels are unsustainable that our ant community has grown too big and too fast and that we need to rebalance the population level even with draconian measures. Ignoring the reality or being indolent in addressing it will only increase the price we will have to pay in terms of lives and social collapse when nature will take care of it soon!

Some scary things are happening right now and I will report them in following posts! Be tuned!