[EnergyUnlimited]

Under Mussolini, agrarian reforms were enacted that benefited small farmers. A national highway system was built. Unemployment was nearly eliminated. The economy shifted into high gear and a strong sense of national pride swept the country.

Corporations worked hand-in-hand with the government creating a positive business environment enriching the country.

You forgot one important thing.
Mussolini made sure that a capitol of Italy was actually in Rome.

Now it seems to be somewhere in Corleone...

It seems to me the Republicans are backed by the true power in America, the corporations and the wealthy. Perhaps it is time to remove the velvet glove and show the iron gauntlet.

Poor Americans.
Now they will have to work for free.

Liberty and Freedom are abstractions. Illusions covering the true state of affairs. The only power the masses have is that which you give them.

...until they hang you upside down...
You know what I mean.
Poor Benito.

There is much to be done, and little time to do it. It will take a strong government with an iron will, to do what must be done.

Strong government is not something what Italy is famous of...
And the last one was disassembled by Americans and Brits.

Once effective actions are being taken, the country will improve and the people will benefit.

I doubt that issues like exhaustion of ability to continue exponential growth can be addressed by governments.
Current paradigm will still collapse.

Fascism may well prove to be a temporary solution (seen for example in US which is increasingly fascist state) but it will disintegrate further, possibly with a bang.
Some agrarian or feudal systems will prove to be long lasting solutions in long run.

If Italy had remained neutral in the war, people would be singing Mussolini's praises today.

Nope.
It would end up like Spain.
By now it would have it's own Zapatero.

BTW.
I do not consider Franco to be an evil man.
He was perhaps a successful fascist.
He certainly stopped communist madness in Spain and managed to keep it neutral during WW II.
Consider him a positive character but he is an exception.

[ItalyRules]

If Italy had remained neutral in the war, people would be singing Mussolini's praises today.

Why didn't Italy remain neutral? The answer to that question trumps all the alleged positives.

Mussolini stood against Hitler when he first sought to annex Austria, and Hitler, not ready for war backed down. Mussolini had mobilized forces and moved them north. Italy fought on the side of the Allies in WWI, and had expected France and Great Britain to follow suit, but was left hanging out there all alone, when they did not.

The second time, Hitler called Mussolini for a conference where Mussolini told Hitler this business with the Jews was unproductive and insane. Hitler was only interested in talking about Austria. Mussolini left the meeting thinking he had gotten through to Hitler. Hitler assumed he had gotten Mussolini's acquiesence to his plans.

Hitler proceeded with annexing Austria and Mussolini was furious, but since the first time, the British and French left him out to twist in the wind, and since it had happened so quickly, Mussolini though it best to bide his time.

When Hitler proposed an alliance, Mussolini refused. Hitler enticed him with promises of French Colonial territories that he knew Mussolini coveted in his dream of restoring the Roman Empire, But Mussolini still refused saying Italy would need at least 3-4 years to modernize it's forces before it could even think of participating in a military alliance. He did offer to provide non-military support for Hitler's plan to invade Poland.

Mussolini assumed that would be the extent of Hitler's adventures. When Hitler attacked Norway without informing Mussolini, he was again furious.

Then, with Hitler's blitzkreig across the low countries and France, and seeing how quickly France was falling, Mussolini feared he would miss out on his French colonial territories and an opportunity to grab large swaths of southern France before France capitulated.

So even though he had not yet been able to modernize the army, he declared war and invaded France. Unfortunately, the French capitulated almost immediately, leaving Italy now committed too soon with nothing to show for it.

So it was the coveting of French territories and dreams of a new Roman empire that got Italy into the war.

None of this has anything to do with Fascism. Fascism restored Italy to a prosperous nation again before the war and gave the people pride and hope for the future.

[PrestonSturges]

Fascism. Fascism. Fascism. Hitler. Hitler. Hitler. This is really getting out of hand here.
It must have something to do with justifying the well-known liberal bloodthirsty craving for killing and war.

Which was exactly why Hitler claimed his preemptive wars were merely self defense against being enslaved by the genocidal liberal Jews.

[efarmer]

Well our friend Benito went from being a Socialist, to doing Anarchist rants, to finally settling on Fascism and riding it into power in Italy. His backing of the wealthy industrialists led to forming nationally backed corporations with federal price subsidies to keep inferior goods price competitive with superior foreign goods from outside of Italy. He failed to raise the Italian standard of living, and then tore his nation apart in a war for attempting to bolt on colonies for resources.

With all the ists and isms we bandy about we have a natural tendency to romanticize what they were after sufficient time has passed to cover the atrocity of their failures.

I do believe Mussolini was a blatant opportunist, which is a fairly common belief system, not necessarily good or evil, until it gets desperate and begins to believe it is something more noble, and that other people need to die or suffer for it.

If you wish to be a successful blatant opportunist, go to the concentrated wealth and power and win favor, and then go to the people and win support, and then go to work and achieve some results that will maintain your perch as a viable blatant opportunist.

History shows us that blatant opportunists inevitably go to war for a cover story and it is a pre-emptive and invasive war after they have put the iron fist on any internal opposition that would prevent them from doing so. When blatant opportunists fail to deliver more wealth for the concentrated wealth and populist vise they end up inhabiting, they like to hand out guns and see if they can venture forth out of their nations to steal shit abroad to gin up rewards they have been unable to deliver as internal blatant opportunists.

The ones who are successful at the wars are known as Emperors and great leaders, the ones who are not are called insane tyrants. Mussolini was an insane tyrant by this yardstick. He did dress nice, and he said some neat stuff. Don't they all?

[eastbay]

Fascism. Fascism. Fascism. Hitler. Hitler. Hitler. This is really getting out of hand here.
It must have something to do with justifying the well-known liberal bloodthirsty craving for killing and war.

Which was exactly why the Palestinians claim their preemptive attacks are merely self defense against being enslaved by the genocidal liberal Jews.

Fascist Hitler Fascist Hitler Fascist Hitler.... etc...

[Pretorian]

In Italy, Fascism was not Racist.

Race! It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today. . . . National pride has no need of the delirium of race. ”
—Benito Mussolini, 1933

Thats what was so wrong with it.

[efarmer]

It would be impossible for a blatant opportunist to spin racial purity in an obvious mixed ethnicity place like Italy. This exploit was open to exploit in Germany, which had demographics that worked for the ploy and allowed Germans who did not fit the real target pattern, to chameleon in on a massive basis, which of course they did. Nobody ever stopped to ask why an Austria immigrant was selling them on German racial purity, cause they were already sold on it and it worked to justify scapegoating.

When blatant opportunists set out to sell Purity, they have to leverage from demographics and pick if it should be religious, racial, political belief, or some combination. People who buy in, will pass on the belief of being exceptional on the basis of the blatant opportunist criteria for their own lifetime and often their children's. You can lose when you are exceptional, but you are never wrong.

This is harder to do in America, since we are a melting pot by nature, but we can get the hang of it if we work at it long enough and we think it will get us rich or stop us from being scared all the time.
The first step is to divide the society up in the Pure and the rest, then the Pure need to purge the society of the bad influence and see if the economy improves, if not, they often have to spill out of their borders and punish the people between them and the resources they have been denied.

[Ludi]

or stop us from being scared all the time.

Personally, I've found it easiest to just not be scared all the time. I've lived in mixed places my entire life (California and Texas) and never managed to feel askeered by The Other.

Here in my neighborhood I'm The Other myself, not being a conservative Christian Republican.

My neighbors don't seem askeered of me.....but then I don't look or act all that different from them on a daily basis....

[efarmer]

So far in America, the Pure game has just been used by two competing gangs of corporate hookers in a turf battle, but unfortunately, when real and severe economic distress takes hold, the underlying Pure game takes over and runs it course, and a blatant opportunist, perhaps not even from the two gangs who started the game, sees his or her ship coming in, and arrives with all of the easy answers for all of the
special people.

It is why I have disapproval for all the people who are making a fortune out of dividing and polarizing my country for a quick buck. All the the Red and Blue and White and Brown and Black and Yellow and etc. etc. people who are doing it.

[Ludi]

I find it's possible to have something in common with just about anyone. This is not to say I feel entirely friendly toward everyone!

<<<<<< blotchy pinkish person

[PrestonSturges]

or stop us from being scared all the time.

Personally, I've found it easiest to just not be scared all the time. I've lived in mixed places my entire life (California and Texas) and never managed to feel askeered by The Other.

Here in my neighborhood I'm The Other myself, not being a conservative Christian Republican.

My neighbors don't seem askeered of me.....but then I don't look or act all that different from them on a daily basis....

Be askeert, be very askeert.

[americandream]

The peaking of oil and resourcing generally and its convergence with ideologies at odds with its dictates will sort the wheat from the chaff in terms of modes of living. Fascism is one of those notions destined for the scrapheap.

What fascism seeks to do is add to corporatism the veneer of Marxist socialism whilst absolutely missing the core logic behind Marx's ideas. Actually a good 95% of those who have read Marx miss the subtle message behind his notion of an objective social-economy where man is moulded not so much by his normative perceptions, but rather by objective material externaliites.

Of course, such notions cause humans, with their anthropocentirc ideas of free choice, to recoil in horror, yet we miss the fact that even our sentience is a by-product of the brute hand of material dictates. I have just had an interesting debate with this academic fellow who recoiled at the notion that he had no free will as such and was subject to the external paradigm with its invisible hand of compulsion. Yet why we entertain such notions in the face of quite blatant contradictions must surely say a lot about us and our tendency to fool ourselves until we stand, devoid of all our illusions.

It would be impossible for a blatant opportunist to spin racial purity in an obvious mixed ethnicity place like Italy. This exploit was open to exploit in Germany, which had demographics that worked for the ploy and allowed Germans who did not fit the real target pattern, to chameleon in on a massive basis, which of course they did. Nobody ever stopped to ask why an Austria immigrant was selling them on German racial purity, cause they were already sold on it and it worked to justify scapegoating.

When blatant opportunists set out to sell Purity, they have to leverage from demographics and pick if it should be religious, racial, political belief, or some combination. People who buy in, will pass on the belief of being exceptional on the basis of the blatant opportunist criteria for their own lifetime and often their children's. You can lose when you are exceptional, but you are never wrong.

This is harder to do in America, since we are a melting pot by nature, but we can get the hang of it if we work at it long enough and we think it will get us rich or stop us from being scared all the time.
The first step is to divide the society up in the Pure and the rest, then the Pure need to purge the society of the bad influence and see if the economy improves, if not, they often have to spill out of their borders and punish the people between them and the resources they have been denied.

[eXpat]

This is what happened earlier on
ECB Buys Italian Bonds, Third Major Central Bank Intervention In Past 24 Hours As Status Quo Panic Explodes

At exactly 9 am, half an hour into Trichet's press conference, the world's most undercapitalized hedge fund: the European Central Bank, demonstratively came in and started buying Italian bonds in hopes the market will forget just how broke the European continent truly is. This is the third major intervention by a central bank in capital markets in the past 24 hours following the SNB and the BOJ. Next up the Fed, and everything going to hell. Because even as Italian bond yields drop below 6%, the selloff in Portugal bonds is accelerating and the 10 Year yield is now 15 bps wider at 11.34%. We have a question: at what point does the ECB have to officially start printing Euros before its capitalization goes negative?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ecb-buys-italian-bonds-third-major-central-bank-intervention-past-24-hours

and this is what is happening now:
ITALY BREAKS: Entire FTSE MIB Is Now Suspended

Market holiday bitchez. "Further notice will follow." Don't hold your breath.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/italy-breaks-entire-ftse-mib-now-suspended

According to the Italian Bourse website, they are not updating their information (after a very nasty day):
http://it.reuters.com/article/italianNews/idITLDE77313J20110804

Not too much information in the news about that. In terms of economic impact, let´s remember than Italy is far more important than Greece.

[peripato]

This is what happened earlier on
ECB Buys Italian Bonds, Third Major Central Bank Intervention In Past 24 Hours As Status Quo Panic Explodes

At exactly 9 am, half an hour into Trichet's press conference, the world's most undercapitalized hedge fund: the European Central Bank, ...
Not too much information in the news about that. In terms of economic impact, let´s remember than Italy is far more important than Greece.

Well I was just looking at it on IG Markets, with whom I have an account and the thing was still trading, but down over 800 points or nearly 5%.

[eXpat]

Italian Newspaper La Stampa, confirms that due to "technical reasons" the Italian Bourse is not updating trading information. The article says that in another European Bourses that could be the situation too:
Text (in italian)

Solo un’ora. Tanto dura la fiducia a Piazza Affari, poi i timori che gravano sul debito pubblico italiano tornano a farsi sentire. A Milano gli indici sono stati sospesi forse per un "guasto tecnico". Il valore dell’Ftse Mib non risulta aggiornato. Allo stesso tempo, l’informativa sui prezzi in tempo reale su alcuni canali informativi potrebbe non essere aggiornata. Anche in altre Piazze europee gli scambi sono stati sospesi.

http://www3.lastampa.it/economia/sezioni/articolo/lstp/414520/
Before that it was in free fall.

[Sixstrings]

Bank holiday?

Cripes gold dropping too.. and oil.. and nat gas..

[eXpat]

ECB Crisis Management Is Half-Hearted

Traders confirmed that the ECB bought government bonds in the open market for the first time since March as President Jean-Claude Trichet held his monthly press conference. But the ECB appears to have undermined its own actions by being too half-hearted. Instead of buying Spanish and Italian bonds, those which are now at the focus of the crisis, it only bought Portuguese and Irish ones.

As such, it gave the impression that it is still not prepared to risk trying to support the huge debt markets of southern Europe’s two largest economies, for fear of finding out how many people want to sell. The task of supporting Italy and Spain, it would seem, is one for other euro-zone governments—when they get back from vacation.

The reaction has been swift: Italian 10-year bond yields have risen back to 6.18%, close to their highest since the introduction of the euro 12 years ago, while Spanish 10-year yields rose to 6.31%. Italian bank stocks have also fallen sharply, reflecting the market’s concern about their massive exposure to their sovereign. The stocks of both Unicredit SpA and Intesa SanPaolo have both been suspended, limit down, on the Milan bourse. By contrast, the German Bund future, the euro zone’s safest haven, hit a contract high of 122.97.

http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2011/08/04/ecb-crisis-management-is-half-hearted/

[eXpat]

It Just Got Worse: Italian Treasury Just Announced It Will Not Sell 3 Month Bills At The August 10 Auction

Little by little, Italy's self-imposed exile will completely isolate it from capital markets. Here's to hoping that €60 trillion in previously undiscovered money last the country for a looooong while.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/it-just-got-worse-italian-treasury-just-announced-it-will-not-sell-3-month-bills-august-10-auct

[eXpat]

Again!!!!
UPDATE 1-Italy's FTSE MIB index halted for second day

Aug 5 (Reuters) - Publication of Italy's blue-chip FTSE MIB index was temporarily halted for the second time in two days on Friday, the Milan bourse said without elaborating.

The suspension of the index took place around 10 minutes before the market close at 1530 GMT. The index closed down 0.62 percent, hitting a new record low at 16,028.80, according to the bourse's website and Reuters data.

The bourse suffered a similar incident on Thursday, when publication of the index was suspended 30 minutes before the close.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/05/italy-bourse-this-one-please-idUSLDE77416F20110805

[eXpat]

Meanwhile In "This Is A Gamechanger" Italy...

Fiat (F IM) and Pirelli (PC IM) shares suspended for excessive losses. That is all.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/meanwhile-gamechanger-italy
Italian newspaper
http://www.milanofinanza.it/news/dettaglio_news.asp?id=201108081232048061&chkAgenzie=TMFI&sez=news&testo=&titolo=Superindice%20Ocse%20rallenta%20ancora,%20Piazza%20Affari%20si%20conferma%20in%20rosso