Italy's horse of a different color

Meloni: a Spring or a milder Winter? Whilst her first public appearance as Premier signals a change,  her words indicate that this might not actually be THE change.     First, an apology: whilst this represents what my VERY initial assessment of what "Premier Meloni has said so far"... a part of the actual analysis is deliberately missing. The reasons are obvious to those seeing the gaps: after all I live here, in a legendarily dysfunctional country, and my recent years have been an object lesson in not trusting strangers as much as I ordinarily would have done previously. Also, this is also part of my edge in my day job, and some things are free but some you pay for, sorry. But I stand by all the words I am typing in order to put on screen what I found comforting in the first steps of this new government, what I think you should expect going forward, and what I would have hoped to see but I haven't so far or think I won't ever see. The road to power Gi...

  The Pirenne predicament (First published in March 2022 on Intelligencequarterly.com) The invasion of Ukraine has been a one way trap: a “new” reality will replace the old and many changes will occur , near and far; a good sign of our problem is that our elites are still clinging to their Leo Bloom blue blanket of Renewables; Europe, though various leaders, looks to have changed tack on many things, yet it didn't: the ruling classes are still preaching conformity; On that, there is an inherent irony in that the continent which made a point of subjecting maverick political figures to endless flak bordering on harassment is pushed into change by one such figure outside it: Zelenski, a former comic who is showing a great personal, INDIVIDUAL courage, leadership qualities and a kind of stubborn determination, would have been harassed to no end had he been Premier in Luxembourg. The UK has been practically kicked out for much less, and remember Berlusconi,...

  In Defense of the speculators   (originally posted on Intelligencequarterly.com) “ But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold. What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell.” (“The Lord of the Rings”, J.R.R Tolkien) Given the sad state of the Economy in Europe, especially Energy, the Italian media and the election campaign is rife with calls by politicians and punters to “punish speculators”, and our government went as far as to impose an extraordinary tax on “extraordinary profits” of energy companies, on top of Premier Draghi proposal to the EU to agree to a price cap on gas bought from abroad. Yet, lest some quick witted person undertakes to try, “Speculation” is not a sure thing, and unless some background is provided to the obvious framing going on, the term is much maligned and utterly misunderstood. So, without further ado, let's delve int...

LEARNING TO LOVE THE BOMB, TAKE 2   This is a sequel to “ LEARNING TO LOVE THE BOMB “, first published on Intelligencequarterly.com. The site is winding down so I will repost what I originally wrote for them here.   Today, we can mark the calendar for a significant event: Finnish Olkiluoto 3 Nuclear power plant reached first criticality . This is significant since its close relative in Flamanville has been pushed to 2024 . Hence.... odds are the Finns will be the ONLY country fielding an operational nuclear reactor west of the Elbe for the rest of the decade. But my intention was not to praise the Finns, always a pleasure for me, but to point out what is transpiring in the nuclear arena in old Europe and how it relates to the energy policy landscape. So let's start with the obvious: the inchoate words in favour of Nuclear uttered by, among others, Ursula Von Der Leyen were complete balderdash. They were sprung upon her by energy price increases, true, but the big event...

THE BUNTINGS ARE DOWN Why Italian recent elections were a defining moment – and why the impact could be far more or far less than advertised. And yes, the title phrase is filched off Blackadder. The recent Italian elections have provided any number of controversial points. I already covered the misunderstanding in the International press on how we entered the political crisis and ended up calling a snap election with an electoral law which was fated to give a huge majority premium, but even the date picked for the venue had an ironic twist: September 25 th was the last available weekend before the electricity regulator fixed the new tariffs for the quarter. The global press, taking the hint from the date and from Authorities keeping their “stay calm” stance in the face of horrible data points, kept from pointing that out until polls were closed. After all, Meloni had enough wind in her sails already without that bit of help. So, without further ado, this was the outcome :...