Tag: Christopher Clark

A new left-right populist government has taken power in Rome, fueled by popular anger over illegal immigration and adept in its use of social media. The M5S/Lega, as it’s known, wants debt forgiveness and new spending as the price for Italy remaining within the eurozone. As with the decadent Italy of 170 years ago (and also today), in the United States, celebrity has come to play an increasingly important role in public life. After more than a hundred years of foreign occupation and war, China emerged a strong, centralized, and authoritarian state during the 20th century. In 1866, for example, the National Bank suspended convertibility of the Italian lira due to “the impending Austro-Prussian War.” Italy saw a serious banking crisis in the 1880s, then a real estate boom and bust and a tariff war with France in the 1890s. The fascists took control of Rome in 1922 and Benito Mussolini was named prime minister. This was all the more remarkable given that the cold war had frozen Italian politics; the presence of the largest Communist Party in Western Europe had prevented the normal alternation of left and right governments. In Rome, we have a coalition government between a southern party led by a former comedian, Beppe Grillo, who virtually overnight and via social media constructed one of the largest political movements ever seen in Western Europe, and a far-right northern party that is hostile to the EU and immigrants, and once advocated the secession of the northern regions of Italy. If you think this sounds like a replay of the Italian politics of 500 or even 1,000 years ago, you are correct. He is the author of three books, including Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise (2017) and Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream (2010).