Tag Archives: Italian debt

The Black Year Of Italian Olive Oil

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The black year of Italian olive struck those who farm these verdant Umbrian slopes, a metaphor for the challenges facing Italy's variegated traditions. [Credit: italianfoto.com]

The black year of Ital­ian olive struck those who farm these ver­dant Umbri­an slopes, a metaphor for the chal­lenges fac­ing Italy’s var­ie­gat­ed tra­di­tions. [Cred­it: italianfoto.com]

Months before the har­vest, Enri­co sus­pect­ed the worst.  His grove of 700 olive trees had been sub­ject­ed to an unusu­al­ly cool and wet August, ide­al breed­ing con­di­tions for the Bac­tro­cera oleae, a fly that deposits its eggs beneath the skin of olives.  The late Octo­ber har­vest con­firmed his fears: the flies had laid waste to his crop.

Enri­co didn’t press any olive oil this sea­son.  He wasn’t alone.  Pro­duc­tion in Enrico’s region of Umbria is off 45 per­cent, slight­ly worse than the nation­wide 35 per­cent decline. La Repub­bli­ca has dubbed 2014 “the black year of Ital­ian olive oil.”  In a coun­try where each inhab­i­tant annu­al­ly con­sumes an aver­age of more than 26 pounds of the gold­en nec­tar, it is a seis­mic cul­tur­al event, one more reminder of the exis­ten­tial threats con­fronting Ital­ian tra­di­tions. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

It’s Hard To Say No In That Fair Land of the Si’

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It's been a rough year for Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who narrowly lost an election and was convicted of a crime that may result in his expulsion from the Senate. [Credit: Getty images]

It’s been a rough year for Italy’s Sil­vio Berlus­coni, whose par­ty nar­row­ly lost an elec­tion and who was him­self con­vict­ed of a crime that may result in his expul­sion from the Sen­ate. [Cred­it: Get­ty Images]

“Ah, Pisa , you the scan­dal of the peo­ples of that fair land where si’ is heard.”

– Dante

Washington’s flir­ta­tion with default engen­dered end­less hand-wring­ing about the par­lous state of our polit­i­cal sys­tem. But by Ital­ian stan­dards, Con­gress and the Pres­i­dent are doing just fine.

Last month, while GOP “defund Oba­macare” vig­i­lantes near­ly caused the mas­sive spend­ing and bor­row­ing machine that is our fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to seize up, Italy’s gov­ern­ment served up a sump­tu­ous feast of dys­func­tion, replete with sex scan­dals, res­ig­na­tions of cab­i­net min­is­ters, and an abortive attempt to top­ple a gov­ern­ment inca­pable of gov­ern­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Fed, the ECB and La Dolce Vita

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Fellini celebrated "La Dolce Vita" in his film classic. Today, Italians may feel as though they're living in a Fellini flick. [Credit: theworld.org]

Felli­ni cel­e­brat­ed “La Dolce Vita” in his film clas­sic.  But a strug­gling econ­o­my, wob­bly banks and frac­tious pol­i­tics threat­en to take the “dolce” out of their vita. [Cred­it: theworld.org]

Stran­gozzi is the char­ac­ter­is­tic pas­ta of Umbria, Tuscany’s hot sister.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →