Tag Archives: Italy

If Obama Were President

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The mammone -- a jobless man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mamma -- is an Italian tradition. But under President Obama, labor force participation rates of young men have plunged to Italian levels. [Credit: studenti.it]

The mam­mone — a job­less man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mam­ma — is an Ital­ian tra­di­tion. Under Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, labor force par­tic­i­pa­tion rates of young Amer­i­can men have plunged to Ital­ian lev­els. [Cred­it: studenti.it]

In Italy, they call him a mam­mone: an unem­ployed man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who still lives with mamma.

The preva­lence of the mam­mone has long been thought to be a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Ital­ian phe­nom­e­non, with deep cul­tur­al roots.  It has grown more pro­nounced with the country’s recent eco­nom­ic dis­tress.  Since 2008, a grow­ing per­cent­age of Ital­ian men aged 25–54 have aban­doned the labor force, no longer both­er­ing even to look for work.

Italy’s work­force par­tic­i­pa­tion rate among men of prime work­ing age is by far Europe’s low­est.  But it is not the low­est in the devel­oped world.  Italy now shares that dubi­ous dis­tinc­tion with the U.S.

That wouldn’t hap­pen if Oba­ma were Pres­i­dent. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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 →

Why Europe Hasn’t Joined Our Ukraine Crusade

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It typically costs $100 to fill a 12-gallon tank in Italy today. The country imports much of its oil from Russia. Which is why its government is reluctant to sign on to President Obama's anti-Putin campaign. [Credit: NWA online]

It typ­i­cal­ly costs $100 to fill a 12-gal­lon tank in Italy today. The coun­try imports much of its oil from Rus­sia. Which is why its gov­ern­ment is reluc­tant to sign on to Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s anti-Putin cam­paign. [Cred­it: NWA online]

A gal­lon of unlead­ed gas costs near­ly $9 here in Todi, a tran­quil Ital­ian town whose roots stretch back mil­len­nia to pre-Etr­uscan times.  Diesel is a bit cheap­er at $8.50 per gal­lon, mean­ing that it costs $100 to fill a 12-gal­lon tank.

Which may help explain why Pres­i­dent Obama’s cru­sade to impose sys­tem­at­ic eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on Rus­sia has so far fiz­zled.  Euro­peans are unwill­ing to pay the costs that dis­rup­tions in trade with Rus­sia would impose on them.

One can hard­ly blame them. 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 →