Who’s behind the Global Economy?

Did you notice that lately the major economic reforms they all look the same?

Strange and worrying...

Strange because we always knew that in the global economy each nation was free to compete with the others and grab their segment of cash flow from foreign investments, tourism etc.

That’s why according to a simple marketing logic, to the very purpose of making each single economy more attractive to foreign investments, each country should elaborate its own legislation on a product-differentiation basis in order to maximize the uniqueness of their offer and make it more appealing to foreign investors.

This is not how it works though.

Actually this is something to worry about because if the Secretary of Treasure of any given country finds himself in the situation in which he is unable to take an autonomous decision but he has instead to undergo the directives of some international institution there’s something wrong here.

What’s at stake here is the very meaning of political representation which is put into discussion together with the very basics of Democracy itself.

You have a government overthrow when a government chosen by the citizens of a given country is  replaced by another government that has not been chosen by those same citizens. 

So the question here is: are we in front of a huge government overthrow of global size?

Let’s put it another way: are there supranational entities, not elected by the people that took over the elected officials and that are deciding for us? 

Dangerous.... the most dangerous aspect of this whole story is that we, the people, we live in total darkness. Indeed we are convinced that if we decided to live in a certain country like Germany, Spain or the United Kingdom, then we are going to be subjected to the economic and fiscal provisions of that country in which we chose to live.

It apparently seems so.

But it’s not.

So we ask ourselves. Why the single countries are losing their own independence by undergoing the imposed economic choices of someone else?

If a country government decides to make its own economic policy why in the world it has to undergo the judgment of foreign rating agencies and why the same country eventually got down on its knees has to go back on its own steps?

Who’s behind this “interference”?

What’s going on indeed?

Is something changing and we’re not aware of it?

But the crucial question is: who’s that strong to bend the will of a series of country governments.

This is the situation. Unfortunately we are not wrong if we ask ourselves whether is it possible that these forces of darkness have also planned the economic crunch that has been haunting the global economy in the past five years?

If you want to know my opinion, which is not the one of a politician but of a simple entrepreneur, the whole thing was absolutely planned.

First of all in order to rule the global economy you just need to control the economic flows. The rest is absolutely irrelevant.

It starts indeed from who sells the money. The Banks. You know the protocols Basel 2 and Basel 3. They only reward those banks that have a solid capital reserve. These banks can only supply money to those companies that also have a nice capital reserve and a nice cash flow.

Families are spurred to plunge into debts through the various means of consumer credit like debt cards, or other tools that cost the consumer  a fee which goes up to 18% per year.

The providers of these financial tools are often the major financial institutions.

So the families have to plunge into debt because is this sort of situation that feeds and keeps up the whole system.

On the other side, businesses must undergo a rating system. The better their budget the better their rating. Under these provisions however we risk to lose the Banker’s role (which is absolutely priceless for the community).

Then we have those countries that struggle everyday more in deciding their economic policies in full authonomy.

This kind of system rewards the rich countries, the rich businesses and the rich people. The stats show that the number of the super rich is growing year by year and that big companies are growing everyday bigger and bigger while the medium and small sized businesses are dying.

The data show that also the rich countries are getting richer always more.

I am deeply convinced that in order to overcome the global crunch we must change this system and redistribute the wealth. Not through an increased tax-pressure but by promoting the private initiative and by providing credit to those businesses that showed to be active in their own market.

The experience tells us that the microcredit of the Indian Grameen Bank (or Bank of the poor) was a crucial contribution to the development of the Indian economy, making it the major player that is today. The Grameen bank increased the level of wealth in the population’s lower segments while increasing the profits of the bank too and of its own founder Professor Muhammad Yunus, a man who I deeply admire and who’s been awarded the Nobel Prize because of the historical meaning of his initiative.

The same thing happened in those Asian and African countries where microcredit is becoming every day more popular. Microcredit indeed is showing to be the very engine of the emerging markets economic development, especially in those countries we used to call third world.

My idea of economic model is the following: we need local banks with diffused ownership, based on the Italian model of “cooperativa” where community members are also shareholders. These banks must support the local businesses, the retail shops, working figures like plumbers for example who have to buy their own tools in order to do their job.

The “Cooperative Banks” are the ones who can teach the new generations what saving and investing really mean. These are concepts that the big international bankers have swept away from my generation.

I know this can be viewed as utopic but believe me this is how it is.

The little Alpine Communities living in the small villages of the Italian alps, they have been kept living in their small ancient world with their small sized banks which helped them going through each global crisis of the past sixty years.

These banks have diffused ownership and all the community members are shareholders. On the other side, the bank supplies credit exclusively to the community members, because this is their statute’s main rule.

So why the European big shots who have many more means at their disposal they are unable to get the global economy out of this “crisis”?

Maybe the question is: they can’t or they don’t want to?

Luigi Foscale

Demographic Window. How to get out of the crisis in one generation

According to the Merriam Webster, Demography is the study of changes (such as the number of births, deaths, marriages, and illnesses) that occur over a period of time in human populations.

A Demographic window is instead that period of time in a nation's demographic evolution when the proportion of population of working age group is particularly prominent. This occurs when the demographic architecture of a population becomes younger and the percentage of people able to work reaches its height.

When the number of births decreases, the age increases, consequently, the number of retired people grows. Who will take care of them? This is called the financial stress of retirement.

 Those countries that belongs to the demographic window have a greater labour force, greater consumption and a steady growth.

Most of the global wealth is in the baby boomer's hands. Baby Boomers are those people who were born in the decade following the end of the second World War. Today they are all retired or next to retirement. Who's going to support them? How are they going to survive?

How can we stimulate the economy?

In Europe 5 million babies are born each year and the birth rate is a little less than 10%.

If we would stimulate the birth rate, for example by doubling it, we would wipe off the chance of an economic crisis for the next 40 years.

As a matter of fact, history tells that when the birth rate overcame the 20% we had an economic boom.

The following are a few strategies that could solve the crisis of the European System.

First Strategy: Provide the families an economic reward of €1000 per year for each newborn for the first three years of life. If we reach 10 million births, the amount would be €30 bn. These are petty numbers if we consider the whole European Economy. Besides, these resources would be spent anyway, hence a 20% of VAT would be recovered right away, while the left 80% would feed the economy.

The mothers would spend money in businesses that pay taxes, retail shops would hire clerks who would receive a salary that is going to be taxed, these same people would buy a home, a car and they would spend the money for their daily needs.

Second Strategy. Provide tax credits for the costs needed to support each baby. How much a baby costs a family? In Italy it could be €7000 per year. The budget would be mainly for drugs, doctors, clothing, food and toys... We would provide a tax credit for each child in a way to reward those families with more children. For example for the first child it would be enough to provide a tax credit of €1000.

With two children we could provide a tax credit of €3000. With 3 children it would be of €5000 with 4 it would be of €7000 and so on. The whole system would provide benefits for the children until the 6th year of age.

The maximum exposure it would be when 10 million births are reached. In the case we reach that peak the total fiscal budget would be of €70 bn. Even in this case, the greater financial resources of the families would be spent and it would go back to the government without great effort.

Third Strategy. Making a deal with all the private and public schools to build kindergartens by providing a contribution for every child of €100 a month with the rest being on the Government.

Fourth Strategy. Making a deal with the retirement homes in order to have in the same building the nursing homes and the kindergartens. It's good both for the children than for the elderly citizens.

Fifth Strategy. To increase safety and security in the streets by doubling the number of policemen. Increase the present labour force.

As we just saw it here, the crisis can be easily solved by developing a tax regulation. Even if on a continental level there won't be the chance to do it, a Prime Minister of any given country could easily make it with 2 months of work.

Two months to get rid of the crisis.

Why don't they do it then?

Luigi Foscale

Europe expects Italy to speak only German

Italy’s government crisis

 

International media are widely covering the Italian crisis. The picture that comes out is a glowing image of political, financial and social uncertainty.

 

The scenario portrayed in the newspapers is not the best one. The banks are still reluctant to lend money. Businesses going bankrupt. Protests are planned across the country. Nobody knows when the elections will be held.

 

Being Italian I think we are in very troubled moment.

 

Luckily there is a “but”.

 

I would like to convince you to think in a different way. This blog’s mission isn’t that of supporting a certain political party, neither to back Italy to the detriment of other countries. My objective is You, my reader who by reading these words, You want to boost your income more and more, and I am here to help You in the creation of your wealth.

 

So the “but” is very simple.

 

 

The revealed scheme

 

In my precedent posts I have revealed some big investor’s trick. With their left arm they ditched Italy while with their right arm they had bought Italian TBonds. In less than 6 months these people made a 25% profit.

 

Now you have to consider how big is the Italian public debt...so you consider what kind of sky-high revenues they were able to make. 

 

The scheme is very simple. Through the help of the media I ditch a product (Italy) and in the meanwhile I buy at knockdown prices. Once I bought enough assets I stop my discrediting campaign and I wait for the market to normalize. Then I sell my assets. 

 

This scheme is totally risk-free because Italy wasn’t at risk before the crisis nor it was at risk after the crisis.  

 

A friend of mine who is a banker, used to say “knowledge is power”. He was right.

 

This is the time to invest in Italy. This is the best time to invest in Italy.

 

Why? Because Italy is strong.  

 

However now I would like to stimulate your brain with a question. Did you ever think to the reason why some publicly discredit Italy? 

Italy is a strong country that annoys some world big players

 

However Italy has also some faults that limit its economy a lot. These are Italy’s weak points that are usually criticized:

- Unstable system;

- Italian culture of kickbacks and stealing peanuts;
 

- Thinking small, parochialism. Everywhere there are opposite factions carrying atavic hate that is spread all over the country (think to the Palio di Siena’s contradas);

- Italy’s government is always in crisis;

- Government waste a filthy amount of money and newspapers publish detailed expense notes of public officials (champagne, caviar, lotteries, video-games, beauty salon...);

- Great private investments stuck by Bureaucracy;

- Private companies left at the mercy of themselves without an international economic policy aimed at supporting them worldwide;

- Lack of Tourism infrastructures;

- Corruption;

- Tax Brackets at 85%.

All these problems are widely covered by the media. All these problems make appear Italy like a Banana Republic.

However Italy has also some records:

- It’s the 5th country in the world for cultural tourism, just think to Rome, Venice, Florence, Romeo & Juliet’s Verona, Pompei, Sicily’s valley of temples;

- The food industry is incomparable, with the Pasta, the Pizza, the espresso ( did you know that the Starbucks concept was born during a trip to Milano?), The Chianti, the Sassicaia, The Ruffino wines, the Spumante, the Parmigiano Reggiano, the prosciutto, the best oils in the world are Italians. Italy is also a prime producer of Caviar with Agroittica Lombarda;

- Tourism industry is on a roll in terms of tourist presence in locations like Forte dei Marmi, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Porto Cervo, Portofino, Capri, Jesolo;

- The Italian heritage is the most important in the world: Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello Sanzio, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Garofalo, Coreggio, Tiepolo, the XX century De Chirico, Pellizza da Volpedo, Fontana, Rotella, Paladino and the contemporary art scene where the Venice Biennale is a world appointment, while among contemporary art Italy is in a leading position with artists like Francesco Vezzoli, Maurizio Cattelan, and many others;

 

- Religious tourism is also a very rich industry with the Vatican, San Giovanni Rotondo, the Loreto Sanctuary , San Francesco d’Assisi and many others;

 

- The motor industry has some excellences which speak for themselves: Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Pagani, Ducati, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta bikes and Agusta helicopters;

 

- The nautical industry has the best shipyards: Benetti, Perini Navi, Riva, Baglietto, Cantieri di Pisa, Mochi, Crn Ancona, and many others;

 

- Design: Giugiaro and Pininfarina;

 

- Then the Theater and the Opera: Teatro alla Scala, Arena di Verona, Torre del Lago, La Fenice di Venezia, il Nuovo di Milano, Teatro Verdi di Firenze; to mention some names in the music field: Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Rossini, Vivaldi, and many others are still bringing the Italian language around the world;

 

- Sport: Ac Milan the world’s most titled club, Juventus FC, FC Internazionale, the Ferrari in Formula 1 and the Monza Gran Prix, the Giro d’Italia for Cycling;

 

- Weapons: According to the Sole 24 Ore the industry increased by 5%, major companies are: Fiocchi Ammos, Beretta, Tanfoglio, Franchi, Benelli e Fincantieri. Benelli and Beretta are Official Suppliers of U.S. Armed Forces;

 

- Fashion Industry: Armani, Valentino, Gucci, Versace, Prada, Cavalli, Boggi, Brioni, Kiton, Marinella, which are some of the major global player in the fashion field;

 

- Furnitures: Poltrona Frau, Chateau d’Ax, Natuzzi divani, Poliform and many luxury kitchen brands like Scavolini, Snaidero, Maistri, Varenna and many others. Then there are many other small companies that export their products all over the world; 

 

- At this rate, finishing such a list It would take forever;

- Italian families have savings that are averagely higher to those of any other European country.

 

However here the point is if in Italy there are so many strong points that support it even in moments of crisis, what’s the reason behind the international media campaign to ditch its economy so much? 

 

The reason is found in a simple manipulative technique operated by our market opponents, who focus on certain weak aspects of our economy to magnify them in order to distract the attention from our strong points. Also, Italy doesn’t possess any major global media to defend itself from any global media attack. 

 

The likelihood becomes real. This way Italy is globally known for all its scandals and not for all the things that really work here. Consequently House prices and company values drift lower. 

 

Italy is a very rich country and can be annoying to many big players.

 

If they ditch Italy these big players can buy Italy’s goods at knockdown prices while in the normal market they would worth much more.

So? 

 

Don’t believe those media that vilify Italy.

 

Come to Italy; there isn’t a better time than right now to invest in Italy. 

Luigi Foscale

Survival Handobook

 

Each day brings more bad news.

 

Governments rip off taxpayers by collecting always new taxes while public officials uphold it on the media claiming we need these new “measures” to restart the economy. Read this Article on the Corriere della Sera. However, after this further strain on the taxpayers, those same hot shots are now telling us our effort was completely vain.

Isn’t that weird?

 

By heart you can tell they add insult to injury and I believe there are many people out there who share my same feelings on this “particular” issue. 

 

However if I decided to write this down, is because I wish to share my formula to crack the code to the government’ subtext, which the media in fact “wisely recommend” as important news.

In these pages you will read what no one would ever tell you. Out of two, one: our government officials are completely unfit to conduct a simple Economic Outlook or forecast (which I can definitely rule out) or worse, they are excellent depression promoters and major pessimism supporters. 

 

In order to understand what happened behind the scenes, we should try to re-read what they claimed on the media: first they recommended us to pay some new taxes because that was our only way out from the crisis, then they changed their mind saying those taxes we just paid were not able to solve the problem.

So we should had probably expect more taxes to pay in the near future. 

 

Although if you were able to read between the lines, you could have sensed something like this: the government wants all you’ve got and if you want to survive you have to pay it and after you paid it they ask you to pay more.

 

To me this sounds like a ransom drop gone wrong. Thing is, a ransom involves a kidnapping and a hostage. The kidnapper is the government and the hostages are represented by our lives and the taxes are the ransom we have to pay. Nonetheless this time the ransom drop went wrong because the government-kidnapper wanted more money from us. Indeed the amount we paid didn't fill the giant gap created by the crisis. 

 

The worst is every citizen understands his contribution was totally pointless compared to the magnitude of the crisis.

 

There’s a say: If you want to do away with someone you should break his means and will to resist. In practice you annihilate his own spirit.

That’s exactly what they’re trying to do. It’s like if a father is asking his son to run for a mile as fast as he can. Then, when he’s finished running and he’s gasping for breath, his father tells him his performance was absolutely unacceptable and that he’d better give up running.

 

Now I am asking you: while you are reading this, can you imagine whether all the taxes you have paid did not fill the gap to make up the deficit?

How big is your fear to lose what you got? Are you worried you won’t make it to make ends meet? How much worried? How would that kid had felt whether he was asked to run at his best once again? Maybe this time for ten miles? He would had run, going all out, or maybe he would had felt his strain being completely useless?

What you just read is the most effective way to generate great frustration, anxiety, panic and distress. People who suffered the hard blow they know it was completely useless and that they are due to pay even more. 

 

At the end of the day, the truth is somebody wants you to be poor and somebody gets richer by imposing on you. Plain, simple and terrible. This is the actual scenario and it’s happening right now. Unfortunately if things keep going the way they are, there’s a great chance the situation will collapse. We are now in a recession that could lead to a depression. Eventually the crime rate will skyrocket and the next step we’ll have riots in the streets. In practice the whole system would collapse. Don’t you think this sequence of events is already in progress? Unfortunately this is very similar to what happened in the 30’s right before WWII.

 

Nonetheless if I am here writing this, it’s because there’s a glimpse of hope. Back to the basis. Here I describe an exit strategy to face the crisis.

 

First of all is crucial to get your bearings. Like a boat in the middle of the storm without a GPS. Orientation. Where do you go? It is vital to have a compass which has to be cheap.

Time is key. Lehman Brothers the day before it crashed, was one of the major investment banks in the world. It took one day to collapse. From rags to riches in one day... this is today’s timing. You should know in advance what’s next. That’s why aligning yourself is so important. You need to position yourself in order to know if you are in the right direction or in the wrong path, in case, it’s important you know it right away.

 

In practice I define Orientation as the sum of many skills. Like in an airplane cockpit you have a lot of buttons, so in order to survive the crisis, you have to know the tools at your disposal. The Orientation tools are those that allow yourself to switch from visual flight to instrument flight. This works both for airplanes and for the people, whether you are a manager, a family father or an entrepreneur.

 

These tools don’t require much time to learn how use them, but it’s the most useful time you may spend learning something. It's about an hour a week or two hours a month. No one is so busy not to have 6 hours in a month.

The first tool is the Cash Flow. Many Economy books talk about it and they show it in a proper form. Although you won’t be able to find my idea of Cash Flow in the mainstream finance, but it works. Exactly, it works because it’s very simple. I am not here to make an essay about finance....there is plenty of places where you will find such textbooks. My only wish is to make this stuff useful also for a ten years kid. You don’t need an MBA to know what Cash Flow is. You just need common sense....(and please let me tell you that most of the financial big shots who made the crisis they completely miss what common sense is).The Cash Flow is a periodical activity you should update once a week. Usually I do it once a week, on Mondays. Cash Flow is an 18 months economic outlook. In practice you take a piece of paper (or an excel file) and you divide it in 5 columns then you write Date, Subject, +, -, =. Then under each of these columns you write down the expenses invoices that you have every week/month.

Like for example you’ll have food expenses, medical checks, the rent/loan rate and eventually you'll have some income too from a rent or a salary. So you start writing them down, following a temporal order by when and what you forecast to spend or to collect. In our case, I forecast to cash a salary of $2500 on the 27 of the current month, so I write down 09/27/2012 – Salary – $2500, I leave empty the “-” box then the balance of my money on the column “=”. Then I forecast to do a certain expense the day after, so I would write $600 on the column “-“ by indicating the day 28 of the current month. Then at the beginning of the following month I know I have my kid’s school rate deadline, so I stick it in the box “-“ and so on. The “=” column is very important because is the sum of what you have the day before and what you have today after considering the whole activity. For example if yesterday I had 0 and today I cash a $2500 salary, today I have 0+2500=2500. If tomorrow I have a $600 expense I will have 2500-600=1900. And so on for the coming 18 months. Obviously there also will be extraordinary expenses like Holidays and other unforeseen operations.

 

The most important thing is to keep the Cash flow active and steady. You will realize that if you fill it with perseverance, you will learn to perfectly forecast a cash deficit..... so that you can manage your money in a different way and in advance. Time needed: a hour a week.

The second tool is the Debt Analysis. A debt in its very nature isn’t bad nor good, because it’s just the use of cash that is not yours. What makes a debt useful or not, is the use you do of the money you borrow. Good debts are those you need to generate cash flows, bad debts are those which “eat” your cash flows. In particular, a useful debt is more an apartment loan that we give out for rent whose income quit of charges and taxes are superior to the loan cost. A bad loan for example is a lease to buy a sport car. However if the lease is to buy a car whose purpose is to help generate income (for example if you are a car dealer or a cab driver) then that debt is considered useful. So you know when a debt is useful depending on what you use the money for.

Here you need a sheet where you will draw down the columns: the bank that gave you the loan, number of contract, type of interest rate, (fixed, variable or compound) date of redemption, deadline terms, type of allowance (where applicable), purchased goods with the loan, rate price + allowance on a yearly basis, cash flow generated by the loan, difference between the cash flow produced and the yearly rate + loan allowance.

This last data provides us with the information if the loan is a financial weight or not.

You can update the sheet once a month or after every activity. Time needed: an hour a month.

 

In the end, it is important to systematically verify if the route is the one you expected, and this is the Tracking Ob. So I suggest you to write down your long-range objectives, 5 years, 3 years, 2 years and 1 year and for the coming months. This way I know where I wish to go. If you update this document every month you will have the chance to verify if you reached your monthly target or if what you did is coherent with the long-term objective. Time needed: an hour a month.

 

To get out of the crisis you have to know what your priorities are: economic, moral, environmental and familiar ones. So you have to know how to keep your honour steady.

Unfortunately the crisis leads to miss the accomplishment of your objectives and it might lead to a decadence of personal values. To avoid this to happen it’s fundamental to keep up your honour and dignity. This section is about the fundamental values.

The crisis is stressful. In order to prevail in times of crisis, you have to be aware the crisis could generate psychological suffering: pain, cold, headache, general sense of frustration, inadequacy, loss of self confidence.

 

Those who are in charge knew since their beginnings, these would have been the consequences of the crisis. They knew it, but they acted for good whatsoever. That’s why I say that financial derivatives and the uncontrolled use of debt are tools of mass destruction. If you know they want to destroy you, you can better resist.

 

So your Mission and your Fundamental Values are useful to not fall down to the dramatic consequences that somebody wants for you.

 

The crisis attacks the Emotional side too: so it’s possible to feel fear, anxiety, panic, rage, you can get into substance abuse and you can lose hope.

 

These emotional consequences have been foreseen by those who generated the crisis.

 

The crisis as we saw it, it might generates distress and that’s the main cause of many diseases. You just need to be aware of it. At this point it is fundamental to introduce in the battle your survival instinct because that’s the best antidote to all kind of struggle you may face.

 

The Mission, the Fundamental Values, the Awareness.

 

This is the strength you need to overcome the crisis distress.

 

In one word is the will to live and to survive.

Luigi Foscale

A Lesson from the Past

By reading your Retire Rich by Luigi Foscale, you get the financial knowledge you need to increase your wealth.

In the past few months we have been focusing on the Crisis. My target was to provide you with the necessary tips to understand this dramatic scenario. The result was very simple: There is someone who wants you to be poor and with huge debts. Read my article "...Just to be provocative . What if this crisis was made on purpose? " . Also, for some reason, we perceived this Crisis as a War, where the warfare is the Financial Communication. Read my article: "Are we in crisis or are we at war?" . 

In the same moment you are losing money, there's a group of people who is making money by taking advantage of yourself.

Behind a Crisis there is always an opportunity.

 

So the whole point here is: you need to find YOUR way, and follow it up to the money. So you can get rich.

 

Last June I showed you the picture of how the future would have looked like. Now we are in that picture. Enjoy your journey to get Rich.

Luigi Foscale

Article from Financial Times

I suggert you to read this Article.

Luigi Foscale

How to Win over the Crisis

 

There is only one way to Win the Crisis. You should think of this Crisis not as a "Debt-Crisis" but as a "Wasting-Crisis".

There are too many Financial Managers in both the Government and in private Companies who are wasting money.

 

A debt per se is not bad or good, it's just a debt. If the debt creates business, then it is considered as good. If the debt is used to pay unnecessary costs, then it's a waste of money.

Now it's time to cut some spending.

Luigi Foscale

 

 

 

Are we in crisis or are we at war?

 

Have you ever heard of media wars? 

Media war is still a war but fought with different kind of weapons. Did you notice that today if you want to invade a country you can? Maybe by transferring masses of capitals to the country you like to invade. 

Today’s weapons are a bit different: debts, derivatives, the mainstream media, the scandals. They change means but the objectives are always the same. Conquering countries and their resources.

We should be aware we live in a time period of major changes that will radically affect our lives forever.

Luigi Foscale

Siamo in crisi o siamo in guerra?

Hai mai sentito parlare di guerre mediatiche?

Hai mai fatto caso che sono cambiati gli strumenti delle guerre? Hai mai fatto caso che per invadere uno Stato, oggi puoi farlo facilmente trasferendoti e portando le tue ricchezze?

Oggi, le guerre continuano, ma sono le armi che cambiano. Le armi di oggi, sono i debiti, i derivati, i giornali, gli scandali. Cambiano gli strumenti, ma gli scopi rimangono gli stessi. Conquistare per soldi. Oggi si vincono anche le elezioni in modo diverso.

Bisogna quindi essere consapevoli di questo cambiamento epocale. Viviamo in un periodo di fortissimi cambiamenti che modificheranno le nostre vite.

Luigi Foscale

However at this point who wants the crisis?

In the years after WWII, the United States increased their economic, political and cultural powers, in a global scale. All other countries were smaller and meaningless on the global scale no matter how strong they could be.

So if some economy would have emerged, it could have done it, only by hitting the strong economies and the pro-americans. This seems exactly what happened.

Did you ever noticed the BRIC (Brasil, Russia, India and China) they are now in the center of the political, financial and media attention? Did you try to compare the media weight these countries had at the end of the 90’s or at the beginning of 2000? 

It’s ridiculous to see how much these economis grew, in all the fields. And if we add the middle East, we can easily understand today the balances have changed drastically.

Today, the United States are however very strong and I wish they will always be, however also other countries grew.

In all thes, the question is not just “how can I survive the crisis?” but also how can I take advantage from the crisis?”

Certainly if you grab how world balances change, you can hear the background noise of this movement. And if you get it you can follow it and forestall it.

Luigi Foscale

Ma a questo punto, chi vorrebbe la crisi?

Negli anni del dopoguerra, gli Stati Uniti hanno rinforzato il peso politico, culturale ed economico a livello globale. Tutti gli altri Stati, erano sicuramente più piccoli e insignificanti a livello globale, benché forti essi siano.

Quindi, se qualche economia avesse voluto emergere, poteva farlo, unicamente colpendo le economie forti e filo-americane. E questo sembra proprio che sia successo.

Hai mai fatto caso che gli stati BRIC (Brasile, Russia, India e Cina) ora sono al centro dell’attenzione mediatica, politica e finanziaria? E hai provato a paragonare il peso mediatico che questi avevano rispetto la fine degli anni 90 o inizio 2000?

È incredibile vedere quanto, siano cresciute queste economie, in tutti i campi. E se poi aggiungiamo il Middle East, possiamo facilmente capire che, oggi, gli equilibri sono cambiati in modo drastico. Oggi, gli Stati Uniti, rimangono comunque molto forti, e mi auguro che lo siano sempre, tuttavia ci sono anche altri Stati che sono cresciuti.

Ed in tutto questo, la domanda non è più solo,” come posso sopravvivere alla crisi”, ma diventa anche “come posso trarre a mio vantaggio la crisi”.  

Be, sicuramente se afferri i come cambiano gli equilibri mondiali, puoi sentire il rumore di fondo che questo movimento ha. E se lo capisci, puoi seguirlo e magari anticiparlo.

Luigi Foscale

What if this crisis was made on purpose?

 

What if this crisis was made on purpose? In order to answer to this question I need to pose another question: “we are at the beginning of the 90’s and you re a very powerful person and you want to shift the world balances what would you do? "

 

I tell you what I would do: First of all I would do a series of operations to undermine the basics of the big economies. Then I would cut the consumer spending in the U.S. 

 

To accomplish this, it would be sufficient plunging families into debt. Then I would suddenly transform nations in “regional entities” and I would allow the free circulation of capitals and people. This way poor countries would be able to compete with the rich ones, attracting investments thanks to economic policies that support foreign investors. 

 

At the same time I would increase bureaucracy in the Western countries, like for example in Italy. 

 

Unfortunately this is exactly what happened between 1992 and 2002. 

 

In a second phase I would hit those strong economies (that in the meanwhile have become fictitiously inflated) with various measures able to stop their economies.

 

My measures would be: raising the oil prices so that the real inflation skyrockets. I would fire up those world areas that are already politically unstable. Then I would take measures to create crisis in western countries businesses so to provoke mass-dismissals. 

 

Then I would hit the family savings. This happened too.

 

Hindsight, on purpose or not, those who control the world balances, they really did a great job if they wanted to create a wide spectrum world crisis.

 

Luigi Foscale

 

Is it fair we pay the crisis? What about the generation before ours?

If you are reading this, you are less than 50 years old and you think it’s unfair the crisis weight is all on your shoulders.

Let’s start from a simple fact: the crisis was created by the Baby Boomers.

 

Another simple fact: we are in the globalization period, so whoever can move from one country to another.

 

Now if we consider there are rich countries and poor countries and in the poor ones there are more taxes, depression and economic crisis.

Three factual elements. We add another element: the discontent of the young people who cannot find a job you got an explosive mix. Ask yourself a question many young people do: “If in Italy (or in Greece) I can’t find a job, I have many taxes because of the many mistakes by the governments of the past 60 years… why should I live here?

 

Isn’t better I move to a richer country like Germany?

 

This way of thinking, could be able to move masses of people from depressed areas that eventually can become desert.

The risk is some countries, the poorest ones, are at risk of depopulation. Here it’s not about a simple brain drain; it’s a mass escape.

From the italian restaurateur who finds his way to Germany to the professional nurse who easily finds a job in a country like Switzerland. Government officials should understand we must provide incentives to our people in order to stay where they live.

 

In order to do so they should work on development policies and major incentives for businesses so they can hire workers.

 

Luigi Foscale

 

 

È giusto che paghiamo noi la crisi, che ha fatto la generazione prima della nostra?

Se, mentre leggi questo posti, hai una età inferiore ai 50 anni, e credi che sia ingiusto che la crisi gravi sulle tue spalle, significa che ti stai ponendo alcune domande e che riceverai alcune risposte .

Partiamo da un principio molto semplice. La crisi è stata generata dalla generazione dei Baby Boomers (la generazione dei nati dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale). 

Aggiungiamo un altro principio molto semplice. Siamo in un periodo di Globalizzazione, quindi trasferirsi in un altro Stato è semplice.

Se ora consideriamo che ci sono Paesi ricchi e Paesi poveri, e che quelli avranno più tasse, depressione e crisi economica.

Hai letto tre dati di fatto. Se ora aggiungiamo un altro ingrediente, il malcontento dei giovani che non trovano un lavoro, nasce una miscela esplosiva. E la miscela esplosiva risponde ad una domanda che un giovane si pone.

Prova anche tu a farti la domanda che tanti giovani si stanno facendo: “Se in Italia (o in Grecia) non trovo il posto di lavoro, ho tante tasse perché i governanti hanno fatto tanti errori… insomma, chi me lo fa fare di rimanere nel mio paese?

Non è meglio che mi trasferisca in un Paese ricco come la Germania?”.

Questo pensiero potrebbe far trasferire masse di persone da zone depresse che diventerebbero anche deserte. Si rischia quindi che certi Paesi, quelli più poveri, rischiano di svuotarsi dalle persone. E non è la fuga di cervelli; è una fuga generale. Dal ristoratore che trova fortuna in Germania, all’infermiere che trova posto di lavoro facilmente in Svizzera.
 

I governanti dovrebbero capire che bisogna incentivare le persone a rimanere dove vivono. E per fare questo dovrebbero creare delle politiche di sviluppo e incentivi alle assunzioni e alle imprese che assumono. 

Luigi Foscale

Why talking about the crisis?

I thank who asked me this question.

 

If I write about the crisis is because I would like my readers to understand what we don’t want to happen. The path to our wealth begins with learning “what we don’t want” from life.

 

If you know it since the beginning, once you have to face situations that “don’t belong to you” you will be able to spot them right away and say “I don’t want this, I’d rather be rich”.

Until today I have been writing introductory posts whose goal was to demonstrate it is absolutely necessary having an education about assets and incomes. So I talked about the crisis because we have to know what caused the crisis, only then we’ll be able to know how to get an asset that is profitable. 

 

Before acting it’s important to have the complete picture of what’s going on. Eventually you may decide if and when playing your cards. My goal at this stage is to let you know what’s going on.

 

Then you could decide by yourself what you want and begin to build your wealth.

 

Luigi Foscale
 

Italy can’t stand political interference anymore

As a businessman, every time I learn a businessman took his own life, I get a lump in my throat. I feel an emotional state of total despair for a colleague who decided death was his only way out. Right after this, I feel my anger getting higher, because the news show goes on, by explaining the very reasons of it.

Today in Italy the leading cause of death for suicide it's the tax form's nonsense made by the Italian IRS.

Media call them suicides but the truth is these are “government-murders”. 

Government officials who are paid with six figure salaries shouldn't be allowed to slaughter their own fellow citizens. In such a sensitive time for our economy, the government that want to raise taxes is really committing a crime against its own citizens. Despite the present situation these gentlemen keep sending us absolutely ridiculous tax forms. The government isn't able to understand that it's already hard for a citizen to survive without taxes, you can figure out with a shot of snake venom in your system... 

In my opinion public officials are mentally incompetent to stand in our shoes of businessmen, nor to see from another's point of view, or to feel what another feels, they are completely careless and irresponsible people so they are simply guilty criminals. 

We are talking about people who in the name of their badge and the office they represent they feel authorized to behave the way they like, without even thinking that anytime they take a decision they are sealing the fate of another human being. 

This kind of behaviour held by our public officials reminds me of the government that ruled Germany back in the 30s….

If you are reading this post and you are thinking the Italian government is out of control, it means that time has come to say “enough is enough” we have to rise against the system! 

And to those politicians who are reading this post I would like them to know that it’s time for this government to go home and to call for Elections. 

With new elections we will have a new government, chosen by the people and who will do exactly what the people want in order to restart the economy. The question we need to ask ourselves is “what initiative has the incumbent government taken to restart the economy? 

Have you ever heard of “economic stimulus”?. In the past six months have you ever heard about Employment grants or right to work”? 

Luigi Foscale 

Italy: Debt crisis or government waste?

All governments of the world, including Italy, are in crisis because of their debt situation. They talk about debt crisis, but why nobody is telling me how did we finish into this mess? 

So I wish to go into depth about how this ridiculous amount of money has been spent. If to the public debt we add what the Italian government owes to its suppliers, the picture is even worse. 

For the non-Italian readers I want you to know that a company that has among its customers the government, the company gets paid from this very special customer with at least twelve months delay and along this line. If there are sums to be cashed from the Government you can be waiting for years. Again: how did we get to this debt? 

As an Italian I hate having to admit all this money has been wasted to pay a parasite-management which approved a multitude of public projects that lie unfinished all over the country. Unfortunately Italians are used to this incredible waste. The international readers should also know the high amount of tax money cashed by Italy were eventually stolen by the local public officials. 

Here are some examples: to build a road you need one million euro and six months. The contractor starts working and during the building process, costs start to skyrocket to €4 million. Three years have passed and the project is not finished yet. At this stage everything get stuck because the local prosecutor opens an investigation that is absolutely legit, but it costs the taxpayer additional money to the amount allocated for the road that in the meanwhile keeps growing. The road yard closes down and the road is now dead, the money has been spent and the Italian road system hasn’t been developed, expanded or fixed any further. The real tragedy is in our country this example of the road yard story is the standard practice for every public project. 

Can you imagine what the Italian people’s reaction would be when the government is asking its citizens to sacrifice to fix a system that was damaged by the same people who are now asking them the money? 

Why those in charge can’t cut the wasteful spending? If we don’t cut the wasteful spending, there’s no reason to raise taxes because Italians aren’t willing to pay it. 

It’s the basics of Economics: if incomes are lower than wasteful spending anyone agrees we have to cut somewhere. Differently, Italian people will always pay more taxes but this money cashed by the government will be wasted anyhow. 

Luigi Foscale

They create the situation and we pay. Is that fair to you?

 

One of my main worries is each government requires its citizens shared sacrifice in the name of austerity. In other words they are paving the way to more taxes. All this is alarming, not only because we’ll have to pay more but because it’s already well proven that austerity is an ineffective measure to restart economic growth.

 

Those who run the country, makes daily disasters and despite this fact they get a six figure salary. While we the citizens are required austerity.

 

This is really unfair for those who worked for a lifetime and don’t have a pension and it’s unfair for those young people who never had the chance of a real job, finding themselves under a mountain of debt that has been generated by those old people who came before them.

 

The main point here is we are not able to cut to the government spending, this is the real problem.

 

Luigi Foscale

 

In Italy it’s getting harder

The crisis is here to stay and unfortunately with no glimmer of light. Governments don’t help the economic system because they are introducing new taxes, resulting in less consumer spending and exasperating people. The result is obviously the fall in consumer spending.

At this point I am wondering if the incumbent government forecasted all this. If they didn’t, they were negligent, If instead they took into account the worsening situation, they did not act for the good. In both cases this government demonstrated to be not enough reliable to handle this situation.

Along this line, the banks received their bailouts with a capital injection but they invested it in TB, and that was such a nonsense move: because the banks by channelling the money to TB did not lend the money to those businesses in desperate need and that’s why the economy got stuck. Today finding a way out might be really hard but dealing with a government that throws a monkey wrench in the works it’s so much worse .

All this story led to ask myself a question: the incumbent Italian government is really interested in solving the situation for the benefit of the Italian people?

The answer is up to you!

Luigi Foscale

The need for a financial literacy

 

If you complain about the crisis, it means you are focusing on the negative side of the crisis.

If you are in debt or you underwent a decrease in sales, you are in serious trouble. Unfortunately government officials are doing nothing to put yourself in the condition to prosper. The government is not able to help you or maybe there’s not a real interest in doing so.

 

Taking care of yourself it’s up to you. If you don’t have any cash-asset you better start thinking of how to create one, because from now on, you will always receive less support from government.

If in fact, you have some asset, you have excellent opportunities. In any case, you should be very careful because if you take the wrong step you are at risk to lose everything.

 

So my advice is to get a financial literacy.

Luigi Foscale