Silvio Berlusconi has always vaunted two major talents - an ability to control the media (both his own - a substantial slice of tv and print - as well as those supposedly independent), and a masterful ability to keep together seemingly shakey partnerships. It’s against this backdrop that his second wife, Veronica Lario, dropped a [...]
This monkey has only a passing interest in football, and so found little of interest in the rumours that Brazilian star Kakà was to leave Berlusconi’s AC Milan. Little of interest until browsing the latest from La Voce, the online magazine from some of Italy’s leading economists. The site posted an intriguing article by Tito Boeri [...]
In the same week that Berlusconi’s much contested minister for education, Mariastella Gelmini, took a leaf out of Obama’s book and created a youtube channel to address students directly*, Silvio Berlusconi announced to the world that he would be seeking to sort out the internet at next year’s G8 summit which will be held (disgracefully [...]
It’s not everyday that this monkey, or indeed the various journalists and commentators who are also writing about this case, finds it in his heart or logic to defend Rupert Murdoch or his business interests. He’s a big boy who can look after his own extensive interests - interests that are not necessarily conducive to [...]
Newsweek, last week, carried a quite astonishing piece on Silvio Berlusconi’s first 100 days in office. The glowing tribute stopped short of suggesting that Trenitalia now runs on time, but only just (coincidentally, despite the fact that it was a major election issue, Alitalia crops up nowhere in the piece).
Astonishing because it may well be [...]