Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini's success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say "But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.
Italy should be great, respected, and feared.
The Italian economy is certainly the weakest of the big European countries.
Italy is in truth a poor country with a population which does not all find employment in its native land--whence the phenomenon of emigration. She also possesses large numbers of intellectual proletarians who have got to eat even if they find no employment after graduation from school. It is, therefore, only too explicable that there has had to be a social policy leading to the creation of numerous officials, some of which may be noxious to the development of certain branches of national activity. For the same reason it was natural in a country with moderate capitalist enterprise that laws should be enacted favoring cooperation. Thus we came to have thousands upon thousands of cooperative enterprises in Italy …
The biggest problem in Italy is work. And out-of-control immigration damages the labor market because Italians can't compete with illegal workers who are being exploited. So to restore dignity to work, we must control immigration.
The savings rate in Italy is high, but the markets do not trust Italy even though it's the third largest economy in the European Union and the eighth in the world.
Move to Italy. I mean it: they know about living in debt; they don't care. I stayed out there for five months while I was making a film called 'Order Of Death,' and they've really got it sussed. Nice cars. Sharp suits. Great food. Stroll into work at 10. Lunch from 12 till three. Leave work at five. That's living!
Italians have always had a high savings rate. They love putting their money into their own government bonds - even more than in houses, stocks and gold. The higher rates climb, the happier they are to invest. So if austerity plans drive rates up, it's music to Italian ears.
I want to change Italy and get the economy back on track.
Health care amounts to l4% of our GNP-a lot of money. It is the size of the Italian economy. And the president turned it over to his wife.
Italy is now a great country to invest in... Today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one. Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries... superb girls.
The laws imposed by Brussels damage Italian artisans, traders, pensioners, but hey, Europe is asking, so we have to obey. Come on, if Europe asks me to throw myself in a well, I'm not going to do that just because Europe is asking me to, am I?
Italian companies need to re-convert themselves, and such a re-conversion must be toward a better, higher standard.
Europe advises, sometimes threatens, and tells us, 'You should make a budget of 10 billion euros in taxes.' Are they joking? The last thing that Italy needs is taxes.
Italy in the first years got food, for the first year or the first periods got food. Then we got raw materials and then we got tool machines, let's say, instruments for working.
The Italians, who used to be a great motor-manufacturing power, have been absolutely destroyed by the euro - as was intended by the Germans.
We will go to Europe to change the rules that have impoverished Italians.
I am proof that you can you make money in Italy and be honest.
Businessmen should not put their finger in politics, because they tend to think only of their own self-interest. But I worry about the low morale in Italian industry and the lack of government initiatives to help the poor.
The Italian economy has been held back for decades.
There you see how absurd the reactions of the so-called markets are. For a long time, Italy was run by one of the most unprofessional politicians anywhere. But there wasn't much pressure in terms of speculation. Now, in Mario Monti, Italy has the kind of leader you usually only get in Hollywood movies, a distinguished professor who won't even accept a cook at his residence, the Palazzo Chigi. Instead Monti's wife cooks their pasta herself - and this is the man the markets don't trust.
