Italy: Oh, Italy, Why Can't You Change?

    Like shoes?  Like Italian shoes?  How about  Buscemi Brand?  They'll set you back about $800.  Or E600.  But you won't be able to find any because: They are SOLD OUT already.  Marketing, gotta love it.  Sean 'Diddy' Combs got his.  Justin Bieber got a pair.   Swizz Beatz ordered 20 pairs when he saw them on line last year.
      This little story highlights a part of the Italy of today:  a small sector of exports that are highly prized and represent a tiny fraction of the Italian economy; and everything else that stands to plague the long mountain-spined  peninsula attached to the underbelly of western Europe.   Rocked to its foundations by the Great Recession, Italy has not found a way to dig itself out.   Despite having one of their own in charge of the European Bank(Mario Draghi),  two successive technocrats were not able to stir life back into the economy where unemployment remains high and job creation is abysmal.
      Compared to other European countries, Italy is at the bottom of GDP per capita from 1999 to 2012, having a negative improvement.   The issue can be identified as an inability to change.   Really, an inability to change anything.   Is that what Italians want?  No, but they haven't been able to find their way out of this prolonged post WW II recession.
      Matteo Renzi, the 39 year old Prime Minister, has been in office less than a year and is still building his support in Parliament.   Despite his youth, in spite of his youth, he has not made significant progress to date.   He knows what has to be done: lower taxes, reduce the size of government; create jobs, and streamline the bureaucracy.
      I like Italy and Italians, been there many times.  Some would say it's all about the food; some say it's all about art; some say it's all about wine.   I say none of the above.
     It's all about a system that doesn't work for the 21st century.  The Italian people know change is needed, but haven't found the right leader who can overcome decades of misrule by the Fascists of Mussolini and the followers who enacted his policies to the long term detriment of the country.
More later