A Crisis of Capitalism

The text is taken from the Guardian, a British newspaper. It is an article of the 21^st of September 2011, written by the Italian economist Riccardo Bellofiore, which bears the name"A crisis of capitalism". The title and above all the subtitle of the article - which says "The financial problems plaguing Europe and Italy are not home-grown. They are part of a global attack on labour" - makes the reader understand which the central topic is: capitalism and the current crisis in Italy and Europe. The article is enriched with a picture in which police tries to stop a group of anti-austerity protesters in Rome.

Right from the beginning the capitalism is shown as a process with double face,starting from a quotation of the famous economist Karl Marx: "History repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce". That's to say capitalism can be seen as a tragedy that could make people cry, and as a farce, that could make people laugh. Mr Bellofiore uses the negative example of Italy to explain the previous quotation. He defines "comedian" the government and "joke" the Prime Minister.

Going on the writer starts to explain the external causes of the European and in particular the Italian crisis, that is the inefficient and conservative European Central Bank system, the German neo-mercantilism which produced stagnation, the no-cooperation between European countries and their austere policy and the never-settled debt.

In the last paragraphs the journalist gives his advice to put an end to the crisis. In his opinion Europe should work to stop the whole European crisis, all countries should co-operate to this aim, in order to avoid the domino effect. Moreover, a New Deal by the European left should be planned, and every government should take part to this program, improving investments,controlling capitals and providing new employment. Finally, he claims the need of internationalism.