"So did he work for Goldman Sachs?" a poster asked jokingly
WARNING: News about Europe
Today, the "centre-left" party PD, that won the most seats in the lower parliament, lead by Bersani, did a 180° reversal and endorsed former centre-left PM and first head of the EU commission Romano Prodi for President of Italy.
Pretty interesting, since the day before Bersani was running with the option Marini, on which he had agreed with Berlusconi of the rightwing PDL. Bersani however faced a huge backlash in his own party, and therefore this reversal.
Both the bloc of austerity fan and Goldman Sachs alumnus Mario Monti and the party of Berlusconi immediately come out against Prodi, who has been the political adversary of Berlusconi for decades.
So I'm thinking, good.
But of course Italy is where (political) comedian Beppe Grillo and his 5 star movement (M5S) managed to get the most actual votes, totalling 25%. This for a party that wants a referendum on the euro, and pleads for a basic national income.
I'm a bit on the fence about M5S, since I'm no fan of personality cults, and it has that aspect. That being said,they're all about direct democracy, and are pretty radical on the environment, so again I'm thinking, good.
As it turns out, M5S also had a vote about who they wanted to propose for president. Prodi was also in their shortlist, albeit in the 8th spot.
So, I'm thinking, hmm there's an opportunity maybe, since the PD needs about 30 votes from M5S to pass in the fourth (!) round of parliament voting for a president. But then a poster on the blog I was discussing this asks, did Prodi work for Goldman Sachs? He was joking, referring to the parachuting in of alumni Monti in Italy and Papademos in Greece, when it was time to do dirty deals with the troika.
First, I check Wikipedia on Prodi. No mention of Goldman Sachs.
Then, I IXquick goldman sachs romano prodi, and find the italian wikipedia page does mention Prodi's wife's firm doing consulting work for Goldman Sachs, and being paid over a million euro for that work.
Then, I find here that Prodi oversaw a huge swap loan between Goldman Sachs and Italy, a loan that enabled Italy to enter the EU. Note that the same dubious method was used by GS and Greece in order to have Greece meet the criteria for EU membership.
And finally, I once again get to Wikipedia, this time the Goldman Sachs page itself.
And there he is - listed under former employees - Romano Prodi.
The Joke, my DU friends, is on us.
The below bit I found here, google translated.
...
Mr Prodi received £ 1.4 million between 1990 and 1993 (at the time of the Presidency Iri, ed) through a company called Bologna "Analysis and Economic Studies", which he owns with his wife. The company secretary later told The Daily Telegraph that much of that money came from Goldman Sachs'"
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