Shock Doctrine Alert: Two Un-Elected Bankers are Now in-Charge of Italy and Greece

[JCMach1]

Are we in the middle of a bankers coup d'etat...?

The “Shock Doctrine” is clearly at work again. Look at Italy’s new leader’s credentials, Mario Monti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Monti

Monti is the first chairman of Bruegel, a European think tank founded in 2005, and he is European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a think tank founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller.<4> He is also a leading member of the Bilderberg Group.<5> Monti is an international adviser to Goldman Sachs and The Coca-Cola Company.<6>

In Greece the new PM Lucas Papademos served on the Federal Reserve of Boston!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Papademos

He has served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 1980. He joined the Bank of Greece in 1985 as Chief Economist, rising to Deputy Governor in 1993 and Governor in 1994. During his time as Governor of the national bank, Papademos was involved in Greece’s transition from the drachma to the euro as its national currency.<4> After leaving the Bank of Greece in 2002, Papademos became the Vice President to Jean-Claude Trichet at the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010. In 2010 he left that position to serve as an advisor to Prime Minister George Papandreou.<4> He has been a member of the Trilateral Commission since 1998.<5>

from http://investmentwatchblog.com/shock-doctrine-in-europe/

[marmar]

1. By design.

nt

[glinda]

2. ARen't they going to have elections? If not, people should be furious.

[JCMach1]

3. Not right away... and THEY will be making the key decisions about austerity

[glinda]

4. Again. People of Italy and Greece should be livid.

[JCMach1]

5. They will be once the joy of kicking-out Berlusconi wears off

[raccoon]

22. Yeah, like the people in the US should have been furious in 2000. nt

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Prime Ministers are elected -- By their parliaments

[JCMach1]

11. After a general electiom

Usually. The people had no say about these two.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. This actually happens fairly often

But certainly not always.

Gordon Brown and John Major both became UK Prime Minister after the resignation of their predecessors.

Paul Martin became PM of Canada when his predecessor Jean Chrétien stepped down. Pierre Trudeau became PM the same way.

[JCMach1]

16. Unusual when we are talking coalition though

[LeftishBrit]

17. It is very common for a politician in a parliamentary democracy to become Prime Minister in mid-term

In the UK, since the last war: Besides Brown and Major, this was the case for Eden (replacing Churchill), Macmillan (replacing Eden) and Home (replacing Macmillan); and for Callaghan (replacing Wilson).

Prime Ministers are elected by their parties, and it is the party, not the prime minister, for whom people vote directly. In fact, in the UK, the person for whom you vote directly is your MP.

However, generally speaking the Prime Minister *is* required to have been elected as an MP. Only one of these prime ministers was not an MP at the time when he was chosen by the leadership: Home, who was a hereditary peer - and he was required to renounce his peerage and seek election to a parliamentary seat before he could become Prime Minister. What is therefore very unusual about the Greek and Italian prime ministers is that they are apparently not elected politicians at all.

[malaise]

7. Glad people are noticing

Obey the bankers or we'll overthrow the government - fuck the consent of the people

[unblock]

8. prime ministers aren't normally elected directly by the people.

in most parliamentary systems, the people elect representatives to parliament, and then a majority within parliament (quite possibly a coalition of parties) select a prime minister, usually the leader of the largest party within that majority coalition.

[Delphinus]

9. I wondered

why economists were chosen to lead the countries - didn't seem quite right to me.

[JCMach1]

10. Austerity

Brought to you by the same people who got the world into the mess of 2008.

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Perhaps because the politicians had f****d everything up

[Lenomsky]

12. *OUCH*

Great post. Thanks

[blindpig]

15. Disturbingly honest of them.

But then again, we had Alan Greenspan directing our economy for years.

This really speaks of desperation, the ruling class prefers to have politicians catch the heat for the policies which they desire but seemingly do not trust their most faithful dogs to go for the throat.

[socialist_n_TN]

18. Very astute pig. It's true that the copitalists like their

fronts, so that they don't have to be seen getting their hands dirty. So they either fear that their toadies won't be enthusiastic enough OR they just don't care about appearences anymore.

Michael Roberts blogged about this over a week ago. It IS a banker coup d'etat.

[jeff47]

19. You should probably read some more about how parliamentary systems work.

PMs are never elected. (Here meaning elected to be PM by popular vote of the people)

[GeorgeGist]

20. Democracy first.

The term Democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought.

[slipslidingaway]

21. knr nt

[xchrom]

23. Recommend

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. KIIIIIICK!

[Fire Walk With Me]

25. KICK KICK KICK!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. If they were Americans they'd qualify to be in this administrattion's cabinet.