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To my delight there was a honey festival locally. The Italians like this sort of thing, celebrating local produce whether it be lake fish, lentils or wild asparagus.

Tasting honey is a civilised way to live. The leaflet for the event, though, contained what for me was a bit of a surprise: it was sponsored, in part, by Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).

There is nothing wrong in principle with a bank funding local events. Mussolini passed a law that a percentage of a banks turnover should go to public good works, and it seems to be something the old boy got right. Its just that MPS doesnt have any money. Not even for a honey festival.

MPS, founded in 1472, is to banking what Alitalia is to airline management, and it is a tragedy that two such dreadfully managed companies should come from the same country. Whilst Alitalia decreed that all its staff should live in Rome, bussing them up daily to Milan and Venice, MPS went one step further.

You could only get on in MPS if you were a socialist. It was owned by a socialist foundation, and if your family were something in local lefty politics you could get a job in the bank. It is rather as if Alitalia had decreed all its pilots should be short-sighted.

I have an account at MPS, I should declare. Probably as a result of their entitlement, the staff were, by and large, rude and ignorant. Some of the ones higher up were corrupt as well. The organisation was not being run for the benefit of the customers, at least, and if it was for the shareholders they had a funny way of going about it.

Things had been going wrong for many years but it was not until the 2008/9 crash that they came to a head. It was the time, you will recall, that Natwest was getting itself into trouble buying ABN/AMRO. Banco Santander, one of its consortium, received as part of the deal an almost worthless Italian bank called Antonveneta.

Santander officials admit privately they were staggered when MPS offered 8 billion for Antonveneta. Staggered and delighted. And so the long decline began.

It is not as if MPS had been investing in sophisticated debt instruments: it hadnt yet got around to looking at this new stuff. MPSs problem was the traditional one of lending money to people who didnt have a hope of paying it back.

Amongst the bad debtors were friends of directors, socialist worthies and of course the Government of Italy whose debt collapsed in value after the crash. The socialist foundation which owned MPS refused to raise capital because its stake in the bank would be diluted.

So, without Collateralised Debt Obligations or anything like that, just through bad banking, the oldest bank in the world proceeded towards insolvency. Following a 2 billion bailout in 2009, by my calculations MPS got through around 8 billion in the period up to the present day. It is now of course bust again.

The late Christopher Fildes used to say that giving capital to a bank is like giving beer to a drunk. You know what he will do with it, you just dont know which wall he will choose.

Even five years ago MPS shares were at 900; today they are 15. Ten thousand euros invested in July 2012 would now be worth 170. But people did invest, many of them poor savers, persuaded into subordinated bonds which paid a bit more than the deposit rate. Even I was invited to buy this stuff; fortunately I knew what it was, a local farmer would not have.

Now the EU has allowed the Italian Government to make a final bailout, but only as part of a general resolution of the bank. Shareholders and junior debt holders will be wiped out. If the poor farmer has the wit he will claim he was mis-sold the investment and hope the government reimburses him.

MPS should have been wound up years ago. Italy has too many banks and those banks have too many branches. The foundation that owned it has learned that 95 percent of zero is worth the same as 0 percent of zero.

Italy will be better without Monte dei Paschi. The honey was good, though.

Tim Hedges,The Commentator's Italy Correspondent, had a career in corporate finance before moving to Rome where he works as afreelancewriter, novelist, and farmer. You can read more of his articles aboutItaly here

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Death by socialism: Demise of the world's oldest bank - The Commentator

Entry visas into Venezuela remain fairly accessible, although journalists are not allowed without a special visa. Although I claimed I was there as a tourist, this seemed far-fetched even to the likely pro-government immigration authorities. What is the real motive of your visit? the officer asked me. Seeing my girlfriend, I replied.

She smiled. Welcome to Venezuela.

As you travel down from Simon Bolvar International Airport into the city center, the difference between Caracas and Bogot formerly one of the worlds major drug war battlegrounds is stark.

Armed police stand on almost every street corner. Every physical space is dedicated to promoting the success of the late Hugo Chvezs socialist revolution and Nicols Maduros authoritarian regime. The opposition undermines official government propaganda with its own graffiti, effectively accusing the regime ofdestroying the country with the highest oil reserves in the world.

The rise in anti-government messaging stands out compared to my visit last November. Pro-government propaganda shares the streets with graffiti denouncing the regime on nearly every block.

This is the new Bolivarian toilet paper a reference to Maduros proposed changes to the Venezuelan constitution, rejected by the people in a vote last year. Maduro is depicted holding a pocket constitution.

If hunger kills the people, the people will take out the government.

A billboard calls for the release of opposition Leopoldo Lpez, who was imprisoned by the regime in 2014 for organizing a peaceful assembly against Maduro.

Nearly every day, anti-government marches take place across Venezuela,nearly all of which attract violence. So far, as many as 84 protesters have been killed since daily protests began in late March, as police use water cannons, rubber bullets, and smoke bombs to control the situation.

Protests have the feel of an out-of-control soccer crowd. There is a feeling of solidarity among people, most of whom are wearing Venezuelan flags. On the side of the street, salesmen sell what can only be described as protest merchandise, including Venezuelan flags, horns, and t-shirts.

Below, the shirts read from left to right: S.O.S. Venezuela; Whosoever Tires Will Lose; Resistance: Dont Surrender!

Closer to police and military barriers, the protests become more tense, with the menace of violence constantly present. Many of those protesting are boys and young men in their mid-teens.

This is a fight for our families, for our future, a group of masked protesters tell me. We will risk our lives every day for as long as it takes to bring down this dictatorship.

A group of young protesters pump themselves up as they prepare to face off with police.

On a visit to the Universidad Central de Venezuela,the countrys biggest university, something seemed not quite right. The university itself seemslike any other, with department buildings scattered around a campus, as well as grandiose facilities such as sports stadiums anda stunningconcert hall.

Yet, despite it being a Wednesday, there are barely any students around.The situation is too serious right now for students to dedicate sufficienttime to studying, English professor Lilliana Cspedes tells me. Many prioritize attending anti-government marches or trying to earn money to support their families. During some of my classes, just a handful of students turn up.

One of the most frustrating things about trying to understand Venezuela is the high level of security atplaces the regime would like to hide. As I enter a government-run supermarket, security guards check my pockets to see what I am carrying. They find my camera. No photos here, they say. A similar routine takes place on the way out.

I also tried my luck at a Venezuelan state hospital, althoughthis time armed guards asked me to put the camera away. Nearly every public place in Caracas is guarded by police keeping a watchful eye over the situation. Most are very meagerly paid, but still officially remain supportive of the government.

Sitting in a hospital waiting room, armed guards soon ask me to put away my camera. Failing to comply would likely mean facing arrest.

Amid the crisis, some Venezuelans have accused others of not doing enough to fight the Maduro regime. The only way I see out of the current regime is a military coup, my taxi driver, Nelson lvarez, tells me. Some people have accused me ofindifference towards the current political situation, but I have a family to look after. No matter how many or how violent the opposition protests, the key to bringing down this government are the military.

Everything about Venezuela suggests this is a nation on the brink of collapse. Whether it is the ongoing violence, the extreme poverty, or the enormous piles of garbage in the street, nothing is working as it should be. In January, inflation reached over 800 percent, while some analysts predicting it could reach 1500 percent by the end of the year. Even at one of the citys most exclusive hotels, breakfast offerings remain scarce and electricity and internet connection regularly cut out.

Thousands of notes are now required to buy anything of value. However, the government recently introduced higher denominations.

Many streets are covered in landfill. People can be regularly seen searching through garbage for scraps.

Im Hungry

While some still solely blame the current crisis on the collapse in oil prices in 2012,a vast majority of Venezuelans believe the country needs serious economic reform. After 17 years of hardcore socialism, egged on by left-wing elites around the world, many in leadership appear hesitant to accuse the socialist system itself and not the people running it of being the problem.

Many within the oppositions leadership structure are members of the Socialist International (SI). Popular Will, the party led by Leopoldo Lpez before his arrest, belongs to the SI. Lpezs colleagues often find it easier to lay the blame at Maduros feet and call for elections, rather than demand a free, capitalist society, rebuilt from the ground up.

Yet the students and street protesters, who have put their lives on pause to fight Maduro, seem to understand that the institutional rot goes way beyond Maduro.

As one student put it to me: Chvez succeeded in creating an equal society by making everyone poor.

You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew,oremail him at bkew@breitbart.com

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Inside Venezuela: The Socialist Haven on the Brink of Total Collapse - Breitbart News

California is widely celebrated as the fount of technical, cultural and political innovation. Now we seem primed to outdo even ourselves, creating a new kind of socialism that, in the end, more resembles feudalism than social democracy.

The new consensus is being pushed by, among others, hedge-fund-billionaire-turned-green-patriarch Tom Steyer. The financier now insists that, to reverse our worsening inequality, we must double down on environmental and land-use regulation, and make up for it by boosting subsidies for the struggling poor and middle class. This new progressive synthesis promises not upward mobility and independence, but rather the prospect of turning most Californians into either tax slaves or dependent serfs.

Californias progressive regime of severe land-use controls has helped to make the state among the most unaffordable in the nation, driving homeownership rates to the lowest levels since the 1940s. It has also spurred a steady hegira of middle-aged, middle-class families the kind of tax-burdened people Gov. Jerry Brown now denounces as freeloaders from the state. They may have access to smartphones and virtual reality, but the increasingly propertyless masses seem destined to live in the kind of cramped conditions that their parents and grandparents had escaped decades earlier.

There is some irony in a new kind of socialism blessed by some of the worlds richest people. The new policy framework is driven, in large part, by a desire to assume world leadership on climate-related issues. The biggest losers will be manufacturing, energy and homebuilding workers, who will see their jobs headed to other states and countries.

Under the new socialism, expect more controls over the agribusiness sector, notably the cattle industry, Californias original boom industry, which will be punished for its cows flatulence. Limits on building in the periphery of cities also threaten future growth in construction employment, once the new regulations are fully in place.

Sadly, these steps dont actually do anything for the climate, given the states already low carbon footprint and the fact that the people and firms driven out of the state tend to simply expand their carbon footprints elsewhere in their new homes. But effectiveness is not the motivation here. Instead, combating climate change has become an opportunity for Brown, Steyer and the Sacramento bureaucracy to perform a passion play, where they preen as saviors of the planet, with the unlikable President Donald Trump playing his role as the devil incarnate. In following with this line of reasoning, Bay Area officials and environmental activists are even proposing a campaign to promote meatless meals. Its Gaia meets Lent.

The oligarchs of the Bay Area have a problem: They must square their progressive worldview with their enormous wealth. They certainly are not socialists in the traditional sense. They see their riches not as a result of class advantages, but rather as reflective of their meritocratic superiority. As former TechCrunch reporter Gregory Ferenstein has observed, they embrace massive inequality as both a given and a logical outcome of the new economy.

The nerd estate is definitely not stupid, and like rulers everywhere, they worry about a revolt of the masses, and even the unionization of their companies. Their gambit is to expand the welfare state to keep the hoi polloi in line. Many, including Mark Zuckerberg, now favor an income stipend that could prevent mass homelessness and malnutrition.

Unlike its failed predecessor, this new, greener socialism seeks not to weaken, but rather to preserve, the emerging class structure. Brown and his acolytes have slowed upward mobility by environment restrictions that have cramped home production of all kinds, particularly the building of moderate-cost single-family homes on the periphery. All of this, at a time when millennials nationwide, contrary to the assertion of Browns smart growth allies, are beginning to buy cars, homes and move to the suburbs.

In contrast, many in Sacramento appear to have disdain for expanding the California dream of property ownership. The states planners are creating policies that will ultimately lead to the effective socialization of the regulated housing market, as more people are unable to afford housing without subsidies. Increasingly, these efforts are being imposed with little or no public input by increasingly opaque regional agencies.

To these burdens, there are now growing calls for a single-payer health care system which, in principle, is not a terrible idea, but it will include the undocumented, essentially inviting the poor to bring their sick relatives here. The state Senate passed the bill without identifying a funding source to pay the estimated $400 billion annual cost, leading even former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to describe it as snake oil. It may be more like hemlock for Californias middle-income earners, who, even with the cost of private health care removed, would have to fork over an estimated $50 billion to $100 billion a year in new taxes to pay for it.

In the end, we are witnessing the continuation of an evolving class war, pitting the oligarchs and their political allies against the states diminished middle and working classes. It might work politically, as the California electorate itself becomes more dependent on government largesse, but its hard to see how the state makes ends meet in the longer run without confiscating the billions now held by the ruling tech oligarchs.

Joel Kotkin is the R.C. Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange and executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism (www.opportunityurbanism.org).

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California's descent to socialism Press Enterprise - Press-Enterprise

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! announced President Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987.

Begun after Lenins Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Soviet Union existed from 1922 to 1991. With its motto Workers of the World, Unite! the Soviet tactic was to train agitators, community organizers, labor organizers, and agent provocateurs provoking agents. These would organize people with grievances and stir up riots to subvert and tear down the existing government. When social chaos caused major domestic disruptions, the public would then willingly accept a new order. Unfortunately, rather than a wonderful utopian society of equality, the efforts of these naive useful idiots simply paved the way for martial law and a military communist dictatorship.

Franklin Roosevelt addressed Delegates of the American Youth Congress, Feb. 10, 1940: Some of you are Communists. You have no American right, by act or deed of any kind, to subvert the government and the Constitution of this Nation.

Instead of setting up a workers paradise, power was usurped by communist dictators who exercised totalitarian life and death control over some 293 million people across 11 time zones.

Addressing naive students that thought communism would redistribute wealth equally, President Franklin Roosevelt told the American Youth Congress, Feb. 10, 1940: The Soviet Union is run by a dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world.

Under the Soviet dictatorship:

Vladimir Lenin stated: The goal of socialism is communism.

Roosevelt stated Feb. 10, 1940: I disliked the regimentation under Communism. I abhorred the indiscriminate killings of thousands of innocent victims. I heartily deprecated the banishment of religion, though I knew that some day Russia would return to religion for the simple reason that four or five thousand years of recorded history have proven that mankind has always believed in God in spite of many abortive attempts to exile God.

President Harry S Truman stated Jan. 20, 1949: Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters. Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.

Truman continued: Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labor as a chattel of the state. It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think. Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom. These differences between Communism and Democracy do not concern the United States alone. People everywhere are coming to realize that what is involved is material well-being, human dignity, and the right to believe in and worship God.

President Ronald Reagan began his address at Berlins Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987: Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of this city and the world. Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash. There remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.

Reagan continued: Just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom. There stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Reagan added: Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.

Reagan concluded: Years ago the East Germans erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the towers one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere that sphere that towers over all Berlin the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.

Ronald Reagans vice president was George H.W. Bush, born June 12, 1924. Early in his career, George H.W. Bush served as the head of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing. Bush told Amish and Mennonite leaders in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 22, 1989: Barbara and I went to China as your emissary in 1974, and we had wondered about the family in China Communist country, totalitarian. We knew that there had been almost entire banning on practicing and teaching Christianity. This was right after the Cultural Revolution.

Though as president, George H.W. Bush advocated an internationalist foreign policy, as indicated in his cryptic dream of a new world order speech, Sept. 11, 1990, he nevertheless acknowledged role of religion in Americas founding.

President George H.W. Bush stated in his inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1989: I have just repeated word for word the oath taken by George Washington 200 years ago, and the Bible on which I place my hand is the Bible on which he placed his. And my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads.

On Feb. 22, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed Joint Resolution 164 declaring 1990 the International Year of Bible Reading: Among the great books produced throughout the history of mankind, the Bible has been prized above all others. The Bible has had a critical impact upon the development of Western civilization. It was a biblical view of man one affirming the dignity and worth of the human person, made in the image of our Creator that inspired the principles upon which the United States is founded. The historic speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., provide compelling evidence of the role Scripture played in shaping the struggle against slavery and discrimination. We recall the words of the prophet Isaiah, who declared, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever. When you have read the Bible you will know that it is the Word of God. Now, therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the year 1990 as the International Year of Bible Reading. I invite all Americans to discover the great inspiration and knowledge that can be obtained through thoughtful reading of the Bible.

Discover more of Bill Federers eye-opening books and videos in the WND Superstore!

On May 3, 1990, President George H.W. Bush declared a national day of prayer: The great faith that led our Nations Founding Fathers to pursue this bold experience in self-government has sustained us in uncertain and perilous times. Like them, we do very well to recall our firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, and to pray for continued help and guidance from our wise and loving Creator.

In his 1992 national day of prayer proclamation, President George H.W. Bush stated: Whatever our individual religious convictions may be, each of us is invited to join in this National Day of Prayer. Each of us can echo this timeless prayer of Solomon, the ancient king who prayed for, and received, the gift of wisdom: The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us; so that He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His waysthat all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.'

President George H.W. Bush stated in his Christmas message, Dec. 8, 1992: As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, whose life offers us a model of dignity, compassion, and justice, we renew our commitment to peace. Christ made clear the redemptive value of giving of oneself for others. The heroic actions of our veterans, the lifesaving work of our scientists and physicians, and generosity of countless individuals who voluntarily give of their time, talents, and energy to help others all have enriched humankind and affirmed the importance of our Judeo-Christian heritage in shaping our government and values.

Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com.

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True goal of socialism from the horse's mouth - WND - WND.com

The Liberty Conservative

Study Indicates Weak Men Prefer Socialism The Liberty Conservative The Liberty Conservative is an online political magazine devoted to the vision of less government and more liberty in achieving true prosperity for all. We intend to accomplish this by informing and educating our readers on our core principles of free ...

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Study Indicates Weak Men Prefer Socialism - The Liberty Conservative