Italian Economist Galloni Comments on LaRouche in New Book

Economist Nino Galloni has published a new book, titled The Imperfect Economy (L’Economia Imperfetta), which goes through the changes in the international economy in the past 60 years, through an autobiographic tale of his experience as a youth political activist first and as a civil servant later. The key idea presented in the book is that the left failed to understand that they had to ally with industrial “capitalism” to improve society, and instead allied with financial capitalism, adopting its Malthusian views. This system has prevailed and led to the crisis. It is now imposing climate policies and planning to fight a thermonuclear war.

A salient part of the book is the tale of Galloni’s effort, as director general of the Budget Ministry, to bring about a pro-development shift in the Italian economy. The effort was blocked personally by then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, reports Galloni, because it would have led Italy to break with the austerity recipes of the pre-euro phase.

Some footnotes in the book are more important than the book itself. In one footnote, Galloni reports how, in the early 1990s, he was given by a priest a book to read and evaluate. The book was The Science of Christian Economy by Lyndon LaRouche. The priest and an economist friend “wanted to know from me whether I thought the work to be credible in its content; I told them that I was enthusiastic about it and wanted to become acquainted with the author, whence an intense relationship of friendship, mutual esteem and collaboration was born. Thanks to LaRouche I have come to know wonderful people, sincere activists, first of all his wife Helga Zepp and Martin Luther King’s collaborator Amelia Robinson, who have been often my guests and exchanged hospitality in Germany, Washington, and Los Angeles.”

In another footnote, Galloni wrote: “I remember some travels to the U.S.A., organized for my father [who was a leading national politician]…. in the late 1970s. Once, at Chase Manhattan Bank, 1 Wall Street, at the beginning of the Khomeini era. There was a meeting with David Rockefeller, who started saying ‘Our sister, Freedom’ (the Statue of Liberty was visible from where he was speaking). I was close to the window and I interrupted him: ‘But really, from here I see that between Wall Street and Freedom we have the Ocean!’ The hell broke loose. My father was distraught. As we came home, he briefed my mother who said: ‘That was right. Bravo!’ [dc]

“Vice President Scaglione looked like he wanted to beat me up and did not calm down, even when I told him that, in my view, after so many mistakes, the U.S.A. would soon end up in seeking a strategic ally in Iran in the region; 30 years later, I pushed the same idea at a meeting organized by Helga Zepp at the Schiller Institute and Lyndon LaRouche complimented me for my ‘courage’ (‘Each time I see you I rejoice and I am astonished that they did not yet eliminate you’).”