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Liam F
Liam F
2 months ago

At first glace this articale looks like nonsense on stilts -just throwing a bunch of unconnected facts out there and then retrofit a narrative. Blackrock’s investment in Italy is unsuprising -they are the biggest asset mgrs on Earth. Their $10 trillion in total assets already has $2.48 trillion (around 24.8%) invested in Europe already. They don’t need a Trojan horse -they are already here!
On second glance: …it still looks like total nonsense.

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
2 months ago
Reply to  Liam F

It would make more sense to look at foreign ownership of the UK and the consequences of that. The UK has been running a large and substantial current account deficit since Blair took over. That means a net inflow of capital. That is not going to happen for nearly 30 years without foreigners buying something pretty essential to British residents.

Jim C
Jim C
2 months ago
Reply to  Liam F

The article’s info should be seen as a small part of a larger jigsaw puzzle… which is how Blackrock (along with Vanguard and State Street) appear to be gobbling up the entire planet.

These corporations all support (and enforce) WEF policies like Net-Zero, ESG & DEI in the companies they buy, and, as Fazi points out, are hawkish wrt foreign policy.

So we can expect to see more wokery and more slaughter as Klaus’ acolytes seize ever greater power and influence over Western institutions.

Francisco Menezes
Francisco Menezes
2 months ago
Reply to  Jim C

Spot on! It is all about control and the destruction of the middle class. Those awful people that claim to have political rights. None of these rich people cares about environment, climate, diversity etc. These are just tropes to destroy existing structures and take over full control of societies converted in feudal fiefdoms. It is a reversal of history. Are we after all living in a cyclical world?

Francis Turner
Francis Turner
2 months ago

Destruction of the middle class? not caring about climate change and diversity? Fantastic! Just what we need! If only we had a Meloni

Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke
2 months ago
Reply to  Liam F

It’s not nonsense and Italy is TF’s home. That said, one of the hallmarks of a statesman or stateswoman, if there is such a word, is that they are hard to read. Meloni is hard to read.

Lancashire Lad
Lancashire Lad
2 months ago

One takeaway from all this, highlighted by the photo which heads the article, is the way Meloni – ostensibly a purveyor of strong and independent political leadership – leans into her male counterparts, quite literally.

A while ago, Unherd ran an article which had a photo of Meloni gazing winsomely into Rushi Sunak’s eyes during a photoshoot. He looked flattered beyond words, and that’s the intention of course. The question then: is Meloni being manipulative in a very old-fashioned way, or is she being manipulated? I suspect it’s both.

What the article also concerns is the quite personal background within which international relations are conducted. Whatever the impressions gained by their populations, the interpersonal chemistries are important. We saw this with Thatcher, and her high-stakes relationships with both Reagan and Gorbachev. It’s one reason why she won her second and third elections, being perceived as having influence on the international stage.

Richard Calhoun
Richard Calhoun
2 months ago
Reply to  Lancashire Lad

Thatcher only won her 2nd election because she embarked upon and won the Falklands war … without that it was unlikely she would have won a 2nd election.
“She who dares wins”

Kiddo Cook
Kiddo Cook
2 months ago

Where’s the story? Us capital already owns the U.K. so, no surprises here……

Francis Turner
Francis Turner
2 months ago
Reply to  Kiddo Cook

and Arab…

Kiddo Cook
Kiddo Cook
2 months ago
Reply to  Francis Turner

Yep. Sickening…

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
2 months ago
Reply to  Kiddo Cook

Owning capital means you are wealthy, and that is evil. But not if you are a Billionaire: then it’s completely different.

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
2 months ago

Meloni is a smart cookie. She understood that, once elected, the only way to move her own politics forward was to get on with the European establishment rather than antagonise it. In that way, she’s found herself driving the conversation on issues like migration rather than being sidelined (which is what would have happend if she’d have acted provocatively like Salvini).
That shows she hasn’t cut herself off from her roots entirely so she can still schmooze with the likes of Trump and Musk without coming off as fake. She’s a chameleon in the smartest way.
I particularly liked the pointed “throwing-the-dollies-out-of-the-pram” after she was frozen out of talks after the EP election to divvy up the top EU jobs. Maybe the subsequent rightward shift in the structure of the Commission was a tacit act of reconciliation from Brussels?
Who knows. But I find Meloni one of the most exciting figures in European politics right now.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
2 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

She’s like a super clever version of Harris. Harris is also trying to win people over in the short term to win an election, but anyone with half a brain knows that Kamala is dumb as a box of rocks.

Chuck Burns
Chuck Burns
2 months ago

I agree, Meloni can carry on an intelligent conversation and speak off the cuff. Harris seems to be “deer in the headlights” dumb and incapable of intelligent conversation on any level or topic.

John Hughes
John Hughes
2 months ago
Reply to  Chuck Burns

Giorgia Meloni speaks better English than Kamala Harris. What she says to world TV stations in English is clear and logical. GM doesn’t need an interpreter to talk to Biden, Trump, Sunak, Starmer. There have been Italian PMs before who spoke good English; they were generally the ‘technocrats’ or from the financial sector, men whom the President brought in to supervise unstable coalitions. Mario Monte, Matteo Renzi, Guiseppe Conte and Mario Draghi are the recent ones. But Signora Meloni is the first one who came to office having won an election as leader of a political party, for some time.

Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke
2 months ago

Meloni is not though.

Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke
2 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

I too believe she is consolidating her position so that the European Commission can’t remove her. She has prioritised certain issues like immigration. If I had a criticism of the piece it might be that TF is assuming Meloni knows what she’s doing in every policy area. She knows what she is doing in some areas but not necessarily in all. Then again, Italy is his backyard.

Gio
Gio
2 months ago

This article is based on faulty premises. Meloni hasn’t changed much from what she said prior to her election, certainly a lot less than most politicians change between pre-election and post election. To make it seem that she has, the author has the cherry pick something she said when she was barely more than a child about Mussolini. What really happened is that she’s different from how the media portrayed her, not that she’s changed. She has worked hard on immigration and gotten it more under control. She has been very pro business and the Italian economy is benefiting from that. She has defended traditional Italian values against the progressive global onslaught. She has been a very strong leader. These are the things she said she would do and she did them.
and to use a picture where she’s literally leaning on Joe Biden is also completely disingenuous. The reality of the situation is that he’s a stumbling fool that she treated kindly, as we all remember the video of him wandering into the abyss before she kindly and gently pulled him back. But that video, the reality of the situation, doesn’t fit the authors narrative.
in short, she’s not being groomed by Washington or Biden or other global leaders, she’s taking them to the cleaners.

Dash Riprock
Dash Riprock
2 months ago
Reply to  Gio

The best PM Italy has had for a very long time. She is hope and salvation.

mike flynn
mike flynn
2 months ago
Reply to  Dash Riprock

Careful. All idols have feet of clay. Even when they wear a dress.

Dash Riprock
Dash Riprock
2 months ago
Reply to  mike flynn

Indeed but on a relative basis, given Italy’s experience here, she is something special so far.

Terry M
Terry M
2 months ago

BlackRock’s future plans — among other things, it hopes to snatch up Italy’s highway and railway networks,
..and move them to the USA??
What a joke.

Dash Riprock
Dash Riprock
2 months ago

Meloni has outperformed, proved to be sensible, and everyone has become aware she’s pretty hot, too. A winner, which Europe sorely needs.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
2 months ago

Looks like Meloni is grooming the US rather.

Richard Calhoun
Richard Calhoun
2 months ago

Just making stuff up for the sake of it … what it does highlight though is the foolishness of the #EU project and its currency, the Euro.
If anything has stunted and stagnated Italy this last 2 decades or more it is the Euro.

Dash Riprock
Dash Riprock
2 months ago

It’s also their tax and employment law, more so than the Euro. Constant devals of the Lira weren’t much use in the past.

Richard Calhoun
Richard Calhoun
2 months ago
Reply to  Dash Riprock

I think devaluations allowed Italy to keep growing their economy, but not for the last 20+ years whilst they have been in the euro

Andrew F
Andrew F
2 months ago
Reply to  Dash Riprock

Not true.
Yes devaluation happened regularly and inflation was high but Italian economy had some growth of GDP even after post boom era of mid 50s till late 60s.
Since Italy adopted Euro what was GDP growth?
Below 10% over 20 years.

Niels Georg Bach Christensen
Niels Georg Bach Christensen
2 months ago

Faze is a big lover of conspiracy theories.

Agnes Aurelius
Agnes Aurelius
2 months ago

Germany and France have tried to make the whole of Europe a federalist state. They have penalised and punished both Italy and Greece financially for squandering huge EU loans and It was the ordinary people who suffered badly. In addition Germany and France let Italy and Greece take the brunt of the huge numbers of illegal immigrants. The EU project has failed and as usual the American cavalry is coming to the rescue…. And as usual there will be a price to pay. Meloni is the smartest politician in Europe at the moment.

Stephanie Surface
Stephanie Surface
2 months ago
Reply to  Agnes Aurelius

Germany has the biggest percentage of immigrants in Europe, because of her “wonderful” Social System. Germany also guaranteed huge loans to Greece and Italy, which run for 45 years or longer. Most Germans know that these loans will never be paid back.
Maybe you also look deeper into the “squandering of loans”. In Greece very few people pay property tax or many other taxes. I won’t even get into details how Greece’s previous governments squandered the huge loans on infrastructure plans, which were never built. At the time of the EURO crisis, many Germans were so fed up with Merkel’s overstepping every financial red line to desperately preserve the Euro, that the AfD was founded. Main founding members were economics professors, who tried to divide the Euro into a Northern and Southern currency.

Steve Gwynne
Steve Gwynne
2 months ago

I think there is a couple of underlying structural dynamics to consider here.

First, the global economic dynamic is shifting towards managed decline as peak growth shows its head. Thus future geopolitical battles will be about capturing market share of a stagnant pie with that battle largely being fought between America and China. In this respect, is it better to be captured by American interests or Chinese interests.

Second, the pivot towards Putin de-escalation by Trump is driven by an understanding of geopolitical energy dynamics. Thus rather than follow the money, follow the energy. Therefore whilst it served American interests to starve Europe of Russian gas and oil and in particular immiserate Germany, in the long term, Russian gas and oil going to China only served to strengthen China even if in the short term American gas has boosted its balance of trade.

But in the long term I think Trump would prefer American gas to be reinvested in the American economy as part of his reshoring strategy with the gas being deployed to boost domestic electricity generation which helps Musk and his EVs and helps electricity greedy AI and data centres. Consequently, I think the long view is to try and bring Russian gas and oil back to Europe in order to deprive China from its much needed energy in order to grow.

I think the fact of the matter is that by 2050 will see rapid declines in fossil fuels due to depletion of proven reserves with reserves harder to extract profitably. Thus as a matter of fact we are heading into managed decline and it will be energy that determines hegemony. Hence America interfering in Brazil and Venezuela to access the necessary heavy oil to mix with its own shale derived tight oil and that of Canada.

These energy dynamics also explains the real reason for Net Zero and Ed Milliband’s enthusiasm for wind and solar generation whilst waiting for the outcome of Small Modular Reactors. However whilst electricity generation is one thing with China having captured most critical materials for Renewable Energy Technologies, what is perhaps even more important is industrial heat especially for smelting and purification.

Gas electricity can do the purification of silicon for example but currently most smelting operations are done in China whether it is silicon or steel. Similarly gas can be used to melt metals and can provide the fuel to create electricity for Arc Furnaces but the problematic of smelting without coal still exists.

So overall, whilst financial investment is a second order consideration, energy flows is a primary order consideration with Trump and European allies looking to consolidate American hegemony within a global economic environment of managed decline and the TransAtlantic Progressive Alliance seemingly supporting Chinese hegemony even though they are probably unaware that their Progressive missionary zeal that vehemently opposes Putin’s authoritarianism is doing exactly that.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Steve Gwynne

You seem to suggest that Ed Milliband’s enthusiasm for wind and solar flows from a carefully thought out and ultimately sound policy position, rather than because he is a card-carrying member of the Green-Left. I can’t say I am convinced.

Neal Attermann
Neal Attermann
2 months ago

Agree with the criticism of the article. The discussion of the big fund investments outside the US could be an interesting discussion on its own. I guess it would be best done looking at foreign investments by China and its entities, as the other world leading economy. Also, the power of index funds generally, is somewhat concerning as they gain more and more voting power over corporations.
But back to Meloni. She seems like a very capable center of right politician. I’ve seen nothing in what she ran on that has changed much over the past two years–other then perhaps her becoming more practical. Too bad we don’t have someone of her caliber leading the ticket on the center right (or even the center left) in the US..

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
2 months ago

You failed to mention Meloni’s state visit to China in August. She did a flip flop on Chinese investment into Italy.

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
2 months ago

Like Sgt. Schultz, I know nothing. But I would guess that Meloni, like the other populist nationalist (far-right racist sexist LiterallyHitler you name it) politicians, know that if they want to by remembered as modern day Odysseuses they have to navigate safely between the Scylla of the EU and the Charybdis of Big Capital.

Carmel Shortall
Carmel Shortall
2 months ago

Meloni = controlled opposition.

Brendan O'Leary
Brendan O'Leary
2 months ago

Describing Petrobras is merely “a local state-owned corporation” is far too kind. It’s a sluggish and corrupt monolith with levels of venality and inefficiency only matched by Mexico’s Pemex or Venezuela’s Pedevesa.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
2 months ago

“the reality is that the move was likely spearheaded by BlackRock itself, which executed the move with the help of other Anglo-American funds, all to consolidate its control of Germany’s financial system”
That “likely” is doing a lot of heavy-lifting in this analysis…

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
2 months ago

Waiter, I’ll have what Fazi is having.

Mark Melvin
Mark Melvin
2 months ago

Following the previous Italian PM’s report a short while ago (this is Monti), bemoaning the lack of investment, innovation, oxygen and just about anything that works in the EU, getting some foreign capital may just be a bit of alright I would have thought. Mind you I have a personal affront with Blackrock too which of course makes no sense. Vanguard and State Street as just simple custodians of assets and run funds investors the world over can and do buy. I again would have thought this would be quite an attractive proposition, but why make it so when you can construct a conspiracy theory? Including the Americans too, so much the better. Just blah.