TUTTI I COMPAGNI DI MERENDE DI MARIO DRAGHI

 

Current Members

Leadership

Photo

Jacob A. Frenkel

Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Group of Thirty

Former Governor, Bank of Israel

Former Chairman, JPMorgan Chase International

Photo

Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Chairman, Group of Thirty

Senior Minister, Singapore

Chairman, Monetary Authority of Singapore

Photo

Jean-Claude Trichet

Honorary Chairman, Group of Thirty

Former President, European Central Bank

Current Members

Photo

Daron Acemoglu

Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics

Photo

Mark Carney

UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance

Former Governor, Bank of England

Photo

Agustín Carstens

General Manager, Bank for International Settlements

Former Governor, Banco de México

Photo

Jaime Caruana

Former General Manager, Bank for International Settlements

Former Governor, Banco de Espana

Photo

William C. Dudley

Senior Research Scholar, Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University

Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Photo

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.

Steven A. Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations

Former President and CEO, TIAA

Photo

Arminio Fraga

Founding Partner, Gavea Investimentos

Former Governor, Banco Central do Brasil

Photo

Jason Furman

Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University

Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers

Photo

Gita Gopinath

Economic Counsellor and Director of Research, International Monetary Fund

John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics, Harvard University

Photo

Gerd Häusler

Member of the Supervisory Board, Munich Reinsurance

Former Chairman and CEO, Bayerisch Landesbank

Photo

Gail Kelly

Senior Global Advisor, UBS Group AG

Former CEO and Managing Director, Westpac Banking Corporation

Photo

Klaas Knot

President, De Nederlandsche Bank

Vice Chair, Financial Stability Board

Photo

Paul Krugman

Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center, CUNY

Photo

Christian Noyer

Honorary Governor, Banque de France

Former Chairman, Bank for International Settlements

Photo

Raghuram G. Rajan

Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, Chicago Booth School of Business

Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India

Photo

Maria Ramos

Co-Chair, UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of Sustainable Development Goals

Former Chief Executive Officer, Absa Group

Photo

Carmen Reinhart

Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank Group

Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System, Harvard Kennedy School

Photo

Hélène Rey

Lord Bagri Professor of Economics, London Business School

Photo

Kenneth Rogoff

Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Former Chief Economist, International Monetary Fund

Photo

Lawrence Summers

Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University

Former US Treasury Secretary

Photo

Tidjane Thiam

African Union Special Envoy for COVID-19

Executive Chairman, Freedom Acquisition I Corporation

Photo

Adair Turner

Senior Fellow, Institute for New Economic Thinking

Former Chairman, Financial Services Authority

Photo

Kevin Warsh

Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Lecturer, Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Photo

Axel A. Weber

Chairman, UBS Group and Chairman, Institute of International Finance (IIF)

Former President, Deutsche Bundesbank

Photo

John C. Williams

President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Photo

Yi Gang

Governor, People's Bank of China

Photo

Ernesto Zedillo

Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University

Former President of Mexico

Senior Members

Photo

Leszek Balcerowicz

Professor, Warsaw School of Economics

Former Governor, National Bank of Poland

Photo

Domingo Cavallo

Chairman and CEO, DFC Associates, LLC

Former Minister of Economy, Argentina

Photo

Mario Draghi

Prime Minister, Italy

Former President, European Central Bank

Photo

Mervyn King

Member, House of Lords

Former Governor, Bank of England

Photo

Masaaki Shirakawa

Distinguished Guest Professor, Aoyama-Gakuin University

Former Governor, Bank of Japan

Photo

Janet Yellen

US Treasury Secretary

Former Chair, Federal Reserve System

Photo

Zhou Xiaochuan

President, China Society for Finance and Banking

Former Governor, People's Bank of China

Emeritus Members

Photo

Abdlatif Al-Hamad

Former Chairman, Arab Fund for Economic Development

Former Minister of Finance and Planning, Kuwait

Photo

Geoffrey L. Bell

Founder, Group of Thirty

President, Geoffrey Bell and Associates

Photo

E. Gerald Corrigan

Former Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Photo

Guillermo de la Dehesa

Chairman of the International Advisory Board, IE Business School

Chairman, Aviva Grupo Corporativo

Photo

Richard A. Debs

Former President, Morgan Stanley International

Former COO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Photo

Gerhard Fels

Former Director, Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft

Former Member, UN Committee for Development Planning

Photo

Stanley Fischer

Senior Adviser, BlackRock

Former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Photo

Jacob A. Frenkel

Former Governor, Bank of Israel

Former Chairman, JPMorgan Chase International

Photo

Toyoo Gyohten

Honorary Advisor, Institute for International Monetary Affairs

Former Chairman, Bank of Tokyo

Photo

John Heimann

Senior Advisor, Financial Stability Institute

Former Comptroller of the Currency, United States

Photo

Haruhiko Kuroda

Governor, Bank of Japan

Former President, Asian Development Bank

Photo

William R. Rhodes

President and CEO, William R. Rhodes Global Advisors

Former Chairman and CEO, Citibank

Photo

Jean-Claude Trichet

Former President, European Central Bank

Former Governor, Banque de France

Photo

David Walker

Former Chairman, Winton

Former Chairman, Barclays

Photo

Marina v N. Whitman

Professor Emerita, University of Michigan

Former Member, Council of Economic Advisors

Photo

Yutaka Yamaguchi

Former Deputy Governor, Bank of Japan

Former Chairman, Euro Currency Standing Commission

Bye bye Europe, bye bye ...

 

I fear that the EU’s new dystopian ‘digital identity wallet’ will be used to control and track people in the way China does

I fear that the EU’s new dystopian ‘digital identity wallet’ will be used to control and track people in the way China does
There are now two types of people: Loyalists, who meekly obey all the new rules being brought in under the cover of Covid, and Resisters, who don’t. Our freedom rests on more people realising the truth of what is happening.

The European Union’s executive commission has just announced the introduction of a pan-EU digital identification that citizens of member states can use across the entire bloc that will store important identification and official documents, like a driver’s license, prescriptions, diplomas, and presumably Covid-19 test and vaccination certificates. It will also be linked to an e-wallet, which large online platforms will be required to accept. 

It’s easy enough to imagine how this can get out of hand. At first, it’s a soft sell, and we’re told that there’s no pressure to participate in what is essentially a government-created digital dragnet. But then the noose tightens as people start to realize how inconvenient life can quickly become if you aren’t connected to the Matrix. We’ve seen the same phenomenon recently with vaccinations – which are still technically optional, but to which many are now simply succumbing if only to avoid the hassles and hoop-jumping that risk becoming the norm for those who aren’t vaccinated and want to travel and live like they did pre-Covid.

Is there any doubt that governments – including supranational ones like the EU – have no interest in simply allowing people to get back to their normal lives? They’re treating the crisis like an opportunity to foist onto citizens whatever weird dystopian fever dreams have been lurking in the back of their warped minds. 

Sure, it’s entirely possible that the EU wants to just make our lives easier by creating their own platform that allows us to upload everything related to our identity, along with our money, which can then feasibly be cross-referenced with many of our daily activities as we merrily scan our way through life. But you’d have to be pretty naïve to believe that they’d bother doing anything that didn’t have some kind of major payback for them.

It’s hard not to think of the similarities with China’s social credit system, first introduced in 2014 and consisting of a similar digital ID and e-wallet, that has evolved to control and deny access to everything from travel, high-speed internet and university access for individuals based on “violations” like playing too many video games, making posts that the government doesn’t like on social media, wasting money on things that the government considers junk, or generally not behaving in a government-approved way in your daily life.

What makes anyone think that this kind of digital panopticon isn’t lurking at the end of the EU’s slippery slope – particularly when this is exactly how the phenomenon started in China? Just consider how much freedom that many governments were able to suppress with nearly zero popular resistance or even critical thought as a result of playing on people’s fear. 

Ever since governments’ initial “two weeks to flatten the curve”, they’ve been able to convince some people to stay at home for months, avoid normal socialization, wear mask-muzzles outdoors and rub hydroalcoholic gel on their hands until they’re raw, rush home en masse for curfews that start before the workday even ends, close shops and fitness facilities, and rush to get vaccinated against a virus with an infinitesimal mortality rate – and then cry from relief about it like brainwashed members of a fear-porn cult.

This is going to go one of two ways now. Young people who risked virtually nothing health-wise and everything related to their future, have just witnessed a period of intense government intervention akin to a state-run wartime operation – including the psychological operations. And just as with war, people have chosen their side and aren’t likely to budge. There are those who have become increasingly dependent on government to think for them, to save them, to protect them, and to dictate every facet of their lives under the pretext of being the all-knowing gurus whose advice absolutely must be followed. And anyone who doesn’t is a narcissistic dirtbag who doesn’t care about his fellow man. 

On the other side of the spectrum are those who think the people described above are virtue-signaling, brainless sheep who are stupid enough to actually believe government officials and their so-called expert advisors who have said everything and its opposite since the start of the pandemic. They’re skeptical about the value of restrictions and reject the lack of proportionality of the extreme liberticidal measures being taken. And now they see some governments attempting to introduce long-term tracking and tracing measures that could long outlive the pandemic and take on a life of their own.

Each of these two factions of people – let’s call them the Government Loyalists and the Resisters – are going to represent an increasing number of citizens in countries where the Covid crisis and its legacy drags on. They’re going to clash everywhere from the workplace to the public square, as each grows more intolerant of the other. And until everyone unites in demanding that everything return to pre-pandemic normal by turning their focus to governments set on exploiting this crisis, expect the radicalization on both sides to continue.

Lettera aperta al signor Luigi di Maio, deputato del Popolo Italiano

ZZZ, 04.07.2020 C.A. deputato Luigi di Maio sia nella sua funzione di deputato sia nella sua funzione di ministro degli esteri ...