PRESS RELEASE
Italian Prof. Antonio Fallico Tells EIR: ‘The American People Deserve Better Leaders’
April 1, 2015 (EIRNS)—Italian professor Antonio Fallico has done business with Russia for 40 years. He has been a teacher in economics at the University of Verona, and is author of several novels. He gave a long interview to Claudio Celani and Flavio Tabanelli for EIR, speaking in his capacity as founder and chairman of the association Conoscere Eurasia, a private non-profit organization with the aim of "developing economic and cultural relations between Italy, the Russian Federation, and the Eurasian Economic Community." In his interview, he addressed the issues of the Ukrainian crisis, Europe, sanctions, the financial crisis, the BRICS, and the New Silk Road, among others. Here are some previews:
On the strategic situation, Professor Fallico is "extremely worried. Unfortunately, the current U.S. Administration, a Democratic administration which is also under pressure from most radical Republicans, has turned it into an ideological battle, twisting the premises. The United States is on the verge." At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S.A. "flexed its muscles too, but after all there was an impulse towards détente, which in the end prevailed. Today, this 25-year-old U.S. revanche is not yet over.... I hope that they come to their senses, because Russia today is not in a condition to stand idle if it feels attacked," and Russia "is a nuclear power with more warheads than the U.S.A ."
"On the new Asian bank you mentioned [AIIB], I am not revealing any secrets if I say that the first country which was asked to participate was Russia. Russia, in agreement with the Chinese, did not want to join immediately, to avoid giving the impression that it is an "anti-everything" organization, which is not so, of course. But it is clear that Russia is in the game; it is clear that they are intensely working with the Chinese for the New Silk Road, together with an infrastructure development like the one you had somehow envisioned.... Sure, the U.S.A. did not like the presence of Great Britain, but the British are very pragmatic: They understand where the wind is blowing and it is clear that they do not want to be swept off, but want to have the wind in their sails.
"In my view, the American people deserve better leaders. ... I was impressed by a speech by Barack Obama in which, in listing the evils in the world, he compared Russia to Ebola. I was aghast at the level of intellectual coarseness."
Briefed on former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley's U.S. Presidential campaigning for the reintroduction of Glass-Steagall banking separation legislation, Prof. Fallico said "I agree." However, he warned, it won"t work if the system is kept in a condition "where economic decisions are separated from political decisions." The belief that "the market is self-determining in a mechanistic way is an eternal foolishness."
