The man who screwed an entire country
It's amazing that the Economist still touts Anglo-Saxon "panaceas" for growth: deregulate, get rid of red tape, focus the economy on services rather than manufacturing.<p>When Germany entered a period of stagnation after the Euro-introduction in 2002, the Economist made exactly the same prescriptions. Look what that ideology has done to the US and the UK: countless jobs in manufacturing have been offshored and growth was simulated through financial "innovations".<p>Personally, I buy lots of organic food products from Italy (e.g. laselva-bio.eu) as well as clothes (e.g. slowear.it), and for a simple reason: They're the best on the market. Therein lies Italy's potential.