Commentary on why the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is happy his country got the downgrade boot, why Euro austerity can’t work, the twin virtues, Romney’s one of the 15%, web talk, new politics, and the dangers of third party political advertising.

Mario Monti blames Europe and is convinced Italy is up to the job. (ed’s note – turning a negative into a positive like the Leaning Tower of …).

Financial Times --  The wishes and worries of a parenthetic revolutionary
Italy’s technocratic prime minister has no criticism of ratings downgrades – just of persistent policy weakness at the European level.

The more the squeeze the longer the problem.

Financial Times -- Why the super-Marios need help
Will the two Marios – Mario Monti, the new technocratic prime minister of Italy, and Mario Draghi, the still quite new president of the European Central Bank – save the eurozone?

The core conclusion of Canada’s Excellent Future will be that sustainable societies require finding the balance between two human virtues, unequal outcomes (as in greed is good) and equality of opportunity (as in key instruments of social justice as in legal justice, education, health) measured by inter-generational mobility.

Financial Times -- A real market economy ensures that greed is good
Sixty years of division of the Korean peninsula has created two states with very different standards of living in one country.

Related.

Mitt Romney’s 15% effective tax rate.

HT Politics -- Romney says his effective tax rate is 15 percent
Under new pressure to release his tax returns, Mitt Romney on Tuesday acknowledged that he pays an effective tax rate of about 15 percent because so much of his fortune comes from past investments.

Snake oil can be found everywhere, here is the web version. (ed’s note – no ‘brandcuffs’). Thanks to Michael of Montreal.

youtube -- Hardly Working: Start-up Guys

The biggest different between running in the 2006 federal election and for the 2012 Liberal National Policy Chair position was how technology has changed the relationship between the candidates and the voter.

In 2006 a well designed website gave the candidate a great vehicle to ‘push out’ ideas and framing while in 2012 the whole world comes crashing into your face with Twitter and Facebook forcing you to react.

The key defence against this is to have established a narrative that you can constantly turn to but in some cases there is not much you can do.

I had one normally thoughtful Facebook commentator self-righteously claim that my campaign would be seriously damaged if I did not make my way soon to Barrie, Ontario to meet their riding association.

It was obvious that she did not realize I lived in British Columbia.

David Brooks picks up the theme. Politics is different now.

New York Times -- South Carolina Diarist
When I started covering presidential primaries, the best part was getting to know the candidates.

The dangers of third party advertising.

Hill Times -- Third-party advertising spending should be restricted between elections after NCC releases attack ad against Rae

A biting attack ad the country’s largest right-wing lobby group posted against Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae is prompting NDP and Liberal MPs to call for Parliamentary restrictions on money interest groups and political parties are allowed to spend on advertising to attack their opponents between election periods.