Maurizio Ricci
Italian journalist Maurizio Ricci (b. 1946) is a senior staffer at La Repubblica, specialising in energy, employment and political issues. He has published several books, including Il lungo autunno freddo (The Long Cold Autumn) on the collapse of the Italian political system after the scandals in the 1990s.
Although Italy’s economic indicators are better than other countries', hedge funds have chosen to attack it because of the country’s huge public debt andThe last battleground stagnant growth. The fall of the eurozone’s third largest economy would deal a fatal blow to the common currency while providing enormous profit opportunities to speculators. 
As the West stews in stagnation, emerging economies are on the rise – and driving prices of raw materials and fuel to perilous highs. As they now set the pace of the global economy, Europe, stymied by cutbacks and unemployment, is in for hard times ahead. 
According to a recent OECD study, Italy ranks right after the UK as the wealthy nation in which a father’s income and educational attainments most heavily determine his sons’ success. And this dearth of social mobility is a drag on economic growth, notes the OECD.