Berlusconi Background
Introduction
Silvio Berlusconi was born in 1936 on September 29th in Milan, Italy. He is a graduate of university Statale in Milan where he pursued law and graduated in 1961 with a thesis on the legal aspects of advertising. After completing the university, Berlusconi has been aggressive in life and has been involved in a lot of activities in Italy. In collaboration with some singers, he composed AC Milan’s anthem. He also wrote two Neapolitan song albums in collaboration with Mariano Apicella; one in 2003 and the other one in 2006.
Business career
According to Wikipedia.com, Berlusconi built his business career beginning in the 1960s around which he wanted to develop a garden estate called Milano 2 of about 10,500 apartments which was later set up in Segrate on the Milano suburbs. He ventured into the media world in 1973 and set up a small cable television company called Tele Milano. This was meant to service the garden estate he set up at segregate. The station was later relocated in 1977 to central Milano after acquiring airwaves. The following year, finest media group was formed and Berlusconi joined an illegal group called propaganda 2. Through unknown funding, Finivest made 113 billion lire. The investigation about the source of funds failed despite the effort by the state attorneys. Fininvest later became a full national TV channel in 1990. According to Wikipedia.com, this pace was facilitated by Berlusconi’s close relationship with the Italian big guns of that period like the Italian socialist party secretary-general Bettino and the Italian prime minister of that time. Berlusconi sold part of his media business in 1995to kirch, a German media group. He later in 1999 partnered with kirch to form epsilon media group.
Wealth
Berlusconi, according to BBC news (13th dec., 2009) as stated by Forbes magazine, is the third richest person in Italy. His wealth as at 2008 was $9.4 billion US dollars worth of personal assets. Some of his assets include the AC Milan football club in Italy; he is the major shareholder of Finivest, the main shareholder of Mediaset public company just to mention a few.
Political career
Berlusconi declared his interest to join politics early 1994. He started his political party called Forza Italia targeting to defeat communists. He did massive campaign through his mediaset company and he won the elections. His party had 21% popular votes and emerged the best among single parties. The mystery behind his win was his promise to create 1 million more jobs in Italy. He was appointed the prime minister the same year.
As stated in Wikipedia.com, about seven months later he lost his position and his government failed on allegations of tax fraud. He lost the 2006 elections. He took a break, probably to strategize his next political move. In 2001, he again won the elections. He had many accusations related to embezzlements, tax frauds among others he therefore lost 2006 elections. In 2008, Two years later, he won his 3rd term as the Italian prime minister. He is currently the prime minister of Italy; a very rich and influential. Its odds on that Berlusconi has contributed a lot to the growth of the Italian economy through his entrepreneurial skills.
Berlusconi economic philosophy
Berlusconi economic philosophy is depicted in his campaign in his political life. We also learn a lot from his entrepreneurial skills. As a businessman, he has contributed a lot to the growth of the Italian economy despite many criticisms. His media company has contributed greatly to the growth of the Italian employment sector.
According to eironline (1) his greatest economic philosophy could be tracked from his new centre light government that was sworn-in in 2001. During his campaign that led to the winning of 2001 elections, Berlusconi borrowed a lot of ideas from the American politics. For instance he contracted with the Italians that should he be elected, he will reduce taxes. He also promised to create one million more jobs to for the Italians. This made him win confidence with a lot of people. Berlusconi also committed himself to raise the minimum pensions, come up with lucrative public works projects to benefit the general public. He also promised that under his new centre light government, the anticrime measures will be changed. He promised to fulfil these five economic philosophies within the five year term of his government (eironline 1 ). He declared on television that he will not run again should he not deliver on these promises as appropriate. This was also publicised through the major Italian newspaper and through mailing all families in the country
According to EVRO intelligence (1), when his government came to power in the same year 2001, Berlusconi and his allies detailed the economic policies to be effected within the five years. This was meant for economy revitalization following the 2001 global recession. The first one was the fiscal policy where the government resolved to reduce public spending. The other one was to boost the businesses through efferent incentives, then deregulation of labour market to increase flexibility. The document comprising of these policies was approved by the government lead by the Prime Minister Berlusconi. This was the main document guiding the government economic policies.
Berlusconi resolved to achieve country’s economic growth via expansionary policies in three key areas including the welfare system, fiscal policies and the labour market policies. Structural changes were to be done on these areas as appropriate.
According to eironline (1) in the labour market, laws were proposed to be set to enable workers to have permanent contracts. This was aimed to make the workers more productive by making them have a sense of belonging in their jobs. Deregulating the labour markets would increase flexibility and also boost employment sector. The reduction of tax or offering tax relief was also done to try to regulate works done secretly to evade tax; commonly known as clandestine work. There was also introduction of social security contributions meant to make workers save for their future days.
Berlusconi also put some measures in place to encourage investments. He resolved not to tax reinvested profits. He had tried the same in his 1994 government but now in a wider scope including the self employed besides the companies. The prime minister also set aside one hundred thousand billion ITL for public work investment as he had promised in his campaign. This was allocated between private and state owned companies.
According to Spiritus-temporis.com (1) the other economic view of Berlusconi is to reduce red tapes in the economy to reduce the administrative process that firms are required to go through in implementing their policies. This would facilitate the growth of the companies and save them some administration costs and other costs related to the accounting procedures.
The other policy was to remove tax due from inheritance. This was quite profitable to businesses. The productive sector of the Italian economy comprise of large number of family firms. This means that businesses will save a lot of money through this tax reduction.
According to eironline (1), regarding the fiscal policies, the government under Berlusconi had two gals to achieve on the budgetary policy. He resolved to cut taxes and the public debt through reducing public spending. The overall tax burden was scheduled to reduce by one percent per year during the period running from 2002 through 2006. Public debt was also reduced through privatisation of some public sectors. Privatisation was to provide the government with funds to finance the budget and also reduce the cost of running these sectors.
According to REVRO intelligence (1), concerning the welfare of the people, Berlusconi had promised to raise the minimum pension. This was effected in 2002 and was to continue onward. The minimum pension went up to 1million ITL monthly. This improved the welfare of the people and the overall economy. The welfare was improved also by making the labour market more flexible by allowing the workers to choose when to retire. The pension contribution was extended to all workers to make them reap the benefits. The workers were also allowed to choose whether to get the pension fund as lump sum or in bits.
Most of the Berlusconi economic philosophies are those adopted from Guilio Tremonti, a professor of economics and finance who had proposed the economic way forward for Italy after the 2001 recession. Berlusconi’s cabinet was tested on tese proposals they adopted.
Conclusion
Berlusconi as a politician and an entrepreneur has contributed greatly to the economy of Italy. His economic philosophies were profitable to the economy and were all meant to revitalize the economy following the 2001 global recession. His wealth is important to the economy of Italy. He is more than just a politician.
Works cited
BBC News. Profile: Silvio Berlusconi. 2009. Web.
Eironline: Social partners react to new government’s economic policy, 2010. Web.
REVRO intelligence 2008: Draghi criticises Berlusconi’s economic policy. Web.
Spiritus-temporis.com. Silvio Berlusconi policies. 2005. Web.