Monti in the making, tips on TPP, what's the world coming to? Gamal Nkrumah ponders Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a former venerable European commissioner, is the very nemesis of tycoon-turned-politician Silvio Berlusconi. The roadmap for reform outlined by Berlusconi was so meandering and open-ended that many Italians doubted that Berlusconi would deliver. With Monti they are at least able to discern a horizon that might mark the end of their country's economic and financial crisis. It is hard to imagine Berlusconi playing it so badly. In the eyes of most Italians Berlusconi had revealed his hand and with the country's finances in perennial disarray the stage was set for Berlusconi's unceremonial exit. It became abundantly apparent that he no longer called the shots. Berlusconi was too much to bear. With Mario Monti, the country's new leader, the unpalatable economic policies he's likely to implement may turn out to be as agreeable as the music of the country's venerable composer-conductor Vitorio Monti. The septuagenarian Berlusconi's facial protuberance was being fixed by the world's most sophisticated plastic surgeons even as he ignored the mounting problems of the Italian economy needed fixing, but Italy's great media tycoon was too busy attending to his own glamorous façade. The lazy Mediterranean profligates, and Greeks and especially the Italians have long been accustomed to living beyond their means, according to the Germans, and have been the primary cause of the eurozone crisis. Berlusconi lurched into extravagance, as if intending to confirm the Euro-prejudice. It was an improvidence he could ill afford. The spendthrift Germans cautioned that defaults could cause an economic catastrophe with ski-rocketing Italian bond prices and with economic growth grinding to a halt. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are plotting for a shake-up of the euro-zone's financial map. What exactly they have up their sleeves remains the best kept secret in Brussels. Merkel's unhappiness is easily explained. The German taxpayer is Europe's paymaster. The angst of the German policymakers is understandable. They understand all too well that they cannot push their luck even though they have a whip hand over the Italians and other Mediterranean nations notwithstanding the public tinkle of teacups at brainstorming sessions and summit meetings in Brussels. Italy's competing interest groups vied with each other to demonstrate their debauchery and intemperance. Berlusconi paved the way with his escapades with teenage prostitutes and North African strumpets. The puritanical Chancellor Merkel was outraged, but out of discretion kept her thoughts to herself in public. Behind closed doors, however, she rapped the knuckles of her unabashedly recalcitrant Mediterranean counterparts. They were severely reprimanded for their excesses and irresponsibility. Germany, after all, is Europe's most important creditor nation. So the Italians and Greeks are hoping to beat the rap but the Germans are determined to force them to take the rap. The Germans are posing as the sensible Europeans with the German taxpayer bailing out the Mediterranean prodigal sons embarking on ruinous spending sprees. As the Economist so perceptively pointed out, the Germans not only pull the strings but they also have a monopoly over meaningful semantics. "Significantly, the German word for debt, Schulden, is the plural of Schuld, meaning guilt or fraud." The high-spirited and capricious Italians were celebrating the political demise of Berlusconi. The decision to appoint Mario Monti as Italy's new premier was music to the ears of most Italians. The danger is that Italians will now lurch into prodigality with gusto. All the same the high expectations that came with Monti's assumption of the Italian premiership may not be met. Italy's hope of overcoming its financial crisis and economic woes would depend in large measure on Merkel as much as Monti. The perpetual plunder of resources for the sake of vanity and extravagance has been symbolic of the Mediterranean mood. Merkel is patiently waiting for Monti to make up his mind. The Germans were deeply at odds with Berlusconi. Merkel is hopeful, though, that Monti is a different kettle of fish altogether. And, believe it or not, the eurozone as a whole is less indebted than the United States and its public sector debt is surprisingly lower. So it is the Americans that are the biggest spenders and it is they who must take the hardest rap. Turf boundaries in Italy are surprisingly unclear. But then so are the turf boundaries in most Mediterranean countries. They have long ago conceded that they cannot any longer bear the mantle of empire -- Roman or Byzantine. They seem willing to pull out the stops to create jobs and raise incomes. Yet, the reform of the economy in Mediterranean nations has plainly fallen behind schedule. In Italy, Monti's main task is overseeing the implementation of economic growth-promoting structural reforms. In the heart of the Pacific Ocean, in Honolulu, Hawaii to be precise, a festival of genteel special-pleading was taking place even as the change of guard in Rome was commencing according to schedule. US President Barack Obama ruled out the puerile tradition of heads of state and government sporting Aloha shirts for the cameras. Nobody said it aloud, but the "noodle bowl" of overlapping free-trade agreements in the Asia Pacific region had a strong whiff of snobbery and was decidedly anti-Chinese. "I think the notion that we fear China is mistaken. The notion that we are looking to exclude China is mistaken," Obama reiterated. This matters, simply because the "Cold War-style" containment as a number of commentators so succinctly put it was designed specifically to put China in its place. The Chinese in response turned a blind eye, playing the Prussian role of policing the Pacific's finances. The Japanese and the Americans pressed ahead with the Washington-proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Australia was enthusiastic, Japan less so. China was incensed and refused to play ball, protesting that the time was not quite ripe for such an ambitious project. Beijing plays the role of the unsung hero, or paymaster in the Pacific Rim nations that Berlin plays in Europe. The United States is the "Mediterranean" spendthrift of the Pacific, so to speak, but China is not quite the Germany of the Asia-Pacific zone -- yet. The Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (APEC) is a conglomeration of giants and midgets, economic powerhouses such as the US, China and Japan and some of the least developed countries in the world such as Cambodia and Papua New Guinea. APEC accounts for no less than half of the global economy. Resource-rich Russia is the prankster of APEC. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was impressed with US President Barack Obama in Honolulu. Obama, Lavrov purported, was "someone with a desire not only to listen but to hear others." The question, however, is whether America's Pacific partners are as ready to hear what Washington has to say. The TPP is a curious mix of economies that commenced with four of the tiniest nations of the Pacific Rim -- Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. Today it includes Communist Vietnam and capitalist America. Resource-rich Australia and Malaysia are fully-fledged members and Canada is still wavering. Small wonder then that both APEC and TPP communiqués are notorious for waffling. But can they weasel out of the current global financial predicament? The world pins much hope on APEC and the Pacific Rim nations as a whole. Some of the most promising economies are located in the vast region spanning two continents -- Asia and the Americas. The impetus for propping up the global economy rests in large measure on the prosperity of the Pacific Rim nations. The future success of TPP depends on whether Japan joins or not. The irony is that Japan's share of US trade at 5.6 per cent exceeds the combined TPP nations' share of trade with America which stands at five per cent. The smaller member-states of the TPP are keen to entice the Japanese to join, but Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was noncommittal. So it is puzzling why Washington is so keen on TPP when its major trading partners in the region are at best lukewarm as in the case of Japan or outright suspicious as regards to the Chinese. Whatever the outcome of a possible TPP enlargement what matters is that APEC, unlike the eurozone, is capable of revitalising the global economy. Interestingly in this regard, Obama appeared more concerned about security matters. He discussed with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US Secretary of defense Leon Panetta yet another "new security pact" whatever that means. America and Australia are close political associates and critically important trading partners. Some 250 US marines will be deployed in northern Australia to police the Southeast Asian region. A full force of 2,500 US military personnel will be dispatched to Australia in the next couple of years. "It allows us to meet the demands of partners in the region that want to feel that they are getting the training and that we have the presence that's necessary to maintain the security architecture in the region," Obama told his hosts in Australia. Military matters, obviously took precedence over economic concerns. The Chinese were not amused. Few outside Europe give two hoots as to who governs Greece, George Papandreou or Lucas Papademos, but whether Beijing or Berlin bails-out Greece -- that is another matter. As US Secretary of State declared in the current issue of Foreign Policy it is Asia that matters. "The future of politics will be decided in Asia ê and the US will be at the centre of the action." Wishful thinking on the part of Clinton, I presume. Nevertheless all eyes will be focussed on the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bali on 17-18 November, to be immediately succeeded by the East Asia Summit, founded six years ago, and that is attended by economic powerhouses -- China, India, Japan and the US. Obama's nine-day tour of Asia only accentuates the relative rise of Asia vis--vis the decline, or demise of Europe. As Beppe Severgnini stated recently in the Financial Times, "La commedia e finita, the farce is over." Europe is passé, Asia is the future.
