If you can picture the Beatles explaining today's economy through their songs' lyrics, I suggest you take a look at Federico Rampini's work.
Italian correspondent in New York for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, world traveler and former correspondent in San Francisco and Beijing, he presented his new book this week at Teatro Vittoria in Rome.
A perfectly mixed musical show and storytelling theatrical piece, Federico took fifteen of the songs that made the Beatles the icon of the sixties generation and interpreted them in the light of our XXI century economy. Each song, marvelously sang by Roberta Giallo, independent singer and songwriter, touched a topic connected with our society and challenges.
From Strawberry Fields Forever to explain the economic logic that pervades our everyday choices and influences culture, art, environment, genetics, medicine and children' education, to Penny Lane and the inner awareness that one day, before becoming globally well-known, the Beatles were like our parents and grandparents during the postwar periods, and like us after the 2008 economic crisis. Suffering and in misery.
"Was Yesterday really better than today?" he asks the audience -- "how were we when there was no globalization, no television, no internet, no Euro?" -- and also "how were we when there was more racism, more inequalities, more sexism?" -- were we really better off?
He takes Revolution to discuss the outcries of the 1968's, the cultural revolution, the Vietnam war and music as a powerful political influencer of a generation. Transposed, he discussed our technological revolution and how we can best use it to create jobs and sustainable growth for today's youth.
Inspired by Eleanor Rigby and You never give me your money among others, Federico gives voices to economists theories, from Joseph Stiglitz to Paul Krugman and Thomas Piketty, highlighting the work of Amartya Sen, who created with the United Nations a new index to measure growth. The Human Development index focuses on different indicators, not economic ones: health, education and standard of living. With these measures in mind, it is also possible to set the foundation for the Post2015 development talks, based more on the planet, on the dignity, the justice and partnerships among people, rather than on pure economic numbers and profits. The major goal is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.
It seems like The Beatles predicted it all. More rationally, they perhaps lived in the same wave of uncertainty, unemployment and financial instability that we are experiencing today. The only difference is the creative euphoria, the cheerfulness, the stimuli, the instinctive flair and the eclecticism of the sixties. The solution -- both agreed by the Beatles and Federico -- is one All You need is Love. Ah, forgot to say, this is also the name of the book, here!
Ciao!