Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Gianni Agnelli


Gianni Agnelli (1921, 2003), the charismatic Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of FIAT. Also known as L'Avvocato.

When he died, 500,000 people came to view his casket in Turin. His son committed suicide 3 years prior at the age of 46; he jumped from a 100 meter bridge to prove his courage to a father who never believed in his son’s courage.


I found the documentary interesting because the social unrest (or rather, national terrorism) of the 1970s seems to be traceable back to declining economic growth in Italy.

L’Avvocato’s financial success must have been due, to a good extent, to Italy’s phenomenal economic growth in the 25 years following the 2nd World War. (However, this is not to dismiss L'Avvocato's skills and talents, plus his central role and influence in Italy's economy.)

Here's a chart of Italy's annual GDP growth rate. (I'm guessing that this would be a nominal growth rate as opposed to real. In other words, it includes inflation.) Italy's GDP growth rate has been on a steady decline since 1950.




References

  1. The Economic Miraclehttps://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/The-economic-miracle
  2. 150 years of the Italian economy, 1861–2010https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13545710903465507
  3. The Italian Economic Crises of the 1970's - Federal Reserve Bank, https://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/1978/120/ifdp120.pdf
  4. Gianni Agnelli, Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianni_Agnelli 


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