September 26, 2008--Massimo Mucchetti, economic editor of Corriere della Sera, compares Paulson's bailout plan to the 1933 Italian bailout plan that gave birth to the creation of Industrial Reconstruction Institute (IRI). The plan was conceived by Mussolini's financial adviser Alberto Beneduce, a protégé of Count Volpi di Misurata, on behalf of the Italian financial oligarchy and "robber barons." It consisted in a bailout of the central bank, which had an exposure of 8 billion lire among three large banks (Banca Commerciale, Banco di Roma and Credito Italiano), when the total monetary base was 13.5 billion. The banks had taken over large industries. The failure of either the banks or the industries would mean the bankruptcy of the central bank.

However, there is a major difference between the Mussolini-Beneduce plan and the Paulson plan, Mucchetti writes. Beneduce's agency, IRI, took over collateral assets for 8 billion lire and gave a 12 billion credit at 4% and over 20 years. "Beneduce purchased depreciated assets, but representing major and tangible activities. Paulson and his successors will have asset-backed securities in their hands which, they confess at the start, they do not even know what they are."