Biography of Lorenzo Bini Smaghi

November 29, 1956 Lorenzo Bini Smaghi was born on 29 November 1956 in Florence, a descendant of a noble family of origins of Tuscany and Umbria (Florence in 1853 the Baker left his surname bequeathed to Smaghi of Città della Pieve and Montepulciano), son of Maria Carla Mazzei and Bino Bini Smaghi. In 1974 he graduated from the French Lycée in Brussels, Belgium, before enrolling at the Catholic University of Leuven-always in Belgium-where he graduated in Economics in 1978. Two years later, at the University of Southern California in the United States, obtained an m.a. in economics, which follows shortly after graduating in political science at the University of Bologna.

The first collaborations: the Bank of Italy

In 1983 Bini Smaghi begins to cooperate with the Bank of Italy as an economist in the field of International Research Department; leave that position five years later, in 1988, when he obtained a PhD from the University of Chicago and is chosen to lead the Italian Foreign Exchange Office and international trade Bank of Italy studies service. In 1998, writes "the euro" to the mill, he married Veronica Daly, Economist (which will give him two sons, course and Laudomia), and gets a prestigious role at the Ministry of economy and finance, becoming Director General for international financial relations; in the same year, he also cooperates with theEuropean Monetary Institute leading the Division analysis and planning.

The years 2000

In 2000 he writes for Il Mulino "Who saves us from the next financial crisis", while for the British publisher Macmillan gives published "Open issues in European Central Banking". In 2005 Mr Bini Smaghi leaves the direction of international financial relations and joined the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, while starting from the following year's President of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. In 2008, for Rizzoli writes "the paradox of the euro. Luci e ombre dieci anni dopo ", and a few months after" the Euro "went out to the mill reaches the Fourth Edition.

The question of requiring resignation

In June 2011, then President of the Council Silvio Berlusconi publicly announces that the Government has formally requested to Bini Smaghi to resign from the Ecb Council, following the appointment of Mario Draghi as President of the Institute: an event that had led to two Italian members of the Steering Committee (composed in total six persons) and reduced to zero (with the departure of Jean-Claude Trichet) the French members. In particular, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had agreed to the appointment of dragons for the post-Trichet right provided that the board would let a Frenchman. Bini Smaghi, however, refuses to resign, arguing the ECB's independence from political power and bringing in support of its argument the fact that members of the Institute are chosen by the Member States collectively and not representing a specific State. For his part, Bini Smaghi also enjoys the opinion provided by the Legal Department of the ECB that the resignation of a Director may be resigned only to a voluntary act, and also netted from its location in a position consistent with his resume and his rank. You open a diplomatic issue between Italy and France, with Bini Smaghi that promises to Sarkozy not to retire immediately, but at the end of the year. To convince the Tuscan economist to leave the armchair, Berlusconi proposes to him to become President of the competition authority, charge due in the following April, and afterwards assures him its support in the race for the Presidency of the European Investment Bank. Always in those delicate weeks, becomes the name of Lorenzo Bini Smaghi also as a possible successor to Giulio Tremonti at the head of the Ministry of economy. The issue drags on for several months, until-in November 2011-the Berlusconi Government no longer has a majority in Parliament and falls: in a matter of days, the Economist fiorentino Announces eventually resigned through the website of the European Central Bank.

The years 2010

In January of 2012 Bini Smaghi be appointed visiting scholar at Harvard; at the same time, is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Affairs. In October 2012 is elected President of Snam (national company Pipelines, whose main shareholders are Cdp Reti Srl and Eni), while from October 2013 serves on the Board of Directors of Morgan Stanley International as an independent member. After publishing "austerity" Die for the mill, in 2014 gives prints-always for the same Publisher-33 "where the truth lies on Europe".

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