The House of the rising Sun?

Italian and London based legal councilor Alessandro Gaglione speaks out over the Capital economics in 2010, its latest history and its recovery chances

Some people look naturally inclined to what they do for living. When I meet Mr. Alessandro Gaglione in his law firm at the third floor of a building between Piccadilly and Swallow St. I realize why in the last eight years he's become a successful Italian legal counsellor in London and why I have not.

The secret is all in his smile. He doesn't stop smiling when the pouring rain receives us on our way out. He keeps smiling even when he's clearly dripping wet, on the threshold of the building, just a few steps from St. James' Church Market. He smiles when we cross the street within an inch of a cab rushing off at the green lights, well concentrated on his personal storytelling: the old days at the
law school in Italy, his first approach to London and his ordinary life in a semi-detached house in Belgravia.

When we get into Caffe' Nero we have a double shot latte and a double espresso, even if we ordered a cappuccino and an americano to some waitress who, at the moment, is probably looking for another job somewhere else. Notwithstanding his smiling resists and is all for his wife Sandra, who's recently come down with a sheer case of sale-flu, as diagnosed by her Massimo Dutti, Giorgio Armani and Burberry's MD's in their Bond Street 'surgeries'.

Caught in his natural smiling and hearty welcome I almost forget my personal lifetime theory about compulsive grinning as the quickest way to help side-mouth wrinkles shape up on my face. Taking his life easy, even when it doesn't look easy at all, Alessandro Gaglione proves himself as on of the best 'managers of manners' I've ever known, which basically says much about his professional attitude and his skills. Those skills made him one of the most important legal and business negotiators between Italy and UK, as Mr. Gaglione is specifically landed by Italian companies to
approach new markets opportunities in the United Kingdom. And, while having a conversation in a coffee bar with a journalist, to explain why London has lost much of his power in less than a year and a half.

"Ten years ago London what's a sort of Dubai and finding a job was an easy task. - says Mr. Gaglione - The stock market was at its best with the company shares gaining more and more value thanks to a persisting faith in the market itself. It was the year 2000 and London was the Checkpoint Charlie of the free trade for its proximity both to Europe and the U.S., for its technological development and for the continuous cash flowing on the London Stock Exchange. When in 2002/2003 all of a sudden China woke up, becoming all out of the blue an economic power itself also the British industry entered a new era, with the U.K. mills working at a cracking pace to keep
coming with the Far East demand. London had never known such a golden age. Everything changed in 2007 - admits Gaglione - with all the sub-prime loan hysteria from the U.S. and the following slump of the major stock market economies, including London.

From that moment on more and more people came back to their countries after losing their job even if the worst still had to come: the lowest point was reached last September 15 of 2008, when the investment banking of Lehmann
Bros. went bankrupt.".

According to Mr. Gaglione, now it's still pretty tough and the market conditions don't look so good for anybody. "The problem with the majority of British businessmen is that, no matter how openminded they can appear, they're still very conservative and blinded towards other countries investment opportunities. People don't realise how hard it is for someone who's not British to enter this market and prove his skills. It takes time and a great PR spirit to lead clients, who are UK companies, to trust you. But it will be hard still for a while - adds Gaglione - because London needs to find a new identity after the big lost of credibility following the first banking and stock market earthquakes from 2007 and 2008. That's why while Italy, France and Germany and all the continental Europe will slightly recover part of their losses in 2010 and 2011 while it's up to London the highest price to pay".

Despite temporary losing their "animal spirit" and their legacy of the old days of stock capitalism, U.K. businessmen who invested everything in the housing business do still have a way out. "Yes - confirms Mr. Gaglione - because if the West's been beaten up, Russia and Eastern countries are still the leader of the market. Many investors are reporting good incomes from an encouraging number of deals and trades in the housing sector, carried on with Russian millionaires and buyers. And, once
again, Italy's involved, as the houses at issue are all old farmhouses and rural homes in Tuscany, Umbria and Emilia Romagna, in the mid Italy's countryside, and turned into mansions and villas to Russian buyers. Despite the great slacking trend of the housing market, these mansions are way out everyone's league that their value keeps on rising".

Up in The Air January 21 tutorial review "A" marked.

When in ten years Jason Reitman's Up in the Air will be recalled by critics, 2009 will be remembered as the 1929 of the Noughties and Reitman as the man who gave that mess a human touch.


As already seen in his previous movies, 2005's Thank You for Smoking and 2007's neat Juno, the director lays out the same plan: to puzzle the beholder with a load of preconceptions as a gladiator would do tossing a fistful of dust against his opponent in the arena, just to find the best moment to launch his final attack.

Don't make mistakes then and don't fool yourself with the apparent lack of dignity of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) who plays the classic shark in a suit while he cross-flies the U.S. from Omaha to Miami via St. Louis as a "career transition" counselor, in other words an employee sacker, "landed by companies who don't have the guts to lay off their own employees".

Being on the road up to 320 days a year ("which means I spend 45 miserable days at home", he explains) he's become used to the so called Airlife, the business-class commuter life, which includes "cheap sushi" as a meal, cabin seats as a couch, casual acquaintances as friends and loneliness as a way of life.

He actually enjoys it so much he couldn't live otherwise. But Bingham's world and aims will be put in discussion by the young and naive Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), the company beginner who needs her first training on the road, and by Alex Goran, a casual acquaintance meant to become something more than "casual".

Up in the Air represents a vivid puzzle of shattered humanity lost among relationship, jobs, family bonds and careers: it's up to the beholder to find the right placing of every single piece.