Ms Mara Monti
Visiting Fellow
European Institute
Email: m.monti@lse.ac.uk
Biography
Mara is a visiting fellow at the LSE European Institute and a journalist at Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s leading financial/economic newspaper, in Milan. She completed an MSc (Econ) in Politics of the World Economy at LSE and graduated in Economics cum laude at Bologna University with a thesis in International Monetary Policy as part of the CNR Research Institute programme (Centro nazionale delle ricerche). She spent her career in the journalism field, specialising in the financial sector. Prior to joining Il Sole 24 Ore, Mara worked at international news agency Dow Jones in Milan where she served as editor-in-chief, specialising in financial markets with a focus on Italy, and there she followed the debut of the Euro.
Over the last 16 years, she has been part of the financial team at Il Sole 24 Ore. During this period, she tracked the financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, starting in the US with the subprime bubble, followed by the Lehman default and the European sovereign downfall; during the Italian financial crisis, she closely followed the transition from Berlusconi to Mario Monti’s government. Furthermore, she wrote a wide series of articles about financial and banking scandals in domestic and financial fields, such as the Parmalat and the Argentina’s Bond. She has written extensively also about sovereign crisis and bailout in Greece, Ireland and Spain, Ecb monetary policy and non-conventional instruments.
She wrote several books investigating the bankruptcy crisis of the past ten years and probing into financial scandals. She has also published additional books with the editor of Il Sole 24 Ore. During Expo 2015, the international exposition hosted by Milan under the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, she investigated fraud and links with criminal organizations in the food and economy sector. Moreover, she is a radio and TV commentator at Rai, Italy’s public broadcasting service, as well as a public speaker.
Research Interests
Her intention is to spend the fellowship at the LSE European Institute seizing the opportunity to analyse the future of European integration from a financial point of view. The focus will be on how the European countries have changed after the through of the recession, how austerity policies have worked in Southern countries, and the impact of the European Central Bank policy, specifically the Quantitative easing instrument, in the context of the EU/Eurozone economic governance framework and banking system.