Napoleoni is a highly influential economist, author, journalist and political commentator. Her session, which flew by, was greeted throughout by a thoughtful 
silence and deep admiration for the intellectual vigour and breadth and depth of knowledge. Her capacity to synthesise a wide range of threads into a coherent framework was quite extraordinary.
Starting from the fall of the Berlin Wall and its introduction of a ‘new’ global virus: democracy, Napoleoni detailed the appearance of a changed world. Her description moved rapidly through the correlation between democracy and slavery; the global spread of rogue economics; the eternal battle between politics and economics; the rise in petrol prices; Islamic finance; the drug trade and the various forms of the counterfeit industry. Her most recent book, Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality, is a very significant work, demanding attention if one wishes to move from the triviality of the 6pm news to a deep understanding of the forces that are shaping, if not redesigning our contemporary world. Napoleoni suggested that the cult film, The Matrix, provides a clear and disturbing picture of the fantasy or illusion that we are currently living in our daily lives. She wishes to empower consumers with knowledge of the world we inhabit; it is then over to us to decide how we will respond.
