I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it, but the richest man in Italy is now seriously courting the Nobel Peace Prize. On his website he promotes himself as an economic humanist inspired by Milton Friedman and Muhamud Yunus. Of course, he has recently been embroiled in a spiraling sex scandal which may follow him to the grave. Last week he was rebuffed by Michelle Obama, causing enormous guffaws among his detractors.

Italy’s current political tragedy is that the left has nobody better to offer than this man.