EUCOM Economic Analysis - Part I

[Firn]

The entire opposition's position about the fiscal crisis (pro Euro bonds etc) is a miracle to me. The government is fooling around and wasting money, and the opposition proposes to stop the fooling around and step the waste up by an order of magnitude.

The amazing thing is that they're on the other side of the government than is the majority of the population. It's not populism, it's not science-driven, it's not based on old party strategies, it's simply a miracle to me.

They behave as if they were in the EU parliament and their constituents weren't Germans, but South Europeans.

To be honest the SPD, Greens and Linke (well this one not so much) surprise me. Of course there are political games to be played but certainly even among their voters the great majority should be against their latest plans. Likely they think that somehow voters are still to be gained that way, but I have a hard time to believe in it.

The most likely explanation may be rather simple. They are so desperate to score some political points, to attack the government and to sharpen their political profile that they are doing something stupid to do something at all.

(The "Quarto Reich" headline by Berlusconis Giornale is, in my Italian mind at least, a clear attack on Monti, mixed with some dislike on how our Silvio was treated by the foreign, in this case German press. In this case Monti was painted to be a minion of Angela. Maybe she is planning an new Repubblica di Salo' )

In general I would greatly welcome a couple of billion to reduce our public debt. Dear Finns, Germans, Austrian, Dutch & Co please do support our republic in those hard time. We know from our gigantic internal Lira and Euro flow to the mezzogiorno that it can change nothing in the long term and even make it worse but offers are always welcome.

P.S: La Guardia di Finanza has registered an ~80% increase in tax evasion at the Italian-Swiss border

La Guardia di Finanza ha registrato un aumento del 78% rispetto all'estate 2011 di evasioni di capitale. Fino a luglio sono stati sequestrati alle frontiere oltre 41 milioni di euro, 88 kg di oro e 570 kg di argento. Gli stratagemmi per nascondere le banconote o i preziosi sono dei più fantasiosi, dalla biancheria intima alle fodere delle giacche. Un'imprenditrice cinese ha nascosto 100mila euro negli assorbenti ed un italiano cercava di portare 122mila euro in Etiopia infilati nel doppiofondo del trolley. A Ponte Chiasso un cinquantenne varesino, titolare di un negozio di alimentari in viaggio con la figlia, tentava di portare via 50 chili d'oro nel doppiofondo di uno dei sedili dell'auto. Il caso più eclatante è stato registrato a Chiasso sulla frontiera svizzera: l'uomo aveva nascosto nel doppiofondo del pavimento della macchina 100mila euro, dopo il sequestro si è ripresentato nuovamente alla frontiera con 26mila euro nascosti, anche questi sequestrati.

No wonder that the Swiss national bank has to print Franken like crazy to keep the exchange below the red line.