In Italy there has been also a controversial debate about the federalismo and the role of the state and the regions in general which has been fueled by recent scandals like this and the staggering differences in the handling of the public good. It is strange that some regions like la Lombardia are able to work better with far less expenses per capita then others.
An element of this debate has been the complex confronation between the autonomous regions/provinces and other regions with the government trying to tax as much as it can and to safe quite a bit by cutting some expense by reducing for example the number of normal provinces. Now the autonomous regions are also not created alike and have various statuti and range from the in general virtuosi northern ones - Aosta, Trentino-Southtyrol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia - to the southern Sicily and Sardinia.
In generally in the first three have put their greater means and rights to good use, although the public sector of the Vall d'Aosta seems far to big while in the latter, especially Sicily this has not been the case. The current "spending review" has put alot of pressure especially on the wealthier ones to "do their part". This has caused of course anger especially when there has been little regard to hard-won rights at least based in one case on an international treaty. Not su much pacta sunt servanda for Monti in these times of expediency. A tendency which can be seen to a good degree in the whole Eurozone with the orginal Barbarians seemingly being by far more Latin in this sense then the so-called Latins.
Finishing with o tempora o mores might be a little much. So I will just add that due to the decline of the Lega Nord and the relative small size of those autonomous regions the impact on Italy as a whole should be smaller then in Spain.
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P.S: I have slightly reduced the strong investments in stocks due to the very strong gains in the last weeks. European stocks are IMHO still more under-then overvalued but short-term gains of 10-20% are nothing to be sneezed at especially if the economy is still so weak in many areas and the dividends have been mostly payed out. I'm thus both long on them while preparing myself to use another crisis phase to get in. If he latter is not possible I might look at decent bonds. On the other hand I did something which I usually don't do, buying while I'm selling, in this case an ETF on Chinese small caps. After a good deal of information I have very little trust indeed in the level of Chinese accounting or reporting etc but even with a good margin of safety built in they seem to be attractive for the long term, but who knows what the future brings.
P.P.S: For the Italian speakers out there. Love also the comment, which sadly speaks the truth.
Villa abusiva? Ma come si fa: - a costruire una villa (NB non una tettoia per polli: una villa) abusivamente? - come si fa a costruirla di fronte al mare, dove tutti (tutti!) la possono vedere? - come si fa a non accorgersi di camion, gru, operai, allacciamenti alla conrrente ecc? - come si fa a costruirla in un parco? Ma, scusate: in che paese viviamo? Comune, Provincia, regione, Vigili...: nessuno controlla ????
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