Look at the deficit numbers of the Berlusconi years
http://stats.oecd.org/ At least germany has to pay for the reunification. OK northern italy has also to pay for for the mafia in south italy.
and much more important you additionally have a debt of nearly 120% of GDP. That´s double the size of germany even after reunification.
“YEP: now we have a strong government, no communists in parliament, and 4 political groups in either houses of parliament (from more that 20 before!)”
So you do not have a problem with your system and evrything is fine? I know italians who have a complete different view. OK they do not live in italy anymore.
imply put, the Euro currency is “tailor-made” for Germany
So you would prefer to pay the huge huge rates for your 120% GDP debt if you would leave the euro. And that´s just one thing to think about. Do you really want the Lira back? You can thank god that you are a member of the euro zone in my opinion.
“must keep up with german productivity level or perish”
That´s capitalism. You tried it for decades with the devaluation of your currency but the problems just became bigger and bigger... When do the italian politicians and people learn. You can not solve longterm problems with shor term answers. Your currency is not the solution for competitive problems of italian companies because the problems remain while the advantage ( if there really is a advantage) will be gone very soon.
“Anyway, it is funny that you blame Berlusconi for his alleged will to devalue the Euro while your government it is doing just that with the dollar.”
I do not understand that. I believe a lot of people in europe want to have the power to have influence on the dollar but we are not so powerful. Europe is not even a real player in this game. The dollar problems ( if someone thinks that it is a problem) are made in USA and have to be solved there.
We can have a long discussion whether the ECB needs different goals than just to fight inflation and if the FED does a better job looking at the situation we see at the moment.
stefan10 I pretty much agree with your view on the problems of Italy, so I won’t refute you in any way.
The point of discussion here is this: you blame Berlusconi for these problems, and that’s really unfair.
Berlusconi tried to reform Italy with a comprehensive constitutional reform (the first time in 60 years!), but the Italians people silly rejected it via a referendum. So what’s Berlusconi got to do? Abolish referendum and democracy?
As for budget numbers, the year 2005 was awful but numbers came back to normalcy pretty soon.
As for the €, I thank God to be in the Eurozone, I was just pointing out that responsibility for bleak economic performance lies with Italian entrepreneurs and not Berlusconi.
In the end, I think yor acquentainces in Italy are “blame-the -government-first” kinda guys or simply leftist Berlusconi-haters.