10908 Italians doubt leader's optimism

Interesting piece on page 13 of the Herald Tribune yesterday (Friday 7 November 2008) but despite long search, I can't find it on line to include the link.
However, here it is summarised plus (at the end), the statistic that really caught my eye.
Berlusconi endlessly optimistic about Italy's economy but Italians growing sceptical. He's telling Italians to hold on to their shares despite volatile markets and dire economic predictions. He said recently Italy is well positiioned to ride out the global crisis but even in second quarter of this year, number of job seekers in Italy was 20% higher than a year ago, economy shrinking, Italian industry gloomy, manufacturing output down to lowest level in 11 years.
To quote the IHT, some Italians see Berlusconi as acting "like a dutiful cheerleader, trying to lift the morale of the losing team". Berlusconi himself says, "I have often been accused of being a salesman, he said but I think I am doing my duty as prime minister, spreading not panic but calm and keeping a cool head for everyone."
One of his strongest arguments is that Italy's traditionally conservative banking system took on less risk than banks in the US and elsewhere in Europe and, according to the Bank of Italy, [B][I]Italian family debt is equivalent to 34% of gross domestic product, about half the average in the euro zone and a third of the level in Britain.[/I][/B]
Somehow that doesn't surprise me. V

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/08/2008 - 02:28

While we were in Italy, Caritas released its 2008 report regarding poverty coinciding with the International Day for Poverty Awareness, the 17th of October. According to the report, about 7,500,000 people in Italy live below poverty levels and other publications even feel that the figure is a bit low. The current crisis is hitting people very hard and Berlusconi is just putting on a show to hide reality. Roman emperors used to give the people bread and circus to keep them happy, but Berlusconi has reduced the offer to circus only.....
If you want to have a look at the report released by Caritas, have a look at: [url=http://blog.caritas.org/]Caritas Internationalis[/url]
there is an English Translation.
You can also find plenty of information on this terrible matter if you do a search through [url=http://www.google.it]Google[/url] in Italian using "CARITAS 2008"
Not very cheerful reading, I must say......

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/08/2008 - 04:59

I personally get the feeling that he's up to his old tricks - doing and saying [I]anything[/I] necessary to protect his own position and his dream of the 'Presidential Prize'.

The sad fact is that he so often manages to totally hoodwink a large sector of the Italian public. For them he can do no wrong, he is seen as the second Messiah at most, and at least as the second Duce. The big problem for Italy is that [U]HE believes it too. [/U]

He has found over the years that, regardless of what some (many) might say, his money 'does talk' - it almost gives him 'carte blanche' to make and break laws to suit his own ends/agenda's. But alas, as long as this man can carry sufficient votes (only just though) to keep him at the helm, he will continue to lie to the people in order to show what 'a great fellow' he is!.

But I wonder now how he will be received in the halls of the White House come January? It's one thing to 'brown nose' another far right head of state who has a similar number (lack) of brain cells as yourself, and quite another to try and do the same to an erudite democratic leader who believes in providing equal rights and privileges for all. Socialism and fascism never did make good bedfellows - they're not likely to do so in this case either! We can only await the spectacle of Sig. Berlusconi getting his 'come-uppance' post January 2009!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/09/2008 - 11:17

[quote=Violetta;102261].....One of his strongest arguments is that Italy's traditionally conservative banking system took on less risk than banks in the US and elsewhere in Europe ....[/quote]

But not 'less enough'?

[url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5114434.ece]Italy next to bail out banks - Times Online[/url]