qui non dobbiamo parlare di politica ma l'ipotesi di Berlusconi all'interim dell'economia mi
mette un po' paura
Italia, Tremonti come Berlusconi non è indispensabile - FT | Mercati | Bond | Reuters
August 1, 2011 9:52 pm (Financial Times)
Renting in Rome
Until a few weeks ago Giulio Tremonti, Italy’s finance minister, was paying one of his former government advisers €1,000 a week in cash for the use of a Rome apartment. Mr Tremonti contends that this arrangement did not break the law. No state prosecutor or police official has contradicted him. It was nevertheless a wise move on Mr Tremonti’s part to acknowledge last week that he had “made mistakes” in the affair.
Quite why Mr Tremonti felt it necessary to make his rental payments in cash, rather than by bank transfer or by cheque, remains something of a mystery. He is a highly experienced politician who is in his fourth stint as finance minister since 1994. It is inconceivable that he is unaware of the role that cash payments play in perpetuating the chronic Italian disease of tax evasion.
Mr Tremonti can hardly be blamed for the fact that Marco Milanese, his former assistant, has recently come under investigation for corruption. But Mr Tremonti’s cash payments set a poor example to Italian society.
Only last month the centre-right government rushed a €48bn emergency budget through parliament, which included a variety of hefty tax increases. Italians are entitled to expect better behaviour from a finance minister who imposes higher taxes on them.
Whether Mr Tremonti should resign because of the Milanese affair is a different matter. Over the past 18 months financial markets have come to place a great deal of trust in Mr Tremonti’s management of Italy’s public finances. The budget deficit is relatively low and the banking sector has avoided a crisis. Mr Tremonti is understandably seen as the safest pair of hands in a government led by Silvio Berlusconi, the most mercurial of prime ministers, who is presently fighting charges that range from tax fraud to sex with an under-age prostitute.
In point of fact, Mr Tremonti’s policymaking record is by no means spotless. He and Mr Berlusconi have too often shied away from the unpopular structural reforms required to improve Italian productivity, competitiveness and economic growth. These reforms are all the more necessary now that domestic demand is likely to be dampened by the tax increases as well as by rising government bond yields.
Given the persistent tensions in Europe’s sovereign debt markets, this would not be a good time for Italy to dump its finance minister. But like Mr Berlusconi himself, Mr Tremonti is not indispensable.
, partivano con uno dei debiti pubblici più bassi d'Europa e, come dici tu, sono messi tanto quanto... 
