#Italy Thread: I love the @WSJ , the last of the great, but this article piqued my interest as NPC.(/) http://on.wsj.com/2YqaDAQ 
@chigrl @RobertMCutler @vtchakarova @nglinsman @amlivemon @jeuasommenulle @Halsrethink @michaeltanchum @shaun_riordan

I will be silent on the political urges of this or that party, or political force (which in Italy, are not superimposed groups): Let's talk spending money !!! And since I am not a technician in that set, just check @DeShindig , he's a far shrewder observer of that(/)

What I am trying to convey here, is what a "broad brush economic agent" here in Italy comes away with when looking at the Kabuki surrounding the intricate #Covid - Politics - #RecoveryFund situation.(/)

"how to spend some €209 billion in European Union coronavirus aid." is a blind acceptance of the timing #nudge, i.e., it's 209 over six years. that works out to 35 bn. EUR.... which couriously, has been the deficit authorization voted recently in Italy, to massive yawns.(/)

One other Nudge intrinsic to the system is this: the plan must fit into the #EU's Procustean bed https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/20201006-recovery-resilience-rrf/ (/)

Now let's say that there is a dispersion in the ability profile between public administrations: if those priorities were the magic bullet, you'd expect some countries to NOT use that because they already have those. That's not the case.(/)

"No wonder Rome has become so chaotic. Italian politicians keep trying to cobble together coalitions of election losers, and such governments are inherently unstable. "
That's true, but then, it's been true most of my adult life. and I am almost 60. (/)

What happens is that while GOVERNMENTS are unstable, the powers that be are for from unstable. Italy is like a ship where someone has welded the Rudder in position, disconnected the Wheel, and then contentedly sat on a deck chair watching people vie for the captain role.(/)

"[politicians] will have to judge among competing policy and social priorities at a time of historic economic strain. This is the stuff of which crises of political legitimacy are made." Well, not only they haven't don that, but collusive Central Banks help them.(/)

So, not only even the most blatant wastes have NOT been touched, but the acute observer will see that NOTHING about that is said in the #EU priorities. That leaves me with a question:(/)

Let's assume rather generously that the Recovery fund doesn't hinder recovery. the resulting debt will have to be repaid by growth, OVER AND ABOVE the numbers the EU thought it could do before COVID. (/)

Since state presence in the economy has grown, and in Europe it never falls (If - 10% GDP did not touch it, what will??), what kind of lunacy will have to possess someone to start a company here?