Pension Reform is first on everybodies mind,they agree as long as it is not their pension that is reformed,The right to fire employies is next,they agree as long as they are not the ones to be fired,Fiat in deep dog doo and wants desperately to be brought out by GM pdq,if it is not to be bailed out by the italian gov.Re america, ideological pacifism leads many to be anti Bush,but the american dream and the rich american uncle rules their hearts.
Terrorism is a funny subject in italy;the plo,iranian revolutionaries,and home grow red brigade have all enjoied a certain institutionalized protection here.Remember when Abdul Nadal(?) was brought to Signorella Air Base by americans after the Achilli Laura boat nap (circa 1985),and then was forsed to be released by the Craxi Gov.do not expect italians to be decisive on the issue.
Immigration is a sensitive subject here too:Italian agriculture and construction cant do with out cheap labor,but the very idea of accepting it is distasteful,
There is an old joke about an italian mother complaining about her sons livelyhood being taken away by the arrival of northafrican heroin dealers.
By the way, it looks like The Italian Alpine Brigade is heading for afghanastan.Have they been offered a piece of the central asian oil and gas pie?On the radio they are talking about Russia ok ing action in Iraq in return for their own piece of Iraqi oil pie.
The Manstrict Stability pact is looking unstable with across the union (with the exception of Ireland) buget deficits.A new agreement allowing greater deficits looks necessary.Other wise The EU could unravel,Germany is in the forefront in needing room to finance pensions with higher gov borrowing.Something called "generational imbalence" is going to become topical,that is the prospect of our grandchildren paying for our benefits and not loving us for it,cyanide 70th birthday cake anyone?.To balence bugets with out cutting benefits would require an across the board tax hike of 10% or higher growth than could be realisticly expected.Immigration is part of this equation in that europe needs new taxpaying blood.But then nobody wants it.
Look for general strikes(more)against pension reform and easier firerings,and more gains for nationalist parties,and more calls for an easier monetary policy.
Maybe there will be european aquiecence to intervention in iraq in return for a piece of the pie,
PS a local friend has a cousin who is an engineer.He is busy on a project enlarging Camp Darby Air Force Base near Pisa.Italy is about the most stratigic place avaliable to the US in the west for action and logistics in the middle east.Greece cant be counted on and Turkey may be reluctant being muslim.Italy Prime Minister Burlusconi is a strong Bush supporter.
Pss the stock market here is down about 40% ,personal debt is low,savings high.There is a large "black" economy which makes it difficult to have reliable economic statistics on .
Sorry for the slap dash nature of this post but I am trying to sort out boiler problems while being momdad to 2 small girls at the same time. |
