What You Need to Know about Italy’s Jobs Act
The Senate in Rome is debating Premier Renzi’s Jobs Act. There is some doubt about whether the reform will pass in its present form or if some modification will be made. The Jobs Act is a central platform of Renzi’s Italy reform program that also includes, judicial, electoral, bureaucratic and constitutional reforms. There is universal agreement […]
Is Italy Committing Economic Suicide?
The title of this post may sound a little extreme and probably should be Is Italy Being Suicided?, but seeing as suicide is not a verb in English, I’ve erred towards grammatical correctness. If, however, I had been writing this post in Italian, then ‘suicided’ would be a valid word. In Italian, the implication behind ‘suicided’ is […]
Is It Really 100% Made in Italy? Ferraris Are Not.
From time to time, the thorny Made in Italy question flares up in Italy. The topic has once more occupied Italian hearts and minds owing to a New York Times graphic which claimed that extra virgin Italy was not so much made as adulterated in Italy. The truth is, while just about anything and everything […]
Is Mario Monti Good For Italy? Not really.
While this site suffers from a bout of technological hiccups, I suggest you go off to read a fascinating article on why Mario Monti and his technocrats failed and why the approach of another, less distinguished but more expert economist Ecuador’s Rafael Correa would probably have sorted out Italy’s ills and keep austerity at bay. […]
Super-Commission to Combat Corruption in Italy
At long last it seems as though Italy is doing something to eliminate corruption. A super-commission is to be set up to fight corruption, or will be, if the proposal ever makes it through Italy’s perpetually bickering parliament. Corruption, which costs Italy an estimated €60 billion a year, has been holding back economic growth for […]
Italy and its Demons
Constantin Gurdgiev makes some good points in his Tweets reported on Italy Chronicles last week. Perhaps the Berlusconi years were better than we have come to remember. Gurdgiev sees the problem of Italy’s future as one of high national debt levels and the problems associated with servicing and refinancing that debt. He calculates that 3% […]
Italy’s Article 18 Woes
Italy is in turmoil at the moment. At the root of much consternation are reforms to Italy’s labor legislation and in particular something known as Article 18. Article 18 is part of Italy’s “workers’ statute”, the body of Italian law which governs employee rights. This article states that Italian employers must reinstate unfairly dismissed workers. Italy’s […]
Are Italians Really Lazy?
Recent statistics released by Europe’s statistical bureau Eurostat revealed that salaries in Italy are amongst the lowest in Europe. Growth in salaries in Italy between 2005 and 2009 was a measly 3.3%. By way of comparison, in the same period in Spain, salaries grew by almost 30%. Even crisis struck Portugal managed to increase its […]
Where is Italy Going?
This Italy resident has a sneaking suspicion that Italy is entering a period of transition. Mario Monti, who was brought in to take over from the disastrous Silvio Berlusconi, is determined to steer Italy in what he believes is the right direction. Really, all Monti wants to do is to make Italy function properly. Whether […]