Italy plunged deeper into political chaos this weekend after Beppe Grillo, the quixotic former comedian who holds the balance of power in parliament, suggested that the country may have to abandon the euro and return to the lire.
Not quite that Italy will have to abandon the euro though. Rather that it is the most sensible thing to do among the available choices. And the sooner the better quite frankly.
Over and above that what the country really needs is a proper supply side revolution. No, not the tinkering with marginal tax rates which is the American version of \”supply side\”. But a proper reorganisation and deregulation of the supply side of the economy. There are simply too many rules and regulations preventing new companies from starting and growing to any size.
There’s a lesson to be learned here. Stand-ups can do economics but economists are limited to farce.
>Over and above that what the country really needs is a proper supply side revolution.
Italy might leave the Euro. But a supply-side revolution in Italy? Pigs might fly.
The Italians invented capitalism. What went wrong?
Random factoids:
The Dutch invented capitalism.
Beppe Grillo looks increasingly like Miriam Margolyes ( who was the voice of the Cadbury’s Caramel bunny – my memory says squirrel, but Wikipedia is never wrong).
There are simply too many rules and regulations preventing new companies from starting and growing to any size.
I am not sure that is going to happen. Have a look at this
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/dangerous_times_the_rage_of_beppe_grillo.html
Even if you ignore the source it comes from, there is a basis there for thinking that his views on the lira are his only sane ones. Banning interest? I think we can guess how that is going to work out. He is not a supply side guy.
But nice to see the former candidate for the pro-Soviet Left merging seamlessly into the anti-Semitism of the fascists.
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/high-speed/dispute-erupts-after-rfi-fences-off-ntv-lounge.html
Italian supply side insanity in action
Italy needs supply-side reform?
What about the UK?
No, the Italians invented it. The Dutch were later on very good at it for a while, but they didn’t invent it.
SMFS-
I’d have thought you’d be in favour of traditional christian values like prohibiting usury 🙂
Yes, Grillo is a nutball. But the fact is hardly anyone in the world understands economics, monetary theory and the banking system. Even the bankers can’t agree how it works. I think increasing number of people have that “shell game feeling”. They know they’ve been diddled, they don’t know how it was done, but they know it happened.
So there’s a general mood for stopping the banks doing something, but nobody is sure what the thing to stop them doing is, because they don’t know how the damned pea ended up under that other shell, merely that it did. It thus wouldn’t surprise me if the eventual consensus was to just stop them doing everything they do. Which might be catastrophic, but is becoming increasingly understandable in terms of human reactions.
MellorSJ: no, the UK had massive supply side reforms, d’you remember when Meryl Streep dressed up as Iron Maiden, or something like that? That’s why it’s rated as seventh-most business-friendly country in the world.