Italian uncertainty
By Nita Ghei
Italians vote this weekend, and responsible citizens will find nothing much on the menu.
As in America, the likely preference will continue stumbling down the tax-and-spend path that has crippled economies on both sides of the Atlantic.
The European stagnation and the prospect of recession in a key trading partner threatens the prospect of a recovery here.
Given the candidates, the free-market think tank Istituto Bruno Leoni is pessimistic about the outcome. “Whoever ends up winning, the Italian elections will see no emergence of a political landscape conducive to reform,” Alberto Mingardi, the institute’s director general, tells The Washington Times.
A left-wing coalition made up of the Democratic Party, the Left-Ecology-Freedom party and the Italian Socialist Party leads the polls. This hapless bunch rallies around neo-Keynesian “stimulus” spending, just like the Democrats here. If it fails to win a clear majority, the coalition is likely to merge with a more moderate faction, the Civic Choice Party of Prime Minister Mario Monti. That moderation, such as it is, won’t do much good, considering Mr. Monti failed to push through meaningful economic reforms even with a majority. There’s no reason to think he would do better as a junior partner.
The alternative candidate with the best chance, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his People of Freedom Party, runs second in the polls, but he’s not much of an improvement. Despite talking a good game at times and running on a platform of promised fiscal reform, Mr. Berlusconi’s record has “proved beyond doubt he is not able to constrain government spending,” as Mr. Mingardi puts it. The bureaucracy thrived, if little else did, during his three terms in office.
The third-place candidate, with 20 percent support, is a joke, literally
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hRead more: www.washingtontimes.com
Given the candidates, the free-market think tank Istituto Bruno Leoni is pessimistic about the outcome. “Whoever ends up winning, the Italian elections will see no emergence of a political landscape conducive to reform,” Alberto Mingardi, the institute’s director general, tells The Washington Times.
A left-wing coalition made up of the Democratic Party, the Left-Ecology-Freedom party and the Italian Socialist Party leads the polls. This hapless bunch rallies around neo-Keynesian “stimulus” spending, just like the Democrats here. If it fails to win a clear majority, the coalition is likely to merge with a more moderate faction, the Civic Choice Party of Prime Minister Mario Monti. That moderation, such as it is, won’t do much good, considering Mr. Monti failed to push through meaningful economic reforms even with a majority. There’s no reason to think he would do better as a junior partner.
The alternative candidate with the best chance, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his People of Freedom Party, runs second in the polls, but he’s not much of an improvement. Despite talking a good game at times and running on a platform of promised fiscal reform, Mr. Berlusconi’s record has “proved beyond doubt he is not able to constrain government spending,” as Mr. Mingardi puts it. The bureaucracy thrived, if little else did, during his three terms in office.
The third-place candidate, with 20 percent support, is a joke, literally
..........
hRead more: www.washingtontimes.com
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