The Italian caretaker Prime Minister,
Mario Monti, has promised to cut labour taxes in an interview seen as the launch
of his election campaign. Mr Monti, who leads a centrist coalition while not standing as a candidate
himself, also attacked conservative rival Silvio Berlusconi. In office he vowed to restore market confidence in Italy's finances. Wednesday saw him achieve his aim of halving the difference between Italy's
and Germany's bond yields.
These indicate a country's cost of borrowing and reflect how nervous
investors feel about lending to them. Germany is used as a benchmark as it is
considered the safest bet in the eurozone.
The difference between Italy and Germany's yields dipped below 2.87
percentage points on Wednesday.
When Mr Monti took office as head of a technocratic government in November
2011, the spread had stood at 5.74 percentage points.
Mr Monti's centrist allies are in a three-way race with Mr Berlusconi's
People of Freedom party on the right and the Democratic Party on the
left. Speaking on radio, Mr Monti pledged to take measures to redistribute wealth
in the country. "We need to reduce taxes on the labour force, both on workers and companies,
by cutting spending," he said. He defended his administration's record, saying that the "light at the end of
the tunnel" was "much nearer".
Since withdrawing his party's support for the government in December, Mr
Berlusconi has repeatedly launched attacks against the former European
commissioner. "Berlusconi has made improper attacks against me - on areas like family
values," Mr Monti said on Wednesday.
"I think I need make no further comment," he added, in an apparent reference
to the string of sex scandals involving the veteran billionaire politician. Mr Monti, a former economics professor, was chosen to impose financial rigour
on the economy, after Mr Berlusconi quit the prime minister's job. In power, Mr Monti made some progress early on, including raising the
retirement age and structural reforms. However ordinary Italians have been hard hit by the combination of tax rises
and spending cuts he imposed to repair Italy's public finances. Italians are due to go to the polls over the weekend of 24-25 February....
The Euro will survive even if the ECB has to kill Europeans and recycle them into Euro notes, bit like Soylent Green only bank notes instead of food. Interesting fact on the EU today, they have ordered all the cash machines in the Vatican City to be turned off because the Vatican has failed to comply with anti money laundering regulations. Is this the shape of things to come.
The Euro will survive even if the ECB has to kill Europeans and recycle them into Euro notes, bit like Soylent Green only bank notes instead of food. Interesting fact on the EU today, they have ordered all the cash machines in the Vatican City to be turned off because the Vatican has failed to comply with anti money laundering regulations. Is this the shape of things to come.