Italy – No future for Venice?

Fewer and fewer people live in Venice. Does the city have a future as such?

Venice is not a place like all others. It is a beauty which was founded as a refuge by the people of Veneto against invading Goths in 421 a.C. She has seen it all from her humblest beginnings to her heydays of the Serenissima. And she is not shy. She reveals her glorious past with confidence, evident in magnificent buildings and works of art created by the most celebrated artists of their days.

Italy – Labour reforms need to tackle youth unemployment

I recently came across an interesting article with the title Dangermen – Labour reform in Italy which laid out the many challenges the new Italian prime minister Mario Monti has to face. One of the most pressing problems is the unacceptable high unemployment rate among young people (15-24 years old) which is above 30 percent in Italy with Portugal, Spain and Greece performing evenly badly or worst (see link for graph). He is pushing for reforms to make the labour market more flexible and to encourage companies to take on new employees. This won’t be easy. He is up against all sorts of interests that benefit from the status quo and therefore seek to preserve it.

Greece – First injury then insult

No doubt, Greece is in a precarious situation. Years of easy money, poor economic performance and an appalling level of governmental mismanagement have pushed the country right to the brink of collapse. To get out of this mess won’t be easy. It is going to be a painful journey. Nobody knows that better than the Greeks themselves. They also know that they need assistance. To ask for help is seldom easy and often distressing. The so-called Troika (IMF, ECB, EU) added insult to injury with the way it bullied the Greek government under Lucas D. Papademos into a deal which most economists agree will not work, because it is based on assumptions that are far too optimistic. Greece is expected to grow vigorously by 2014 out of tin air.