Es irrt der Mensch,
so lang er strebt.

The most onerous law is a relic of the 1970s and a touted accomplishment of Italy’s trade unions. Article 18 of the Workers’ Statute makes it impossible to fire even the most grossly incompetent employees. Perversely, it causes that which it seeks to prevent: unemployment.

According to the law, employers need to demonstrate not only that a terminated employee has failed in fulfilling work “objectives” and “expected performance,” but also must prove “the concrete and wanton negligence of the employee in achieving the work’s obligations.” The only “just cause” for termination is the deliberate refusal to perform whatever an Italian labor court deems necessary to fulfill “the work’s obligations.” Could a law be any vaguer?
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Italy’s labor laws favor insiders who already have jobs at the expense of outside job seekers. Ironically, these laws hurt the very people upon whom those insiders will depend to support their pensions when they retire—the young. Italy’s youth unemployment rates consistently rank among the highest in the EU. It averaged 5.8 percentage points above the EU average from 2001 to 2010, according to Eurostat.
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Mr. Monti and Ms. Fornero will encounter enormous opposition, and success is by no means guaranteed. But the mere fact that they and other Italian politicians are even talking about such a taboo topic may finally signal the change Italy so badly needs.

When Italy is in trouble it wheels out the technocrats, and because it has always produced hugely able, cosmopolitan figures such as Monti, Draghi and Ciampi, the world is duly impressed.

Yet Italy’s problems are ones of substance not of style, and they will take years to resolve whoever briefly takes the reins when the crises become most acute.

Italy’s chronically sluggish economy is weighed down by corruption, tax evasion, organized crime, a low birth rate, impoverished south, poor education levels, inadequate infrastructures and a huge public debt.

The list could go on, with each economist having his or her own view over which is most serious, from a dysfunctional justice system, to oppressive bureaucracy, to an inefficient labor market and dismally low employment rate.

This is the real Italy, or at least a huge part of it, and Monti would probably need two five-year terms to really change it. Instead, he will be around for a year at best, before the career politicians take over again.

I mercati però non vedono i segni, nelle classi politiche tedesche, francesi ed europee, né della consapevolezza del rischio terribile a cui tutti siamo esposti. Né dei rimedi possibili da adottare. La Merkel non passa giorno che non dica no a ciascuna di queste diverse ipotesi. La Germania del resto ha un suo piano B. Ha un suo Lebensraum economico ottimale, che non coincide affatto con l’euroarea ma si estende all’est Europa e all’intera Scandinavia, ha una politica propria e non europea nel braccio di ferro tra yuan e dollaro, in quanto il rapporto di Berlino con la Cina è diretto e nonpassa certo né per Bruxelles né per Francoforte .Gli altri governi tacciono. I francesi con Sarkozy per grandeur non hanno capito che l’esposizione del loro sistema bancario pretendeva un ruolo diverso dalla funzione di essere “come la Germania”.

Per questo i mercati scommettono che l’euro salterà. E per questo l’Italia deve al più presto recuperare l’autorevolezza per tornare a sedersi al tavolo europeo, come ha detto ieri Mario Monti. Non si è mai visto una carrozza trainata da un tiro a quattro in cui il passo debba essere quello del cavallo più veloce. Perché o gli altri tre cavalli crepano oppure, ancor prima, si ribalta la carrozza.