In Italy, it's 1984

One of yesterday's posts on ZeroHedge is gaining a lot of traction and definitely hits right at the heart of why Bitcoin has so much potential. Bitcoin users might find the following information disturbing (but not surprising). Reader discretion is advised:

Romano Prodi was the EU Commission President in 2001 and creator of the Euro, and is now pulling the financial policy strings in the new Italian government.  In 2001, he made the following statement:

"I am sure the Euro will oblige us to introduce a new set of economic policy instruments. It is politically impossible to propose that now, but some day there will be a crisis and new instruments will be created."

If you've ever read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine," you already know that this will end in tears.

Now that the economic crisis in Europe has reached DEFCON 1, these new instruments have been implemented, and the orchestra is playing a sickening sound.

ZeroHedge lists these new "instruments":

• An extraordinary edict making cash transactions of more than Euro 1,000 illegal (not subject to reporting – just plain illegal). Following Prodi’s own desire, the existing regime has indicated that this level will be progressively reduced to a limit as low as Euro 300. Hence cash is maybe for the first time in history no longer legal tender (over Euro 1,000, for now);
• A requirement that credit card companies report all transactions carried out by Italians, in Italy and abroad to the fiscal authorities;
• Delays and refusals by banks in allowing customers to withdraw cash balances of as little as Euro 10,000;
• Finance Police has placed cameras at the physical borders with Switzerland (see below) to register all license plates. In addition, currency-sniffing dogs have been deployed at the border.

There has been a lot of speculation this week as to why the price of Bitcoins is on the rise. I suspect what you might be seeing is the first wave of interest in a decentralized, pseudo-anonymous currency, brought about by the implementation of financial policy that takes away the ability to freely conduct business.

Unfortunately, the corruption in Italy that led to the erosion of government revenue is being addressed through the strategy of assuming that every person is a criminal. It's also a great way to induce a revolt in your population.

Posted in: Euro,italy