Italy's horse of a different color

  In Praise of Cash: Paper and Plastic Are Not Equal Giovanni Battista Ponzetto I posted this on Linkedin on August 22, 2018 . Fast forward to October 2025 and the UK Government is infesting the media with Digital ID, and the push for a central bank digital currency hasn't stalled.   Disclaimer : This financial "painter" is strictly without academic qualifications; his opinions are personal and should not be taken as advice to guide anyone in buying or selling anything. Soak overnight in lukewarm water before ingesting. [Update September 14, 2018, Draghi's Communication] [Update February 21, 2019, Zimbabwe] [Update April 22, 2019, IMF] [Update Conte 2 Government]    Dedicated to Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffè, a good friend when we agree, and an even better one when we don’t. “ Lady Bracknell. Ah! A life full of incidents, I see; perhaps too exciting for a young lady. Personally, I am not in favor of premature experiences. [She rises, looks at her watch] Gwendolen! ...

  A continent with no friends   "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow." (Lord Palmerston)   Transatlantic relations haven't been easy in the past ten years, but 2025 takes the cake so far ; European countries and the EU (overlapping but not identical concepts) have been caught napping by Trump's reelection ; Trump 2 is apparently similar to Trump 1, but he's not, yet for all the well known vicissitudes that intervened  (two life attempts, raid on Mar e Lago, dawn raids to arrest staff in front of media alerted to the purpose) the appearance is that Europe is not changing its ways in any appreciable sense if not scale ; The Munich meeting and the speech by Vice President Vance remain for me a seminal point in two ways, because they dictated the terms of the transatlantic dialogue from the US point of view and because the initial Euro...