Den politiske union er stået op fra graven

Det er godt, at ECB endelig fik fingeren ud og gjorde noget ved Italien og Spaniens accelererende gældsspiral. Men de ville have noget til gengæld:

The European Central Bank asked the Italian government to implement further austerity measures in return for buying its debt, its president Jean-Claude Trichet said in an interview on Tuesday.

The Corrierre della Sera newspaper first reported that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi received a “secret letter” from the ECB, insisting on tougher austerity measures to balance the country’s budget by 2013.

Trichet confirmed the existence of the letter in a French radio interview.

“We asked the Italian government to take a certain number of decisions, which have been taken, and in particular to speed up their return to a normal budgetary situation. We asked the same of the Spanish government.”

Armod for pengesedler. I hvilken verden kan et lands centralbank diktere økonomisk politik til regeringen?

Det kan være, at det er et skintræk for at behage det tyske publikum, og brevet er blevet lækket med vilje. Men konceptet er sygt. Hvem har stemt på Trichet?