Here's how to balance the budget immediately

Unfortunately, we have been proven right by the market's reaction: Italy needs radical and credible measures. Our proposal (put forward in the Saturday 9 July edition of Sole 24 Ore) to immediately zero out the deficit was criticized on two aspects: it does not take into consideration growth and it is not feasible. The exact opposite is true.

The liberalization called for by many is necessary and welcome, but it has uncertain effects and requires time. In our opinion, relaunching growth requires draconian interventions that change the equilibrium of resignation that permeates the country. Today the most capable young people go abroad because they see no future in Italy. They are discouraged by clientelism and parasitism fed by the enormous shadow world that lies beneath the confines of economics and politics. If the tight budget policy cleans up this shadow world, eliminates the sources of political entitlements and marks the beginning of a political and moral turning point then not only will it not reduce economic growth, quite to the contrary, it will increase it.

To succeed in this twofold intent marginal maneuvers are not enough, such as the €10 medical co-pay in some regions and for some services, or good intentions such as the fight against tax evasion. These measures, despite being effective to some extent, are not comprehensible or credible abroad. They do not show the country that it will not be business as usual. We need radical measures. In order to be concrete, and without the claim of being exhaustive due to the little time we have at our disposal, we shall try to outline a series of this type of proposals, that also raise the 60 billion necessary for balancing the budget.

1 Privatization for at least 140 billion with an annual savings in interest of nearly 5 billion.
We made a quick calculation of how much revenue could be brought in by the privatization of the largest companies: Eni, Enel, Poste, Ferrovie, Finmeccanica, Fintecna, Cassa depositi e prestiti (Deposit and Loans Fund), Rai. The privatization of these companies (and that of many other associated companies) would not only reduce interest expenditure but would send a strong signal to the markets and Italians. It would pull the rug out from under the feet of clientelism, inefficiency and corruption. In order to accelerate this privatization, the state could transfer its property into one or more private funds that would immediately pay 80% of the estimated value (using debt financing), and then pay the remainder when the sale has been completed.

2 Expropriation of the modern-day mortmain: for 50 billion with a savings of nearly 2 billion in interest annually.

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