Saturday, October 11, 2008

Berlusconi's curious reversal

One of the curious things that happened yesterday was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's announcement:
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world's financial markets while they ``rewrite the rules of international finance.''

``The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,'' Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis ``can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.''

But within minutes, he retracted it:
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reversed his comments that leaders are discussing closing the world's financial markets while they ``rewrite the rules of international finance.''

``I heard it on the radio,'' Berlusconi said about an hour after his initial comments his spokesman confirmed. ``The hypothesis wasn't put forward by any leader, including myself.''

An hour earlier, during a press conference in Naples following a Cabinet meeting, Berlusconi said, ``The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed.''

So WTF is going on? Did he actually hear it on the radio, or did he hear it from other world leaders who didn't expect him to open his big mouth?

I don't know, but Bad American as well as Canadian Silver Bug are of the opinion that it might be a good idea to stock up on supplies and cash this weekend.

On the other hand, maybe Berlusconi was just speculating wildly, or offering an opinion as to what he thinks should be done, and nothing will be done about it. We'll know soon enough I guess...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Bad American here,

I'd take Berlusconi's remarks with a grain of salt if the Italian PM wasn't such an insider with the masters of global finance. Berlusconi's business interests practically own Italy. The man knows what he's talking about and he has his fingers in everyone's pie in Europe. If this was, say, the PM of the Czech Republic (nothing against the Czechs by the way, I'm a 1/4 Bohemian) I might buy a mistake but not Berlusconi. Check out the latest in Reuters - the IMF is warning today of a global financial meltdown. This is getting very very dangerous.

nitroglycol said...

So do you think they would have to close the banks if they closed the world markets? I don't know enough about the workings of these things to know.