The curfew is in force in Italy – Il Tempo

Giuseppe Conte asks for full powers for himself, extending the state of emergency certainly until the end of this year, but perhaps already now until the first months of 2021, and to make us understand that we are starting again with his dpcm, this week he will launch them immediately. one. New rules on Covid, which extend to all Italian decisions already made by individual regional governors, such as the obligation of outdoor masks, and actually insert mini closures. For example, that of the evening curfew which would impose the early closure of all discos (bars, restaurants, pizzerias, pubs, etc …) it is not yet known if at 22 or 23, and a series of other limitations for the possibility of meetings or public appointments to avoid gatherings.

All questionable decisions that will obviously be discussed in a free country. But if the government has numbers and simulations in hand that hypothesize an uncontrolled explosion of the virus and an uncontrolled health system, it may well uphold its caution as long as it is transparent and clear, as it was not at the beginning of the pandemic. The history of these days would say the exact opposite, and just think about what is happening in football: a week ago half the government wanted to reopen stadiums to the public for more than half capacity, yesterday it was argued instead that a single ASL for one or two cases of infected players could have put the entire series to rest. They seem pretty confusing, and this is really the biggest risk. But one thing must be said clearly to Conte and his ministers: if they really believe that they are closing economic activities here and there for health reasons, doing it with the left hand as is happening, on the right they bring the necessary piggy bank to repair the damage economic they have. going to provoke. One thing must be imposed on the government: through the dpcm, the closures that it deems necessary by decree law, including in that text also the rules of compensation for the damages that are inevitably caused to the productive system. Because the government must take responsibility for what it decides.

This point is fundamental, because the unpleasant impression that these decisions are giving you is precisely that of breaking up pieces of confinement just so you don’t have to compensate. After all, if I close at 10 at night, the place can stay open and, therefore, they bill: not my problem. I would close them all day, I would understand. But only a few hours for public health reasons, why should I open my wallet? Obviously many of those businesses that lived only from a certain moment will close because at that moment they do not have possible clients. And the others will lose for the umpteenth time in these months another billing, already so difficult to put together: with those hours it will be impossible to make two shifts of customers in restaurants.

The same problem would exist with other similar measures in other productive sectors. And you have to find at least a small financial umbrella to weather the storm and survive once again, because really everyone is at risk of failure. But Conte and his ministers seem to be light years away from this need: the only money they talk about is money that only exists in fairy tales, such as the legendary € 209 billion from the Recovery Fund. They do not exist, they will not exist for at least one more year, we do not know if they will ever arrive after that wait and in any case they will be distributed over several years with figures that are anything but dreamlike each year. If the urgency is immediate, those sums cannot be counted on. And others need to be found, of which the government does not seem to be aware. Unfortunately, however, the financial situation of Italian companies and workers is once again dramatic and the government seems not to have noticed. Let me give you a very concrete example: do you remember the “powerful intervention” in the banking system to grant 400 billion euros of publicly guaranteed loans, depending on the case, total or significant? It started off badly, but then it seemed to have gotten going. As of October 2, loans (not disbursed) for 87,500 million had been requested, and of these 18,000 million were operations of less than 30 thousand euros with a total guarantee from the State. But in the last month these requests have slowed down considerably: from May to August SME requests were received every day for 114 million euros, from August to today for 37 million euros. Fewer questions Why are companies better? No. Fewer questions because banks have strongly held back those loans. Because they need to take a look at their balance sheets after another tough credit tightening imposed at the most wrong time possible by the EBA, the European banking authority, which requires institutions to write down even hard-to-make loans (unlikely to do so). do). pay), as well as the disabled. So the banks are re-examining the debt situation of the companies that request these new loans guaranteed by the state because the moratorium granted at the beginning of the pandemic by the government is about to expire (like the tax bills that will now rain on the heads of companies and individuals). If the taps in the banks are blocked, companies jump one after another and we risk catastrophe. Perhaps it would be appropriate to put your head into this, instead of playing with fictitious statements about the use of that Recovery Fund that is not and will not be for long.