(from roubini.com 25 Dec 2012)
Dear Mario Xmas,
This year I have behaved quite well with the students, so I ask you bring me these reforms (knowing that you may not not satisfy many of these wishes, for reasons of political arithmetic). I would like you to bring me:
· the privatization of the Fondazioni Bancarie (Banking Foundations), those strange and unaccountable share-holders that politicians use to control banks
· the abolition of professional associations orders (all)
· the privatization of RAI, the state television (preferably at least two channels), the abolition of the RAI tax, and the auction of all available frequencies
· the constitutional reform (the abolition of the “special statute” Regions, the abolition of the Senate)
· the alignment of all public salaries to those of a weighted average of OECD countries with similar per capita income (say, within one standard deviation, plus or minus)
· the privatization of public utilities (electricity, gas, water) and the ban on local authorities to hold shares in those companies
· the separation (to be proposed at European level) in the banking system, of investment from retail banking
· the inclusion in the new property taxes of all the property used for economic activities (including those run bu the Church and other “benefic” entities)
· the abolition of the legal value of the Laura degree, and the suppression of those universities whose scientific standards are inadequate, the link between quality of research and public funds
· the liberalization of public transport (all) and the withdrawal and re-auctioning of all concessions (from motorways to tax collection)
· the abolition of subsidies to the press
· the reform of the labor market, of contracts and layoffs (I’d like to personally negotiate the conditions of my employment contract with my University, just as I could do abroad)
Dear Mario, thank you very much. Despite of my age, I still believe in you.
Yours faithfully,
Paolo Manasse
ps: I know this one is particularly difficult, but I would like to live in a country where my teacher of jazz piano, Franco D’andrea, voted the best European jazz musician in 2011 at the age of 70, was more popular and rich than Sugar (Zucchero) Fornaciari, the rock singer.