Courtesy of Mish.
Black Monday messages on Facebook and Twitter have gone viral in Italy as people have had enough of austerity, job losses, and uncertainty. La Stampa reports on Panic in the Network.
What follows is a Mish-revised translation of select ideas and quotes from the article. My specific comments are in brackets.
Black Monday breaks early in the morning on websites across the world and social networking spreads alarm. “Withdraw money from bank accounts” is the appeal of Andrew to Facebook friends.
Pseudo-analysis on the alleged benefits of a return to the lira go around the net. “Enough of this sad agony. Bring back the old money”, Paul insists.
“In 2000 we had the lira. We were producing more, exporting more, and children were living better, the results of monetary sovereignty” says Magdi Cristiano Allam on Twitter.
“We are on the brink of the abyss and the top EU cazzeggiano [slang for F* around],” accuses Ivan.
The tones on social networks are apocalyptic: “This is not a crisis, it’s the end of capitalism.” On the forum of the economics of printing a black player sees: “Folks, we begin to pray, after Greece’s up to us. We are at the end titles, to every man for himself.”
Then there are the usual conspiracy theories regarding the IMF, ECB, Germany, the White House, U.S. investment banks, the Bilderberg and the Trilateral Commission. All guilty of “working for the failure of Italy and Spain.” “We must defend ourselves from the American speculation, but Merkel holds us hostage,” Roberto tweets.
Everyone looks to Mario Draghi: The “ECB needs to intervene at once” says David Sassoli MEP [Member of European Parliament].
“We’re towards the end of the line like Greece and Spain?” Asks Matthew.
The stubborn “spread” climbs the ranking of most used words in the blogosphere. [Presumably spread refers to interest rate differentials between Italy and Germany]
Catherine accuses the government, political parties, unions, and banks. “It takes courage,” writes Catherine on the Facebook page of La Stampa. Catherine then rattles off a recipe based on “Electoral Law, priority to industry, limiting immigration, elimination of environmental bulls**t, and zero bureaucracy.” …
