In these Halloween days, I have realized that most Italian “Zombie Economists” have suddenly disappeared from sight. By ZEs I mean those economists who, due to sheer incompetence or political opportunism, have been praising Mr Berlusconi and Mr Tremonti for having “safeguarded” our public balance, arguing that Italian banks were safe, that private wealth and public assets were larger than public debt etc. etc., so that there was no default risk whatsoever. So, like zombies, they were dead, but didn’t know they were. Interestigly, ZEs praised their novels from daiily newspapers such as Il Corriere della Sera and Il Sole 24ore, which is quite revealing on the quality of economic information in the country.
Farewell ZEs, we won’t miss you.