Krugman: What’s the Matter With Italy?

As president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi saved the euro. In my estimation, this makes him history’s greatest central banker

Italy does have a problem with economic stagnation. Even before the pandemic struck, Italy was noteworthy in having experienced two decades without growth in real gross domestic product per capita

That stagnation is important, and also a major economic puzzle.

ECB has introduced a new bond purchase scheme that is supposed to prevent the kind of market fragmentation that almost killed the euro a decade ago. 

But while Christine Lagarde, the current E.C.B. president, is smart and impressive, it’s unclear whether one can pull a Draghi without Draghi himself.

Paul Krugman NYT 22 July 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/22/opinion/italy-draghi-ecb.html

Rome’s problems go even deeper than this: GDP per capita is today, when adjusted for inflation, less than in 2000.

The data highlight the country’s mediocre economic performance since the introduction of the euro in 1999-2002.

FT 13 november 2018

https://www.ft.com/content/b3c85b34-e10a-11e8-a6e5-792428919cee

Italian economic miracle Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_economic_miracle