Il y a plus de Porsche en Grèce que d'habitants déclarant €50K de revenu annuel. En Italie, les résultats de Maserati devraient être excellent suite à la surprenante commande du gouvernement Italien.

Version FR

Source: Telegraph

"The Porsche Cayenne: more common in Greece than people who admit earning €50,000

Jubilation about the German deal to save the euro could prove short-lived if fresh news of Greek tax evasion gains wider currency. There are more Porsche Cayennes registered in Greece than taxpayers declaring an income of 50,000 euros (£43,800) or more, according to research by Professor Herakles Polemarchakis, former head of the Greek prime minister’s economic department.
While German car workers may take pride in this evidence of their export success, German taxpayers may be less keen to bail out a nation whose population appears to take such a cavalier approach to paying its fiscal dues. Never mind all that macroeconomic talk about deficit distress, many Greeks are still plainly riding high on the hog.
Something can’t be right when the modest city of Larisa, capital of the agricultural region of Thessaly with 250,000 inhabitants, has more Porsches per head of the population than New York or London.
Perhaps the penny – or the euro – is already dropping, because Professor Polemarchakis writes that Larissa “is the talk of the town in Stuttgart, the cradle of the German automobile industry, and, particularly, in the Porsche headquarters there”, since it “tops the list, world-wide, for the per-capita ownership of Porsche Cayennes”.
“The proliferation of Cayennes is a curiosity, given that farming is not a flourishing sector in Greece, where agricultural output generates a mere 3.2pc of Gross National Product (GNP) in 2009 – down from 6.65pc in 2000 – and transfers and subsidies from the European Commission provide roughly half of the nation’s agricultural income.
“A couple of years ago, there were more Cayennes circulating in Greece than individuals who declared and paid taxes on an annual income of more than 50,000 euros.”
Hard to believe? Don’t take my word for it. The report in Athens News will add to fears, expressed by leading economist George Soros and others, that last week’s deal to save the euro can only buy a little time – not a permanent solution. China may also question why it should support economies that pay their unemployed more than most of its workers earn.
Binding such widely differing cultures as Greece and Germany together was always going to be a problem; not least because of diverging attitudes to such financial fundamentals as work and tax. Now, ahead of this week’s G20 Summit in Cannes, some euro-enthusiast must be sent to the cradle of culture to explain that deficits will balloon unless all taxpayers pay their fiscal dues. I nominate Vince Cable."

Les italiens sont presque aussi forts:

Version FR

Source: Telegraph

"Italian government buys 19 Maserati supercars despite austerity cutsItaly may be in the midst of a savage austerity drive but that has not stopped defence ministry officials ordering a fleet of armoured Maseratis to ferry themselves around Rome. 

The Italian government has bought 19 top-of-the-range Maseratis 

The delivery of the 19 top-of-the-range executive cars has raised eyebrows at a time when the country is meant to be shaving billions off its public spending.

Opposition MPs said it was it was an outrageous indulgence at a time when the defence ministry is supposed to be reducing its budget by €2.5bn (£2.2bn) over the next three years.

The matter was raised in parliament by Emanuele Fiano, an MP from the opposition Democratic Party. "At a time when millions of Italians are being affected by a very serious economic crisis, is there good reason for the defence minister to feel it necessary to add 19 armoured Maseratis to the ministry's car park?" he said.

Italian officials are notorious for their attachment to what are known colloquially as "auto blu" - vast fleets of dark blue and black limousines which carve through traffic with flashing lights and police outriders.

Ignazio La Russa, the defence minister, dismissed the row as a "witch hunt" by the opposition and said the cars had been paid for with money out of the 2008-2009 budget, before swingeing cuts were announced in the summer by Silvio Berlusconi's government.

"What's the problem? Maseratis are Italian and they cost less than their German equivalents," he said.
He did not divulge the cost of the cars, but the starting rate for a brand new Maserati Quattroporte is around £80,000.
The muscle cars may be on their way, but a much larger capital expenditure project appears to have died a death.
When Mr Berlusconi returned to power in 2008, he promised to realise the decades-old dream of building what would be the world's largest suspension bridge across the Straits of Messina, between the toe of the Italian boot and Sicily.
But the grandiose project, which was expected to cost €8.5bn, is now likely to be shelved as Italy tries to slash spending and balance the budget by 2013.
Parliament approved a motion by an opposition party, Italy of Values, on Thursday under which the financing of the 3.3km-long span will be axed.
The motion called for the government to instead divert funds to the rather more prosaic task of improving existing public transport networks.
The idea of throwing a bridge across the narrow strait was first put forward by the ancient Romans.
It was revived 40 years ago, but has been repeatedly stalled by political squabbling, concerns over the risks posed by earthquakes in one of Europe's most seismically active areas and fears that it would mostly benefit construction firms run by the Mafia.