After a paragraph of how terribly Italy is doing in the world rankings, the governor of the Bank of Italy is leaving ... to take the reins at the European Central Bank?
Is this a case of being awful therefore promoted, or was he spectacularly good at stopping Italy from getting worse?
Central Bank governors are strangely resilient and separate from day to day politics. I'm Romanian and we've had a string of our own Berlusconis here, but since '99 we've had just one Bank Governor, and a very capable one. He even left his position to work as a Prime Minister for a about a year, and then returned to the Central Bank. He's completely uncharacteristic of everything else in Romanian politics.
You can only do as much good as your environment allows you to do. Expecting Medvedev or Draghi to singlehandedly solve the problems of their countries is unrealistic. I expect Draghi to be capable at his new job, because old methods of covering incompetence up -- methods that work in Italy -- won't work at the ECB.
Is this a case of being awful therefore promoted, or was he spectacularly good at stopping Italy from getting worse?