A petal in the wind

A change to the Vienna New Year's Day concert:

"Since 1980 the flowers that decorate the hall have been a gift from the city of Sanremo, Liguria, Italy," says Wikipedia.

Not any more:

Floral Decorations by Vienna Parks and Gardens

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When Zubin Mehta takes up the baton for the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert on 1 January 2015, this will mark the premiere of the new co-operation between the famous orchestra and the Vienna Parks and Gardens department. Together with other Austrian gardeners and florists, the department‘s staff will turn the Golden Hall of the Musikverein into a shining sea of flowers. “The New Year’s Concert is a highlight in the florist industry and provides a unique opportunity to present the great mastery of Vienna’s gardeners to an international audience”, said Vienna’s City Councillor for the Environment, Ulli Sima.
 
Vienna’s parks and gardens department considers the new co-operation an exciting task. “The new co-operation creates a unique Viennese symbiosis – both in floral and in musical terms. Both institutions, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Parks and Gardens, have a long tradition and contribute to Vienna’s image, which is carried out to the world at the New Year’s Concert”, declared Vienna Parks and Gardens Director Rainer Weisgram.

Hmmm...

Is this one of those tiny signs that tell us all is not well in a relationship?

https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/michele-barbero/italys-unhappy-marriage-with-europe


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Smugness, alla Italia

Jonathan Russell writes in the Telegraph:

Spain's finances are in the dock thanks to Standard & Poor's, the spreads on Greek bonds have soared and Germany's economy is set to deteriorate faster than ours, according to the OECD. Suddenly the euro doesn't seem like such a one-way bet.

But where is the usual suspect, Italy, in all this euro-doom? Sitting pretty according to its finance minister Giulio Tremonti. The country didn't get involved in the sub-prime crisis and GDP figures could be significantly better than reported.

How do you work this out? "Our banks suffered little from the sub-prime crisis. There are few of them where English is spoken," he told Les Echos newspaper, no doubt not in English.
And GDP? "One should be suspicious of GDP figures …they do not include the informal economy."

The Italian "informal economy"? I'm sure there is another word for that.

And as one of my earlier posts shows, they've also invested less than 1% of their officially-declared GDP in US Treasuries.