Instead of selling them on the market, Italy should use the jewels of its public assets to guarantee government bonds. The pawnshop-style proposal comes from Finland, directly from the prime minister Jyrki katainen. In an interview with Spiegel, the prime minister recalled how precisely in this way his country managed to greatly reduce the spread.
Katainen revealed that he had already put forward the hypothesis during the last European summit in June and that he repeated it during Mario Monti's recent visit to Helsinki. However, the Professor "did not undertake" to implement it.
"At the moment it should be uninteresting for countries in difficulty to sell state holdings, with prices that are so low – underlined the Finnish leader -. Instead, these holdings could be used to secure the securities to be sold on the market. We have used the patrimonial properties of the State as a pledge, managing to significantly reduce the interest. In a short time we managed to save 10% of our GDP. We will never forget this decisive experience."
The Finnish President reiterated that a solution to the crisis could be found “if the countries in difficulty issued guaranteed bonds, to be covered with state property. We must do everything to ensure that Spain and Italy continue to obtain money on the private capital market".
Broadening his gaze to the European question, Katainen then reiterated that Finland - like Germany - is against the granting of a banking license to the ESM state-saving fund. “We are against it – he explained – since a banking license would mean the disappearance of all limits and would make pressure soar to the point that aid would no longer be credible. I don't think the crisis can be solved with simple tricks”.
Katainen also criticized the ECB's bond purchases, because the Eurotower has already bought government bonds on the secondary market in the past, “but that only helped in the short term. We are very critical, but we are not anti-European. We have to look for other roads and other means, the solutions must be efficient and sustainable”.
Source: The game
