“Gentlemen, welcome to Fight Club.

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.

The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club

Third rule of Fight Club: someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight. 

Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas.

Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes.

Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to.

And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.

“The things you own end up owning you. 

Quotes from the movie: “Fight Club” by David Fincher.

The main character is a man whose name is never said. He is a consultant in the insurance branch of an important car manufacturer. During one of his work trips he meets Tyler Durden and together they create the Fight Club, a secret club whose problematic members violently fight between them.

Tyler creates a subversive group to carry on the eco-terrorist “Project Mayhem”. Meanwhile, the main character realizes that Tyler does not exist, he is only his alter ego created by his mind. Worried by the extreme consequences of the realization of the Project Mayhem, he reports it to the police. In the end, after a fight with his alter ego the main character shoots at himself, to kill both, but the wound isn’t mortal. Therefore he assists to the collapse of the 12 credit institution’s buildings where they had set the bombs.

Italian politicians have invented another alter ego to fight: Europe, that they consider responsible of limiting Italy in its economic policy choices and in its growth. A fight that goes on with no holds barred. And the more Italy fights Europe, the more it injures itself. The more it applauds “sovereignty” the more it intensifies the voices of those that, as in Austria, even if they are culturally close to this government (populists or right-wing) are quite harsh on those who don’t stand by the agreement of reducing the deficit and the debt.

Europe is being considered the enemy but the real enemy has been there for many years, even without Europe. It’s called public debt, or better, financial burdens on the debt. Around 66 billions with the spread under control, the 3,9% of the Gdp. But with these rates it risks growing even more. Numbers are numbers, regardless of Europe. 

But, as in Fight Club, it is reality that totters. Almost like saying that the first rule of the Fight Club is that the Fight Club doesn’t exist. In Italy the first rule seems to be that the debt doesn’t exist and that it is not scary. The more we follow this way, the more we get close to hitting the bottom. Just like the main character. A blow after the other, with the sole purpose of self-destruction, Europe and Italy. It doesn’t matter that the main narrator says that it is Europe that fixes the spread and not the markets. Even if, with or without Europe, numbers don’t add up.

In the meantime Italy is injuring itself with the universal basic income and the “Quota 100” pension’s reform.

The banks are paying the most for it. Nomura states that they will be safe until a 400 bps spread; above, it’s going to be a disaster and the small banks will be forced to new capital’s increases.

Moody’s has cut Italy’s credit rating on debt. Markets celebrated because the USA’s bank had slashed it to one level above junk. Standard&Poor’s verdict about Italy will shortly be released. Rumors talk about a very generous evaluation, because only a year ago they improved its rating.

Nobody seems to be able to explain to the politicians that such a spread will eat up every benefit of the maneuver. The problem is that Italy isn’t Greece and that its difficulties will have repercussions on the markets worldwide.

This problem doesn’t concern only Italy, Fight Clubs are growing all around the world, especially in the USA. Donald Trump wants to set aside the historical agreement between Reagan and Gorbaciov that ended the Cold War. At the time the world was culturally divided between two ruling ideologies. Today, even if the ideologies have waned, we are going in the opposite direction, always telling ourselves some fantastic and intangible story.

Among his acts of masochism, on top of the fight between Trump and the Federal reserve, the president of the USA replies to the strong fiscal increase announced by China with new promises of tax cuts in the USA. Now, the manager’s job is to see beyond the smoke. To distinguish between what’s real and what’s not. Italy has what it takes to react, with 104 thousands euros of assets per capita against the 30 thousands of public dept. The fake fights to protect the Btp and the spread are useless; we must intervene with a wiser maneuver. On the equity front, better the growth stocks.