Pater Tenebrarum's: Lose Liberty and You Will Lose Your Civilization – Big Brother is Here

Nowadays the snooping and repression is increasingly shifting from the 'security' sphere to the financial sphere. 'Financial repression' – a term originally coined be Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhardt to describe the tendency of governments to try and 'inflate away' their debts – is taking on ever more sinister shapes. In Italy, the Monti government has begun to control the spending habits of its citizens to a never before seen extent (hat tip to 'Das Gelbe Forum' in Germany). Its crackdown on alleged tax evaders has so far produced 23 suicides by people who were either utterly ruined by the State's demands for back taxes owed or otherwise fell victim to the economic crisis.

Now there is the so-called 'spesometro', whereby the government creates a map of all consumer spending in Italy, correlating it in seconds with tax payer information. If anyone buys more than he should be able to buy according to his tax return, the 'agenzia delle entrate' soon shows up and asks him to explain how he was able to indulge in such spending. Savers must be able to provide a time-line of several years detailing how and and how much they saved when and why. Anyone who has not been overly fastidious with keeping records of every detail of his financial life is thus in danger of being fined if he buys 'too much'. Given that Italy has a very high private savings rate, a great many perfectly innocent citizens will probably be ensnared by the 'spesometro'.

By Pater Tenebrarum (Acting-Man)