“The gold belongs to the Italians, not to the bankers. We are ready to battle everywhere in Italy and to bring Italians to the streets if necessary,” said Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy opposition party, as quoted by the Wa

On Friday, in a moment of predictive insight, Bank of America correctly warned that the greatest threat to EPS - i.e., markets - in the next 3 years "is an acceleration of global populism via taxation, regulation & government intervention." Just one day later, this warning to the financial establishment was starkly manifest in that ground zero for Europe's populist revolt, Italy, where the country's coalition government hinted at where the global populist wave is headed next when he slammed the country’s central bank leadership and stock market regulator, escalating its attacks on establishment figures ahead of the European parliamentary vote in May. Matteo Salvini, the outspoken head of the anti-immigrant League party, said the Bank of Italy and Consob, the country’s stock market regulator, should be "reduced to zero, more than changing one or two people, reduced to zero", or in other words eliminated, and that “fraudsters” who inflicted losses on Itali