Throughout Italy stockbrokers were on strike last week against the government. All of Italy's ten stock exchanges were closed to protest a new law, effective next week, that will require brokers to report names of all stock buyers and sellers each day. Thus the government hopes to collect taxes that investors have blithely avoided in the past by trading in covert accounts.
Even before the strike started in Italy's two biggest exchanges, Milan and Turin, it was evident that the new law might do more harm than good. Turnover on the Milan exchange, fifth most important in the world (after New...
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