Mario Draghi's first task as Bank of Italy's new governor was accomplished the moment his name was announced the respected No. 2 man at Goldman Sachs instantly restored credibility to Italy's besmirched financial system. After a six-month drama of piled-up ethical questions and judicial inquiries, longtime central banker Antonio Fazio finally stepped down last month.
While several key private Italian bankers are being investigated in probes of two bank takeovers that Fazio green-lighted, Fazio denies any wrongdoing. (Last week, three more financial executives resigned, and the banker closest to Fazio, Gianpiero Fiorani, was interrogated in the Milan...