Silvio Berlusconi dis something that George W. Bush could only dream of, he partially privatized the Italian social security system.

Well, the “beneficiaries”, of the policy, the roughly 1.2 million people who made the switch to privately managed accounts, are now screaming like defrauded Italians, (which they are) because their accounts have gone south with the markets, and the management fees have taken most of what is left, and now they want their bailout.

How many times does this have to happen until people realize that taking a safety net, and making it a revenue stream for a broker is a bad thing?