Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took political responsibility for last week’s decision to impose a 40% tax on banks’ extra profits, a move that unsettled investors and wiped out an initial $10 billion in market value. The controversial levy, bundled with a host of other measures at the government’s final cabinet meeting before vacation, was her initiative, Meloni said in an interview with Italian newspapers from her holiday residence in the southern region of Puglia. She insisted it went through cabinet last Monday to avoid any delay in the approval, Meloni added. “The banking system has been quick to raise ... (full story)