A curious thing happened in the Italian parliament last week. The chamber of deputies voted unanimously in favour of a motion to introduce a parallel currency in Italy — the so-called mini-BOTs. It was a non-binding motion. [...] Mini-BOTs would look like real money. Their denominations would be the same as euro notes. Depending on how they are designed, Italians could even pay their taxes with them. For this reason they would stand a good chance of becoming an accepted means of payment. Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, gave his view last week: “ Mini-BOTs are either money and then they are illegal, or they are debt and then the stock of debt goes up. I don’t think there is a third possibility. ” [...] In Brussels, meanwhile, the European Commission has triggered the early stages of what is known as an excessive deficit procedure against Italy. It is the first of a number of steps that could eventually end up in a financial penalty. The commission’s