"Insight?" Or propaganda?

[No Elephants]

Insight: Rome will burn, regardless of Italian election result
By Michael Stott

ROME | Wed Feb 20, 2013 2:36am EST

(Reuters) - Regardless of who wins next weekend's parliamentary election, Italy's long economic decline is likely to continue because the next government won't be strong enough to pursue the tough reforms needed to make its economy competitive again.

Bankers, diplomats and industrialists in Rome and Milan despair at how Italians are shifting allegiances ahead of the February 24-25 vote to favor anti-establishment upstarts and show disgust with the established parties.

snip

The colorful cast of candidates includes disgraced media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, one of the world's richest men, the bespectacled academic Monti, anti-establishment comedian Beppe Grillo who campaigns from a camper van, and Nichi Vendola, a former communist poet who is the governor of Puglia.

snip

Ivestors have so far taken a relaxed view, relying on polls produced until the legal deadline for surveys of Feb 10.

One of the best indicators that they are not worried: Italian benchmark 10-year bond yields, which topped six percent during the country's worst political moments in 2011, are now trading around 4.4 percent, almost a full percentage point lower than those of Spain.

Italian stocks have performed broadly in line with the wider European market since January, despite the election and a wave of scandals which has engulfed several leading Italian groups.

But observers in Italy are increasingly nervous that the rosy election scenario favored by investors may not work out.

Very long story at http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/us-italy-election-idUSBRE91J08820130220



Since when are diplomats economists? And, if anyone knows how to bankrupt a nation for selfish greed, surely it's banksters and big business.

Sounds as though Italy is a lot like any of the post collapse nations--the investor class doing well. But, they are whining about the rank and file anyway.

[Enthusiast]

1. The place is a mess.

Kind of like the U.S.