European debt crisis<\/a>, pushing Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain at least temporarily into the wings and allowing Mr. Berlusconi to assume what seems to be his natural place, which is in the spotlight. On his 75-year-old shoulders rests the task of shoring up Italy\u2019s finances so that the European Central Bank buys more Italian sovereign debt, to gain French and German support for a larger bailout fund to protect Italy\u2019s banks, and to keep Italy from becoming another Greece and plunging the world into an even more devastating financial crisis\u2026.<\/p>\nGreece\u2019s debt is modest by comparison, and the fierce effort waged by European banks to avoid a huge write-down on the value of their Greek loans was less about Greece then about setting a precedent that could extend to Italy and other heavily indebted countries. Outside of Italy, French banks have the biggest exposure to Italian sovereign debt \u2014 over $500 billion, according to Goldman Sachs. And who knows what institutions (including American ones) insured all that debt?\u2026<\/p>\n
Perhaps that shouldn\u2019t have been much of a surprise. However reasonable in the abstract, the reforms go to the heart of the Italian way of life, which should be obvious to anyone who has whiled away a few hours in one of Italy\u2019s picturesque Renaissance squares watching Italians leisurely sipping cappuccinos. Although Italy has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe (7.9 percent as of August), that\u2019s because so many people aren\u2019t looking for jobs. Only 57 percent of people ages 15 to 64 were employed in 2010, one of the lowest rates in the world\u2026. over half a million Italians retired before age 50, according to a small business group report released this week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mercy me, James B. Stewart observes that our financial future is tethered to the wisdom of Berlusconi. We are not in good hands folks. It finally dawned on me this week that the value of my retirement account might depend on\u00a0Silvio Berlusconi\u2026. [Europe\u2019s #1 ranking Mr Scandalo, whose scandals\u2026] \u2026 might have remained diverting tabloid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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