The report is the European debt crisis is lapping at Italy's shores. This is as the bond market suddenly turned on Italian debt and raised the interest rate. The interest rate came back down but it shows the worlds investors are leery of Italy. Here's the report in The Economist.

http://www.economist.com/node/18958397

Aw, gawwd - bad news is with us lately. I hope some good news pops up soon.

   

You're a week late, Bruce....


international-politics-f2/the-eurozone-is-in-free-fall-t6660-15.html


The budget in Italy will be passed, my guess is it still wont be enough.

Was in Switzerland yesterday, the exchange rate vs the Swiss Franc just took a dump.

Gas went up 4 cents a litre in a day.

Going to be some real shit hitting the fan soon enough.

   

I may not be an economist but, If pretty much every country who isn't a third world shithole defaults on it's debt wouldn't that mean they'd have to tear down the current financial system and start again from scratch with every country having a clean sheet?

   

I'm not an economist either, but when you are to your eyebrows in debt, it is kinda hard to "start from scratch with a clean slate"... The ones that lent you the money are not going to say "poor you, you had a problem managing your money, you overspent, but you have no assets to sell, lets just say "it's ok, but don't do it again"."
Don't think that will work...

   

That was short but not light. Gawwwd.

   

The investors are not typically other countries' governments. Average individuals buy bonds, and won't if they all go worthless. That's the pattern the entire economy will take; caution and fear replacing investment in innovation. A restarted financial system would be an almost entirely unfunded financial system, and you can't do 99% of what our economy does without investment capital.

   

Gotta remember tho, with no "borrowed money" there would be no money. To forgive ALL debts would lead to there being no money in anyone's pockets. The average individual may have assets, but no money.

   

I'm not following you here. Money is an asset. It represents wealth.

   

Money is an asset, but not all assets are money. Would "currency" be a better term?

   

The Italians may be lazy, but they're not stupid or hard headed.

The austerity budget will go through. Italy will deal with this problem. They've done it time and time again in the past.

IMO to be on the record, Italy is the place to invest now while everyone is running, because they'll actually be fine.

   

Money is just a representation of wealth. If all money were to disapper, it wouldn't reduce that which it represents.

   

You are a braver man than me. Just before summer I sold a majority of my stocks in my LRIF. Just got a couple now and I'm really wary about buying anything.

   

Whats the difference between bravery and foolhardiness ?

The Italians are lazy.

They may not be too stupid, but they definitely have no new ideas,
they will even admit it.

The medium sized companies that were around in the 70's got swallowed up by globalization, too fat to compete with the Chinese, too small to merge
with the bigger companies.

The North is full of dead factories, and no one is coming to re open them.

Everything in Italy has money from outside in it; Germany, France, or Britain.
It's not geared to benefit the Italian people.
Very few now work for an 'Italian' company anymore.

I should know, it's my latest pit stop.