Euro Under Pressure Post Italy Poll

Italy under Pressure as Euro Crisis Spreads

Newspaper article Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, PA)

Italy under Pressure as Euro Crisis Spreads

Article excerpt

VENICE, Italy — Could Italy be next? As Spain becomes the fourth eurozone nation to accept an international bailout, Italian officials are faced anew with a question that has haunted them since Europe’s debt crisis broke open three years ago. When will the financial infection cross our borders?

“There is a permanent risk of contagion,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said at a weekend conference near Venice. “That is why strengthening the eurozone is of collective interest.”

But it is far from clear whether Mr. Monti can keep Italy from being the next big domino to fall. Italian officials are now privately expressing alarm that even a 100 billion-euro bailout for Spain’s banks may not stop the troubles from spreading.

Although Mr. Monti — a former European Commission member who took power in an emergency after the euro crisis forced Silvio Berlusconi from office in November — has a reputation as a savvy leader trusted by international officials, he faces a host of problems at home that may ultimately lead investors to take aim at this too-big-to-fail, 2 trillion-euro economy.

As concern grew about Italy’s prospects, investors were dumping the government bonds Monday, causing the price to dip and the yield, a measure of Italy’s borrowing costs, to rise.

“There’s no doubt contagion will come to Italy,” Daniele Sottile, a managing partner at the Milan-based financial advisors Vitale & Associati, said at the weekend conference, convened by the Council for the United States and Italy on an island near Venice. “It’s proof that the European mechanisms designed to stop the crisis are not working.”

Italy’s pressing issues include the fact that Spain’s acceptance of a bailout means Madrid can no longer serve as a guarantor of one of Europe’s financial firewalls, the European Financial Stability Facility, which is meant to quarantine the debt crisis. That means Italy, Europe’s third-biggest economy, behind Germany and France, will have to shoulder a larger portion of the bill — even as Italy grapples with its own sharp economic downturn. …

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Italy under Pressure as Euro Crisis Spreads

Newspaper article Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, PA)

Italy under Pressure as Euro Crisis Spreads

Article excerpt

VENICE, Italy — Could Italy be next? As Spain becomes the fourth eurozone nation to accept an international bailout, Italian officials are faced anew with a question that has haunted them since Europe’s debt crisis broke open three years ago. When will the financial infection cross our borders?

“There is a permanent risk of contagion,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said at a weekend conference near Venice. “That is why strengthening the eurozone is of collective interest.”

But it is far from clear whether Mr. Monti can keep Italy from being the next big domino to fall. Italian officials are now privately expressing alarm that even a 100 billion-euro bailout for Spain’s banks may not stop the troubles from spreading.

Although Mr. Monti — a former European Commission member who took power in an emergency after the euro crisis forced Silvio Berlusconi from office in November — has a reputation as a savvy leader trusted by international officials, he faces a host of problems at home that may ultimately lead investors to take aim at this too-big-to-fail, 2 trillion-euro economy.

As concern grew about Italy’s prospects, investors were dumping the government bonds Monday, causing the price to dip and the yield, a measure of Italy’s borrowing costs, to rise.

“There’s no doubt contagion will come to Italy,” Daniele Sottile, a managing partner at the Milan-based financial advisors Vitale & Associati, said at the weekend conference, convened by the Council for the United States and Italy on an island near Venice. “It’s proof that the European mechanisms designed to stop the crisis are not working.”

Italy’s pressing issues include the fact that Spain’s acceptance of a bailout means Madrid can no longer serve as a guarantor of one of Europe’s financial firewalls, the European Financial Stability Facility, which is meant to quarantine the debt crisis. That means Italy, Europe’s third-biggest economy, behind Germany and France, will have to shoulder a larger portion of the bill — even as Italy grapples with its own sharp economic downturn. …

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• Full access to this article and over 14 million more from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers
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• Access to powerful writing and research tools