"Italy is a geographical expression". Well, that's what Prince Metternich called it in 1849 but any day now it might turn into an 'obscene expression', especially amongst the Euro-fantasists struggling frantically to re-erect their house of sand. Italian bond yields, that is, the interest Italy will have to pay on its borrowings, edged up to 6.4%, a new euro-era record, although they eased off slightly on news that the ECB had stepped in to buy them. That means that the main European bank, the one specifically set up to be a bulwark against dodgy dealing, is now buying up some of the shakiest bonds in the world. And that's just today, look at this diagram via The Daily Telegraph and you will see how much Italy has to raise over the next 13 months:
According to Spiegel, the French bank, BNP Paribas, dumped €8.3 billion worth of Italian bonds over the last three months. God, and their CEO, knows how much they lost on those deals but when they announced it their shares rocketed upwards! And these are the very same bonds that the ECB is now buying. According to the Spiegel story, "Analysts consider a rate of 7.0 percent to be the level at which investors stop buying sovereign bonds." So, only 0.6% to go which means that December should result in 'interesting times' because the Italians will need to borrow around €12bn. So everyone with any sense is dumping Italian bonds except the ECB and also, possibly, the IMF. At which point, our brave prime minister steps forward and tells us that he is going to put even more money into the IMF, well, it's easy to be brave with OPM (Other People's Money).
What can one say? Nothing except, perhaps, 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, or, 'Buon Natale e un felice anno nuovo'.
ADDITIONAL: An amusing story was reported by The Telegraph stating that Sarkozy had been riled by comments on Newsnight by the BBC's economics editor, Paul Mason, however, Mason had the last laugh:
13.35 Sarkozy can't resist a bit of Brit-bashing. He insults BBC Newsnight 's economics editor Paul Mason, saying he could not understand the EU because he is from an island! Paul's ready with a reply tho:
@paulmasonnews Sarko saying I don't understand the subtleties of Europe because I am from an island. Merci. Napoleon was from an island also.
I would add that Napoleon also ended up on an island!
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