Devaluation was not an option. So in 2011, unable to withstand pressure from France, Germany and the financial markets, he was replaced by a technocrat, Mario Monti.
Italy heads to the polls on Sunday. It is likely to be another illustration of the uneasy relationship between the country’s volatile democratic politics and the strictures of Brussels’ political and economic orthodoxy.
It is an essential British interest that Putin’s efforts to split Germany, France and Italy from the front line states fails.
Both countries look set to continue to rub along uneasily, mixing elements of cooperation and competition along the way.
Mark Carney the “unreliable boyfriend”. Mario Draghi’s forthcoming downfall. Plus: will we ever get to hear Jared O’Mara’s maiden speech?
Never have we been as successful at being ‘in’ when we want to be in; while being ‘out’ of ever-closer union.
There are lessons for today from the rise and fall of the “Lords of Finance” in the 1920s. Risk has been continually mispriced during recent years.
Some things are just so last year: Gangnam Style, hosepipe bans, Mitt Romney and, of course, the Eurozone crisis. You remember the Eurozone crisis, don’t you? For a while it was all a bit touch-and-go, with the money markets threatening to cut off the flow of credit to countries like Spain and Italy. But after […]
The country’s suffering should be ended by bringing in a debt write-down and a new, free-floating currency.