Your friendly failed state next door

Call me an optimist, but I don't  think anything good will come out of the elections in Italy this week end. Unlike in Greece, there is no party of any importance that says 'let's keep the Euro but loose the austerity'. That's a pity because unlike Greece Italy would probably be big enough to put some significant pressure on the rest of Europe. So, the choice is between two types of parties: one type (led by Bersani and Monti) that say 'let's keep the Euro and the austerity' and the other (Berlusconi and Grillo) that say more or less openly 'lets loose the Euro and the austerity'. Not much to look forward to. But then again no one ever said that progress was inevitable and a good part of the history of modern Italy is made up of larger and smaller failures.