Italy

The escalation of the European debt crisis and mounting evidence of new economic contraction has increased the scrutiny on the region. Yet it seems like many observers may be failing to grasp several important points, including the nature…

Markets failed to get a lasting boost from change in EZ governments; dollar broadly higher into open. Italy auction met with decent response, but higher yields nonetheless ; change in governments no panacea in EZ. Japan’s preliminary Q3…

Down with the Eurozone - Nouriel Roubini - Project Syndicate For the last decade, the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) were the eurozone's consumers of first and last resort, spending more than their income…

Paul Krugman show he understands the sovereign debt crisis.

Italian 10-year yields are now down below 6.5%, that’s a full percentage point lower than on Wednesday. Market players suspect ECB intervention is behind the sizable move. Still, everyone is breathing a sigh of relief as we head into the…

This chart from Der Spiegel shows you that the ECB has been buying a lot of periphery bonds. But, no matter how much they have bought, their purchases are dwarfed by the absolute magnitude of bonds coming due next year in Italy, over 300…

When you run through the scenarios, really the only medium term solution that makes sense is to allow the ECB to put a permanent bid on Italian and Spanish bonds. The problem with such a move is that it reduces pressure on those governments…

We are experiencing a European bond market crash. There’s not much time left. Make your trades now because a policy response is imminent; I’m thinking by Monday morning.

This is a translation from a Handelsblatt interview with Amgela Merkel. MUST READ.

The scale of the Italian challenge is far greater than Greece's as Italy's sovereign debt is bigger than Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal's put together. Greece has, prior to the coming haircuts, about 350 bln euros of debt. Italy has to…