[kathy]

If you're referring to Greece, it ain't like that. It isn't surprising though, if that is your impression of the place and people if you've never been there and exclusively rely on foreign corporate media to frame your view of what's going on.

[trorseIrripsy]

"It isn't surprising though, if that is your impression of the place and people if you've never been there and exclusively rely on foreign corporate media to frame your view of what's going on."

^ now isn't that curious...

-------------------------

The lower Euro rate is great news for Italy as the tourist season arrives. And unlike Spain, Greece, Portugal it still has an important manufacturing sector and that will be helped too. And fortunately we've had something they have not had: much better fiscal policies under the Berlusconi government. If our Left had governed during these years we'd be Grease II.

Italy Not Among Most at Risk in Crisis, Moody’s Says (Update1)
May 07, 2010, 10:55 AM EDT
MORE FROM BUSINESSWEEK

May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Italy is not among the countries most at risk from Europe’s spreading debt crisis and its credit outlook for 2010 remains stable, Moody’s Investors Service said.
“The effort required for the country to keep the debt under control seems relatively modest compared to other European countries where corrections are brutal,” the rating company said in a report presented in Milan today.
Italy’s government yesterday trimmed its growth forecasts and revised up its debt projections. Italy must cut spending by 1.6 percent of gross domestic product between 2011 and 2012, or by about 25 billion euros ($32 billion) based on the new growth forecast of 1 percent this year, the Finance Ministry said. By contrast, Greece is being forced to cut more than 10 percentage points off its budget gap by 2014 to qualify for an aid package and avoid default.
There are “fundamental differences” among the economies of the euro-area periphery “as is reflected in our ratings,” Moody’s Senior Vice President Kristin Lindow said at the Milan conference. While Moody’s said its rating on Italian debt remains at Aa2 with a “stable” outlook, the country will still require “decisive” debt reduction, Moody’s said.
Past Success
In the past, “Italy has been able to generate quite important primary surpluses,” Moody’s sovereign-debt analyst Alexander Kockerbeck said in an interview. “It would be quite convincing to see primary surpluses coming back to levels between 3 percent and 4 percent.”
The rating company also said Italy’s banks are less exposed to the debt crisis and the country has “good credibility” in the markets. Moody’s had said yesterday in a report on the banking industry that sovereign-debt contagion may affect lenders in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. Italy’s central bank reacted by saying that the country’s lenders are “robust” enough to weather “tensions, even of considerable intensity.”
Amid concern that contagion from Greece’s fiscal crisis will spread to high-debt countries such as Spain and Portugal, the extra yield, or spread, investors demand to hold Italian 10- year government bonds rather than German bonds climbed today to 159 basis points, the widest since 1997, before falling below 150 points.
Italy’s benchmark FTSE MIB Index has dropped more than 12 percent this week, the worst since March 2009. The movements in the markets are “totally unjustified” and an “exaggerated reaction,” Telecom Italia SpA’s Chief Executive Officer Franco Bernabe said yesterday.
“The Italian situation is very solid, robust, more robust than many other countries,” he said in a conference call.

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Markets happy to buy €7.7bn of Italian debt[/SIZE]

Italian government bonds regarded as much safer bet than those of southern European neighbours, thanks to slow improvement in public deficit

A successful auction of Italian government bonds today has highlighted an apparent paradox — that, while other debt-laden southern European countries are being roasted in the markets, Silvio Berlusconi's Italy, with the biggest public debt of all, has so far been spared.

As a share of GDP, Italy's state borrowing, at more than 115%, is the world's seventh highest – higher than Greece's. Yet while investors were demanding a yield of 9.4% on 10-year Greek bonds, they were content with a return of less than 4.1% on their Italian equivalents.

Today's €7.7bn (£6.6bn) sale was the first by one of the eurozone's under-fire members since the ratings downgrades inflicted on Greece, Portugal and Spain. Demand outstripped supply by ratios of between 1.4 and 1.8 to one — better than the recent average in comparable Italian debt auctions. "Italy has not been the big culprit in recent years", said Giacomo Vaciago, professor of political economy at the Catholic University of Milan. "Though we have the image of a country with a lot of public debt, the present level is lower than it was 10 years ago."

Berlusconi's last government, from 2001 to 2006, was plagued by scares over its finances. But since he returned to office two years ago, his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, has succeeded in enforcing a more prudent approach. The government responded to the global crisis with stimulus packages that helped keep budget deficits in 2008 and 2009 to half those of Greece.

Last month, alarm bells rang when it emerged that, for the first time in almost 20 years, Italy was running a "primary deficit": even before interest payments, government spending was exceeding revenue. But there was less disquiet in the markets than might have been expected, for two reasons: first, because Italy's private indebtedness is lower than most other developed nations'; and, second, because most Italian state debt is actually held by its own citizens. As Vaciago says: "Italians don't go to the bank to get a loan, but to buy government paper." This means that, proportionately, Italian bonds weigh less heavily than Greek government securities in the portfolios of foreign banks, and are arguably less easy to speculate against.

"[Italy] is the biggest bond market in Europe and the third largest economy. It is not Greece or Portugal," Kenneth Broux, markets economist at Lloyds TSB said.

A Carnegie Endowment report last week argued that the biggest threat to its public finances was the scant prospects for growth. Italy, it noted, had lost "as much competitiveness as Greece since joining the Euro area. Italy's unit cost of labour rose 32% from 2000 to 2009, comparable to Greece's 34% rise over the same period."

Historically, Italy has managed to export its way out of trouble. But there are doubts over whether it can do so this time: an EU report last year found that in the 10 years to 2008, exports of goods and services grew more slowly in Italy than in any other member country.

Structural reform might offer a way out. But, like all too many other southern European politicians, Berlusconi and Tremonti have been deeply reluctant to court the political unpopularity such changes would inevitably bring. "Not even when you have a centre-right government in this country do you get centre-right reform," said Vaciago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...ment-bond-sale

[vioppyskype]

If Moody's says all is good, then who's to worry?

Italy Not Among Most at Risk in Crisis, Moody’s Says After all, Moody's has been nothing but helpful in assuring that the financial sector of the US stays strong and vibrant and that the banks here maintain their trusted position as leaders in our Free Market Capitalist economy.

[markoiutrfffdsa]

I'm not worried ...at least until the Milan collections feature riot gear.

[Yifnvmzp]

"It isn't surprising though, if that is your impression of the place and people if you've never been there and exclusively rely on foreign corporate media to frame your view of what's going on."

^ now isn't that curious...

-------------------------

Not curious at all, Signor Instigator. I've actually been to Italy several times, if you're peevishly referring to our previous disagreements about your curious little land.

Now, don't instigate a new argument (though I know after a certain time has passed without one, you start to miss me).

[Seisyvose]

Love is in the air ^

[Tainlyferfara]

If Moody's says all is good, then who's to worry?



After all, Moody's has been nothing but helpful in assuring that the financial sector of the US stays strong and vibrant and that the banks here maintain their trusted position as leaders in our Free Market Capitalist economy.

Anyway, I would like to see Italy crash and burn for a while. Teach its haughty people a little humility.

[VXHLrsO1]

"I've actually been to Italy several times "

Whoa... who knew? Those "several times" must have been quite instructive.

I really had the impression you were "relying on foreign corporate media to frame your view of what's going on". Sorry.

------

(Italy world renown for it's art, culture, food, drink and haughty people. ......Would make a great slogan for the tourist bureau. LOL.)

[h0ldem]

Poor old sad Fab. Once again with nothing better to amuse himself, except perpetuating silly tit for tats in typically arrogant fashion. Did I say haughty? Oh yeah. ^Example number one, calling from his bat phone in sunny Tuscany.

Get back on topic and quit the clownish freak show.

[Enladalusange]

Yes, back to Italy crashing and bur... er... excuse me, back to Greece crashing and burning:

Markets Slump as Euro Falls and Greece Jitters Return

By BETTINA WASSENER
Published: May 14, 2010

The beleaguered euro fell to an 18-month low and stocks were off sharply around the world on Friday amid lingering nervousness about the state of European nations’ finances and the pace of the global recovery.

The euro fell below $1.24, its weakest level against the dollar since November 2008, only days after a major European initiative meant to restore confidence in the currency and quell fears that a sovereign debt crisis could spread.

Stocks slumped on Wall Street, following the day’s trend in Asia and Europe. Shortly after noon, the Dow Jones industrial average was off 233.38 points, or 2.2 percent, at 10,549.57. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 2.6 percent, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite was 2.9 percent lower.

Major indexes in Europe opened lower on Friday and accelerated their losses as the day progressed. By the end of the day, the Euro Stoxx 50 index of blue chips was down 3.7 percent.

In France, the CAC 40 in Paris slumped 4.6 percent, and in London, the FTSE 100 lost 3.1 percent. The benchmark DAX index in Germany was also down about 3.1 percent.

A cautious outlook from Sony, which released earnings after the close of trade on Thursday, set the negative tone in Asia by shining the spotlight on how the massive currency swings set off by the global jitters about Greece’s debt could affect companies as far away as Japan.

The consumer electronics giant, which makes about 25 percent of its sales in Europe, forecast a profit of 50 billion yen, or $541 million, for the current business year, but also warned that the European troubles could jeopardize its return to profit.

This helped revive concerns about the impact of the still-feeble economic recovery in the United States, and of the huge savings efforts being put in place by European governments struggling to reduce their budget deficits.

And while the weak euro may be welcome news for European exporters, as it makes their goods cheaper for consumers overseas, it is a worry for non-European companies that rely heavily on sales to Europe, like those in export-dependent Japan and China.

The losses capped a tumultuous week in the global financial markets, which on Monday received much-needed support from a giant financing package that was designed to aid some of Europe’s most deeply indebted countries and stave off a potential debt default.

But sentiment has remained fragile, with several ups and downs during the course of the week. Although investors welcomed the global efforts to contain the crisis, they remained intensely nervous of the long-term costs and the prospects of a slowdown in Europe’s already weak recovery.

In a research note Friday, analysts at Barclays Capital summed up the overall picture: “Calm after the tempest, but still a perilous climb.”

By Friday, investor sentiment had turned decidedly negative again: Asian stocks were mostly down, and the sell-off gathered pace as the European day progressed.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index ended 1.5 percent lower, and Sony shares slumped 6.8 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, the stock markets in Taiwan and South Korea edged up less than 0.1 percent after similarly muted losses earlier in the session — mirroring the mixed performance shown by many of the world’s markets all week. The Straits Times index in Singapore slipped 0.4 percent.

“What surprised me was that there was no real feel-good factor,” said Markus Rösgen, head of regional strategy at Citigroup in Hong Kong, referring to the global market reaction to the bailout package. “But at the end of the day, Europe has written an insurance policy, rather than pumping actual money into the market.”

Many analysts also believe a debt default — or a rescheduling of some of Greece’s debt — is still likely further down the line. This is continuing to weigh on the euro, which has received little respite from the bailout news. Since the start of the year, the European currency has fallen 13 percent against the dollar and 14 percent against the yen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/bu...ef=global-home