Compared to this, Greece was just a sideshow. Italy could blow Europe to pieces

Daily Mail

Watching the cost of servicing Italy’s debt surge past the level that triggered bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal, I found one of Kipling’s verses forming in my mind:

This is midnight — let no star

Delude us — dawn is very far.
This is the tempest long foretold —
Slow to make head but sure to hold.

Italy is the third-largest economy in the EU, and the eighth largest on the planet. Its outstanding debt of €1.9 trillion (£1.6 trillion) accounts for 25 per cent of all the debt in the eurozone. 


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