Italy Watch...

[adam2]

Problems ongoing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45954022

The Italian government has approved a budget that has popular appeal but that does nothing to address the alarming level of government debt.

The EU have not approved the budget and told the Italian government to prepare a new one.

A showdown between the EU and the Italian government seems likely.

[raspberry-blower]

Naked Capitalism: Stand-off between Italy and Euro Commission escalates after Commission rejects Italian budget

Having said all of this, the Commission has launched a completely bone-headed course of action (and that’s before the fact that it is also economically backwards). Confronting Italy now has two bad effects. Rising interest rates don’t just increase the borrowing costs of the government. They also increase the funding costs of Italian banks. They’ve been wobbling on the verge of a crisis for over a year. The EU does not have a workable bank resolution regime right now. Banking experts regard the so-called Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, made effective in early 2016, as a train wreck that will make bank runs more likely. So pushing the Italian banks into more distress when global growth is starting to look like it might falter is not a smart move.

On top of that, roughing up Italy now plays right into the hands of the Brexiteers in the UK. There is a very small, but not impossible chance that the UK will have a second referendum. If that happens, the Leave camp would be sure to wave the Commission pushing around a populist government as a bloody flag during the campaign. Why jeopardize the possibility that the UK will back out of Brexit?

The EU appears to be keen on repeating another "Brexit" - whatever this will get labelled as. Given the precarious nature of the Italian banking system it could be a full blown economic crisis

[fuzzy]

Lets hope this it. I've got my sardines:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10- ... ccelerates

[Little John]

It always makes me laugh when I see those pretty little red lines and boxes they superimpose over the market movement s- as if they indicate some recognizable pattern is occurring in the peaks and troughs - when there is next to no pattern. It goes up, it goes down. That's the only consistent pattern.

And yes, let's hope this is it

[kenneal - lagger]

Hold the front page! "What goes up seems to come down!!"

[adam2]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46203605

Latest, Italian government set a "non approved" budget and may face fines by the EU.