Market Currents

After being up nearly 4% earlier, Italy's FTSE MIB (EWI) turns negative as Berlusconi's...

Monday, February 25, 10:57 AM ET
After being up nearly 4% earlier, Italy's FTSE MIB (EWI) turns negative as Berlusconi's coalition - at this moment - looks to have taken the Senate. Along with that is the surprisingly poor showing by Brussels' man in Rome, Mario Monti. He's now at 8% - too small to be allowed any influence over the new government. Up nearly 3% earlier, the Stoxx 50 (FEZ) is back to flat. The euro clings to a tiny slice of its earlier gains.

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This news story has 10 comments:

Gary Jakacky Comments (1860)

Good...the worse "Brussels men" do EVERYWHERE, the sooner Europe will collapse and the world can form a new coalition of economic powers, not wannabes.

25 Feb, 11:15 AM Reply Like

spald_fr Comments (2487)

So let me get this right. There's no money left for social contracts to the Italian citizenry. Austerity is implemented but the citizens do not like to budget downwards. So they call an election to vote in another party who does what? Abandon austerity and spend money it doesn't have? What does this election accomplish? Clearly I'm not European.

25 Feb, 12:56 PM Reply Like

Humble Value Miner Comments (370)

actually the real thing Europeans would like is to print money like USA, but Germans don't want this.......... they pretend we do pay with austerity our debts (and possibly that then we do make more debt in order to buy Volkswagens and Mercedes)
Italian elections have been called because the Monti government lost the Parliament approval and it had no sense to find a replacement because the natural termination of the cycle was anyway scheduled for April.
By the way Monti government was a sort of bi-partisan government established after Berlusconi lost the Parliament approval.
Anyway the Italian government is not directly elected: the President of the Republic suggests a Premier that must then be approved by the Parliament, and can govern until it is able to maintain the "confidence" vote. If the government lose "confidence" then a new Premier can be appointed (without elections; elections are needed if the President is unable to find a Premier that can find support).
Before Berlusconi, that owns televisions and has been suspected to buy opposition senators with good money, Italian governments very often used to last less than one year.
By the way, Rome was not founded yesterday, so Italians are used to go on even without a government (possibly better, government just eats money).

25 Feb, 02:41 PM Reply Like

Freedoms Truth Comments (714)

Dont be so hard on them, it's not like they re-elected an job-killing economic incompetent who's bankrupting the treasury, like the American voters did in November.

26 Feb, 12:29 AM Reply Like