SODOM & GOMORRAH: We in America (who pay attention to such things) are baffled and horrified by the impending collapse of the Euro. It’s like watching one of your friends get beaten up in school, knowing that you’d be next.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is perhaps an idiot. The Economist has called for his resignation or electoral defeat for years; they have criticised the man as he’s endured various scandals and affairs. We cannot hold Mr. Berlusconi’s idiocy against him, of course; many people are idiots. The blame rests on the Italian state, for they have clinged to the democratic lie, which has handed over the power of the state to a man like Silvio Berlusconi. The Italians themselves are stuck in a pitiable condition; they have been force fed democracy and national unity, and the few that have had the courage to suggest that Italy deserves better have been called idiots. There is a conflict here: either Berlusconi or those who oppose the system that created Berlusconi are idiots. We doubt that both sides are idiotic.
The Euro is collapsing. Greece will default, Italy’s debt has now apparently passed the point of no return. European governments can decide to either bail each other out and face region-wide default or abandon the Euro and potentially face individual default. Borrowing costs in Italy have now surpassed the 7% threshold; the country is now at risk of being insolvent. Berlusconi’s impending resignation will do nothing to stop the impending collapse; he is just a man.
Italy may soon join the other countries in need of a bailout; but who, friends, will bail out the bail-outters? The world will eventually run out of Berlusconis.