Will this Berlusconi government finally collapse?

[Beet]

Wow, you never thought you'd see the day when Keystone Phil has given up on Silvio Berlusconi but Beet supports him. Yes. Now, is a very delicate time for Europe. It is critical that as many PIIGS governments survive as possible, particularly if the alternative is not decisive. Any time in the past 10 years I would have gladly twisted a knife into Berlusconi politically, but it is best that he makes it through this confidence vote.

[Beet]

I've been waiting for this for years, but I really startthinking this guy is just invulnerable.

After this guy is gone, Italy will come under speculative attack by the bond markets. The Left will then take the blame. We've seen it happen before... we need to keep Berlusconi in there because he has been doing a good job protecting Italy from the bond markets. They seem to be friendlier towards right wing governments.

[Beet]

I've been waiting for this for years, but I really startthinking this guy is just invulnerable.

After this guy is gone, Italy will come under speculative attack by the bond markets. The Left will then take the blame. We've seen it happen before... we need to keep Berlusconi in there because he has been doing a good job protecting Italy from the bond markets. They seem to be friendlier towards right wing governments.

That's utterly silly.

Well this is the guy who didn't want Christine O'Donnell to win the primary because he believed she would win the general.

I didn't believe she would win until she started racking up massive fundraising. She had a chance. She blew it by not running a serious campaign, while Coons ran a serious one. Had Coons assumed that he would win and coasted, while O'Donnell actually tried to win, she would have had a chance.

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Lol, no. I think we're on the same side in the sense that if what happens in Italy is as benign as the Pentapartito unraveling, it's certainly see no problem with it. What I'm more afraid of is what happened in the aftermath of the New Democracy defeat in Greece in 2009-- only multiply by a factor of 5 or 10.

[Beet]

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Lol, no. I think we're on the same side in the sense that if what happens in Italy is as benign as the Pentapartito unraveling, it's certainly see no problem with it. What I'm more afraid of is what happened in the aftermath of the New Democracy defeat in Greece in 2009-- only multiply by a factor of 5 or 10.

The defeat of ND caused the Greek crisis ? LOL

Yeah, that ought to be the 'stupid comment of the year' or something.

Defeat of ND caused the Greek crisis because the next government came in and tried to come clean. Also, I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but there are very few left wing governments in Europe but all of the countries targeted thus far have been run by left of center governments. Even Fianna Fail is to some extent, though in reality they are only centrist. Thus, the bond markets might have been protecting Italy thus far due to Berlusconi. If it gets an unstable or left wing government all hell will break loose.

Regardless, we can all agree that Italy has held up very well under Berlusconi. It is the only PIIGS whose bond spreads haven't spiked massively. Yet it has the highest debt to GDP besides Greece. For the average Italian person, this is much more important than a sex scandal.