Its Xmas at The Economist!
In case you haven't been paying attention to the news from Italy, Mario Monti said that he intended to resign , and shortly thereafter, Berlusconi threw his hat into the ring . As the Guardian put it If anyone doubted Silvio Berlusconi would launch an inflammatory, divisive election campaign, the three-time Italian prime minister did not disappoint on Tuesday, slamming Germany and the financial markets. In a live phone-in on one of his TV stations, the 76-year-old media mogul said the austerity measures introduced by the technocrat prime minister, Mario Monti , had dragged Italy into recession rather than reinvigorating it and were "German-centric". The spread – which uses the risk premium of Italian bonds over German bonds to measure confidence in Italy's economy – was a mere "trick" that had been used to "bring down" the government he led until November 2011. Mind you, it is Christmas, and Berlusconi is clearly the gift ...