Next into debt pit? Italy ducks as crisis hits

Italy's credit score has taken a knock - financial ratings firm Standard and Poor's has downgraded the country by one notch, deepening the Eurozone's economic woes. The agency also gave a gloomy forecast for the country's ability to get itself out of trouble. Italy's Premier Silvio Berlusconi has criticized the decision calling it 'out of touch with reality'. S&P said its move was prompted by Italy's weak economic growth and fears the government will fail to deal with its huge debt, despite parliament recently passing an austerity budget. The downgrade now means it could be more expensive for Italy to borrow money to pay its creditors. Meanwhile cash-strapped Greece has been given an ultimatum by EU and IMF offcials to enforce deeper budget cuts if it wants to avoid going bankrupt early next month. That's after Eurozone leaders chose to wait until October before ruling on whether to release the next 8 billion Euro bailout. But economists say more austerity measures will only make matters worse.
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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• RT
• Italy crisis
• S & P
• economic growth
• default
• austerity
• budget cuts
• weak economy
• Harlan Green
• unstable political situation
• Europe
• German banks
• inflation
• print
• Germans

[chessonmyshirt]

Yeh I started laughing when he said you have to print more money.

Do people realize that inflating and printing more money is only a temporary solution and the ONLY ONLY way to truly get out of debt is to default and absolve the debt?

[tranceemerson]

hah, you have to inflate? No! how about absolving the debt by defaulting, and declaring the debt unlawful, and kick out the IMF

[KornwestheimerSchwab]

Italia is bankcrupt, this is fact...

[anedonia8]

the debt does't mean anything. is not the expression of the economy of a country. italy has a total debt lowest than the uk and romania has the lowest in all europe.

[Francesko263]

@whitbyjet65 You're into this businnes, don't you?

[whitbyjet65]

@Francesko263 You do believe some shit!

[Francesko263]

@whitbyjet65 Really? It's the opposite. American and british financial institutions do speculate against italian bonds for the fall of our economy to buy at cheap prices our banks, enterprises, savings. Anglosaxon failed and sick economy does want to rise again by destroying southern europeans countries to steal them gold and everything they can take away. Europe is paying US bailout, not the opposite. It's the end of anglo-saxon superiority.

[whitbyjet65]

@Francesko263 It'll be Anglo-Saxon imperialism that bails you out!

[Francesko263]

The media are very happy to see "the fall of Rome". One day I'll be very happy to see the "fall of anglosaxon imperialism".

[ElectricSexPants]

Someone mention Islam!

[StarsManny]

@Timebubbles you might be confusing yearly debt with accrued debt over time. It might be running a surplus at the moment but it still has a debt it needs to pay off from the past. That's quite a common scenario, even for rich countries.

[Aengrod]

@chessonmyshirt

Yep, a true idiot :D Print mooar moneeeey, freee million-billion for everyuooooneee, WOOOOOO! :D