Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who dominated Italian politics for almost two decades, resigned as fallout from his legal woes and contagion from the euro- region’s debt crisis led his government to unravel.
Berlusconi presented his resignation last night to President Giorgio Napolitano after the parliament in Rome approved measures to spur growth and reduce the euro-area’s second-biggest debt. Napolitano will ask former European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti to form a government tomorrow after consulting with the country’s political parties. Talks are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Rome.
Berlusconi, 75, said on Nov. 8 that he would resign as soon as the budget measures were passed. Defections had left him without a majority in parliament, and Italy’s 10-year bond yield had surged past the 7 percent threshold that led Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek EU bailouts. Squabbling among his Cabinet paralyzed has government and his defense of charges that include bribery and paying for sex with a minor sapped his popularity at home and undercut his support abroad.
“We cannot imagine that without Berlusconi our problems are solved, but without Berlusconi we can start working on how to solve the problem,” Rocco Buttiglione, a member of the Union of Centrists and a member of Berlusconi’s previous government, said yesterday in Rome.
Celebrated Departure
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-12/berlusconi-resigns-as-monti-prepares-new-italian-
government.html
government.html
And something for fun from Chris Martenson's Blog. QB
Turd Ferguson: The Inexorable March Higher For Precious Metals
Turd Ferguson is a funny guy.
But there's one thing this irreverent, acerbically goofball forecaster is stone-cold serious about: the need to build personal exposure to the precious metals.
For him, it's a straightforward mathematical certainty that the global economy must collapse under the weight of the excessive (and exponentially compounding) credit amassed over the past several decades. The debt is simply too large to be serviced.
As a growing number of analysts (including Chris) are predicting, Turd sees the replacement of the world's current monetary regimes as the endgame to this story. And he believes we are watching that endgame unfold in real-time now.
In this interview with Chris, Turd discusses his reasons why gold and silver offer the best prospect for preserving wealth through the coming devaluation of world currencies, despite his strong conviction that the markets for these metals are heavily price-manipulated.
In fact, it's precisely due to this manipulation that Turd is able to predict short-term price movements in gold and silver as confidently as he does: