Moody's downgraded Italy three notches from AA2 to A2

[manclarky]

I think we need caption competition.

Berlusconi shows his pimp the pubic expanse his last underage hooker had

[Mich the Tester]

**** Moodys and the others - they are part of the ******* problem - who listens to these overpaid loons?

Indeed. And they obviously don't have a bloody clue what they're on about. Italy might have a tulip prime minister and a cash flow problem, but look at the Italian government's property; buildings, art collections, gold, ships and shares in some pretty fantastic businesses; all this is easily enough to cover the debts many times over. In fact, the only reason Italy would be likely to default is if some yankee tulip-for-brains who thinks 'yurrup' is the capital of Paris downgrades them and thereby makes them pay silly rates of interest.

I really think it's time to close down these charlatans .

[CheeseSlice]

Time to buy beans yet?

Nah, but it is time to start quoting day rates in Krugerrands

[AtW]

look at the Italian government's property; buildings, art collections, gold, ships and shares in some pretty fantastic businesses; all this is easily enough to cover the debts many times over.

No it's not - this stuff is not liquid and in all probability illegal to sell - who'd be able to afford so much of stuff anyway, only Govt that can print money - everyone else has got stuff tied up in shares and other stuff.

[centurian]

WHS

It isn't that governments can't sort out the problem - it's that they won't.

The downgrades that have occurred are mostly due to political inaction, rather than the fiscal hard numbers. That's because all of these problems are inherently solvable in the long term, but it relies on governments telling their own people the truth and then making the really tough decisions, which are extremely unpopular - and they are just not doing that...

[Mich the Tester]

No it's not - this stuff is not liquid and in all probability illegal to sell - who'd be able to afford so much of stuff anyway, only Govt that can print money - everyone else has got stuff tied up in shares and other stuff.

Nonsense. The Italian state still holds a stake in FIAT, ENI and Parmalat (which seems to have recovered from its scandals) whose shares can be sold, and that's just to name a few. They have 2,300 tons of gold, the fourth biggest gold reserve in the world. All this can be sold before moving on to buildings, art collections and privatising state businesses.

[TimberWolf]

Nonsense. The Italian state still holds a stake in FIAT, ENI and Parmalat (which seems to have recovered from its scandals) whose shares can be sold, and that's just to name a few. They have 2,300 tons of gold, the fourth biggest gold reserve in the world. All this can be sold before moving on to buildings, art collections and privatising state businesses.

Berlusconi is a minted too:

As of 2011, Forbes magazine has ranked him as the 118th richest man in the world with a net worth of US$7.8 billion.
Silvio Berlusconi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Makes Blair look like an amateur.

[Mich the Tester]

Berlusconi is a minted too:


Makes Blair look like an amateur.

I was about to say he's nearly as corrupt as Tony B Liar!

[minestrone]

Italy is a basket case of an economy, even the romans shipped out to Turkey when the corruption got too much.

[TimberWolf]

I was about to say he's nearly as corrupt as Tony B Liar!

I havn't read his entire corrupt portfolio, but this sounds quite Blairesque:

The funding sources are still unknown because of the complex system of holding companies that makes them impossible to trace, despite investigations conducted by various state attorneys.