Italy's bond yields at record levels today ....

[Mich the Tester]

But it does if its bond yields are close to 7%. Why is it that you Eurolanders cannot make the distinction between "should not" and "is"?

We is idealistic innit.

Can they not borrow money from the ECB at a lower rate with gold as collateral, seeing as they have a huge gold reserve?

[sasguru]

But the UK, from 1996-2006 was actually just above 2.5%...

2.5% versus 1% is massive over 10/20 years.

[Mich the Tester]

Why can't we do what Switzerland does and boot them out after 10 years?

Not sure if they do that anymore, but if they do it's after said immigrants have managed to earn themselves quite a nice nest egg and store it in a Swiss bank. To do that, they have to be paid a few quid more than they are in the UK or Italy.