Sunset of the EU: the glory that was Greece, the splendor that was Rome

EU debt crisis worsens…

ITALY: Moody’s announcement placing Italy’s Aa2 rating on review for downgrade of the next 90 days came after European markets had closed for the weekend. The agency said structural weaknesses such as a rigid labor market posed a challenge to growth. Italy’s potential downgrade highlights the risks facing indebted European countries as they struggle to avoid a Greece-style crisis. Markets are worried that Italy, like Greece, will struggle to make the necessary spending cuts and other fiscal measures needed to cut its debts to affordable levels. “The Moody’s news on Italy reinforces the ECB’s concern about the prospect of contagion. And contagion should not happen,” said Greg Salvaggio, senior vice president at Tempus Consulting in Washington. –The Telegraph

 GREECE: A year in, and the IMF deal is not working. Greece has been in recession for two years and on official forecasts this will be its third. When I ask Athens University economist Yanis Varoufakis to describe the economy, he shoots back one sentence: “It’s in freefall.” Sitting on the balcony of his flat behind the Acropolis, he throws out some statistics: 50,000 businesses went bankrupt last year, industrial production fell 20% and will drop another 12% this year. Unemployment has surged, so that one in six of the workforce doesn’t have a job. These are the sort of figures associated with a depression, and the predictable result is that the public finances are getting worse. Greece’s debt has ballooned to 153% of GDP; on Varoufakis’s projections, even if ministers manage to make all their promised cuts, the government will owe three times the entire national income. Behind these numbers lie the stories of a society in distress. “Don’t be surprised if Athens goes up in flames,” the 50-year old says. “And don’t be sad, either.” –Guardian UK

SPAIN: Madrid– Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Madrid Sunday blaming bankers and politicians for causing a financial crisis that forced the country to adopt painful spending cuts. Demonstrators of all ages linked to a protest movement called the “indignants” assembled early Sunday in several neighborhoods on the outskirts of Madrid. They then formed six columns and converged on the city centre, gathering near Spain’s parliament where they met various forms of police resistance, including 12 vans blocking several major roads. Protests over the economic crisis and soaring unemployment began in Madrid on May 15 and fanned out nationwide as word spread by Twitter and Facebook among demonstrators. The banks and the governments that caused this situation must know that we do not agree with the measures and the budget cuts, that we intend to be heard”, the “indignants” movement said in its call for nationwide protests. –Yahoo News