I discuss Italy and the ECB on CNBC.
In the words of the late, great Muhammad Ali, “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
For the Eurozone, Italy is both the mountain and the pebble. The Italian debt burden is expected to rise to over 150% of GDP by the end of this year. The latest proposal to give grants to struggling countries via the “Next Generation EU” Fund is the first serious attempt to start scaling that mountain by effectively forgiving some of that debt.
In the near term, the European Central Bank is looking to address the pebble of bond market volatility through its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme.
I recently discussed both with Julianna Tatelbaum and Geoff Cutmore on CNBC.
