Being able to get financing entirely from one’s central bank – at zero cost and without any outside constraint – is the dream of any spendthrift State... until bankruptcy (either by default or by hyperinflation).

Since the two coalitions that won are euro-sceptic, very critical of the euro and against immigration, this means that 70% of Italians are dissatisfied with Rome and Brussels policies.

The planet’s biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater, which manages more than $160 billion, just bet $22 billion on a decline of stocks in the banking sector and other large corporations.

The stock markets are being shaken these days, indexes are in the red, and months of gains have disappeared in a few sessions... Are we witnessing a temporary correction or is this a deeper and lasting crisis? It’s too early to tell, and we’re not going to play the guessing game. However, if we step back a little, we can acknowledge a deeply changing financial landscape, a historical changeover: it has to do with interest rates.

Clearly Europe is fragile – this is where one has to look for risks of price slips, sudden interest rates hikes, overblown balance sheets...

Monetary tapering from the Fed and the ECB, blaringly announced in the media, are thus without any effect; they will not help in emerging from the lethargy of zero or negative rates.