Italy's problems are daunting, reports the Financial Times.
Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic we hear good news about the U.S. economy every day: housing recovering, household deleveraging, etc. etc. The biggest threat to US prosperity, however, is distinctly Italian-style: the political dysfunction that brings us unnecessary fiscal crisis after unnecessary fiscal crisis. If, as Byron York, everybody agrees that the sequester is stupid and destructive … why are we doing it? Because it sure does seem that do it, we will.