, Columnist
The ECB Fiddles as Rome Burns
How to stop the Italian crisis turning into a full-blown conflagration.
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The European Union faces another existential crisis, and the European Central Bank will need to do whatever it takes to stanch it again. So far, it’s showed little inclination. By letting the turmoil continue, it risks creating a full-blown conflagration.
Investors are taking fright at the threat that Italy could leave the euro. Yields on the country’s two-year bonds have surged to more than 2.5 percent from minus 0.3 percent less than three weeks ago. The extra premium investors demand to hold Italian bonds over their German counterparts has jumped to the highest since 2013.