Its Xmas at The Economist!

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In case you haven't been paying attention to the news from Italy, Mario Monti said that he intended to resign, and shortly thereafter, Berlusconi threw his hat into the ring.
As the Guardian put it
If anyone doubted Silvio Berlusconi would launch an inflammatory, divisive election campaign, the three-time Italian prime minister did not disappoint on Tuesday, slamming Germany and the financial markets.
In a live phone-in on one of his TV stations, the 76-year-old media mogul said the austerity measures introduced by the technocrat prime minister, Mario Monti, had dragged Italy into recession rather than reinvigorating it and were "German-centric".
The spread – which uses the risk premium of Italian bonds over German bonds to measure confidence in Italy's economy – was a mere "trick" that had been used to "bring down" the government he led until November 2011.
Mind you, it is Christmas, and Berlusconi is clearly the gift that keeps on giving (to The Economist)

(Oh, for those of you who aren't aware, The Economist has a bit of a history with him...)

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