And you are here why?

I have the solution! It came to me as an epiphany! It is brilliant, sheer brilliance I tell you! Huh? What? Oh, right, its the solution to the EuroCrisis, the chaos going on in Europe / Greece / Spain / Italy / etc. Its really simple - what they need is a central banking authority that can print Euros!  See, you print up a bunch of Euros, and that deals with the short-term balance of payments issue, banking issues, solvency issues, etc., and you agree on a long-term fiscal compact to prevent chaos from occurring again.  But in the short term, all you need is a central bank that can print Euros. Simple, no? Huh? What? There is already something called the ECB? Really? Dammit....

FT Alphaville reports that Fitch has gone after a bunch-a European countries. In particular Belgium went from AA+ to AA (one notch) Cyprus went from BBB to BBB- (one notch) Italy went from A+ to A- ( two notches) Slovenia went from A to AA- (two notches) Spain went from A to AA- ( two notches) Per Fitch, the only reason Italy stayed away from BBB territory (therein lies madness! beware! etc.) was that Monti seems to be doing something about reforms, and the ECB is basically providing infinite liquidity for the next three years. Personally, I don't put much stock in the Monti entertainment - Italy still needs to grow at something like 5% over the mid-term to bring things back into kilter, and, well, that's not going to happen, is it? So, credit the ECB, which begs the question - What happens in 3 years?   Seriously, Italy has something like $1-Trillion coming due over the next few years.  That isn't going anywhere, so kicking the can down the road three ye...