European Central Bank and Beppe Grillo

Beppe Grillo: Grillo launched a campaign in Rome last weekend for a 1 million-strong petition against the euro, saying: We have to leave the euro as soon as possible and defend the sovereignty of the Italian people from the European Central Bank, according to The Guardian. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, voters backed austerity and the euro in expectation of a debt-reducing recovery. But as many Keynesian economists warned, this has proved impossible. More than five years later, there are now plenty of voters willing to call time on the experiment, Grillo among them. And there seems to be no end to austerity-driven low growth in sight. The increasingly hard line taken by Berlin over the need for further reforms in debtor nations such as Greece and Italy by which it means wage cuts has worked to turn a recovery into a near recession and Beppe Grillo, the comedian-turned-rebel leader of Italian politics, must have laughed heartily. No sooner had he announced to supporters that the euro was a total disaster than the currency union was driven to the brink of catastrophe once again. Hours later markets slumped on news that the 18-member eurozone was probably heading for recession. And there was worse to come. Greece, the trigger for the 2010 euro crisis, saw its borrowing rates soar, putting it back on the at-risk register . Investors, already digesting reports of slowing global growth, were also spooked by reports that a row in Brussels over spending caps on France and Italy had turned nasty. With Chinas growth rate continuing to slow, and US data showing the worlds largest economy was not as immune to the turmoil as many believed, it was time to head for the hills. Wall Street slumped and a month of falls saw the 00 lose 11% of its value. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.