After a summer of relentlessly serious news stories, it seems the silly season has finally arrived. The FT.com lead story tonight reports from Rome that Italy is hoping to be bailed out of its debt crisis by China (sub needed).
The idea is that sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. (CIC) is going to lend Italy a stack of money. In essence this would amount to China bailing out northern Europe by lending to Italy a few days/ weeks before northern Europe finally concedes that Italy cannot afford to pay its debts.
The outcome presupposes that China and CIC are incredibly stupid. But that is not the case. As a political entity China is in fact from the same stable as Italy — the bullshitters. And the last person you want to go to when you are trying to sell something dodgy like Italian debt is another bullshitter.
Gets even funnier:
The FT claims the Euro and stock markets are rallying on the possibility that China will come to Italy’s rescue.
Tags: financial crisis