Italy’s huge debt puzzle

Over the past few weeks we have come back down to earth with a bang, writes Jim Power

Following the momentous global political dislocation in 2016 that resulted in the election of Donald Trump and the UK vote to leave the EU, there was a lot of concern about the European political calendar coming into 2017.

Elections were upcoming in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, and the fear was that the anti-establishment trend could be replicated in those countries, with negative implications for the future stability of the eurozone.