Titoli di Stato Italia Trading Titoli di Stato "volume V" (Gennaio 2013 - Dicembre 2013) (4 lettori)

Baro

Umile contadino
Economist

Silvio Berlusconi

Conviction upheld

Aug 1st 2013, 21:57 by J.H. | ROME






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SILVIO BERLUSCONI often liked to boast that although he had been put on trial any number of times (more than a dozen, in fact), Italy's supreme court had never convicted him of any crimes. Never mind that he was sometimes found guilty in lower courts—he was always acquitted on appeal or saved by statutes of limitations.
Mr Berlusconi can no longer wave that ostensibly clean record before voters. On August 1st the supreme court upheld a prison sentence against him for tax fraud. The colourful former prime minister and leader of a party that won nearly 10m votes in the last election is now a convicted criminal.

The supreme court sentenced Mr Berlusconi to four years in jail, but three will be lopped off by an amnesty introduced in 2006 (ironically by his eternal rival Romano Prodi, a former centre-left prime minister). And since Italian courts seldom jail first offenders with a year or less to serve (and rarely impose community service on those over the age of 70), the 76-year-old Mr Berlusconi will most likely be put under house arrest. One day. These things take a while to arrange in Italy.
In the meantime, Italy's politicians are going to have to deal with what is perhaps the most explosive part of the ruling. The judges upheld a ban on Mr Berlusconi holding public office, but asked the appeals court in Milan to look again at how long it should last (court-watchers reckon one to three years). The decision will then have to be ratified in the Senate, where Mr Berlusconi is a member. His followers will likely try to block it.
Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) movement is an essential component of the current government, a left-right coalition led by Enrico Letta. The prime minister would expect his centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to help keep his government afloat by voting with its coalition partners. But how many PD lawmakers could bring themselves to defy a verdict of the courts and vote in support of a man whom many of them detest?
Tensions within the centre-left have been growing for months—between its ex-Communist and formerly Christian Democratic wings, and between supporters and opponents of the ambitious young mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi. The PD must now decide whether to continue to share cabinet seats with a party led by a convicted tax fraudster. Within minutes of the judgement, members of Beppe Grillo's anti-establishment Five Star movement were goading the centre-leftists into withdrawing their support.
Before the supreme court announced its ruling, Mr Berlusconi said that even if he were convicted he would not bring down the government. But that does not mean that its survival is assured.
 

Baro

Umile contadino
Wsj

ROME—Italy's Supreme Court upheld a tax fraud conviction and a four-year jail sentence against former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, dealing a blow to a man who has dominated Italian politics for two decades but averting the immediate downfall of Italy's fragile governing coalition.
The ruling delivers the first definitive conviction to the three-time premier, who has faced at least two dozen trials since entering politics in 1994. In most cases, the billionaire politician has been acquitted or has seen charges dropped due to statute of limitations.
Mr. Berlusconi, 76 years old, isn't likely to go to jail as a result of Thursday's ruling because most convicted felons in Italy over the age of 70 are given house arrest or community service. A ban on holding political office won't take effect yet; it was sent back to a lower court to rule on its duration.
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Agence France-Presse/Getty Images People celebrate in Rome on Thursday after the Italian Supreme Court upheld the tax-fraud conviction of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.



The verdict has kept Italy's political establishment on tenterhooks for weeks, with fears that it could bring down the government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta. But late Thursday, Mr. Berlusconi, while blasting the ruling, stopped short of pulling the plug on the shaky coalition in protest.
In an emotional televised address, Mr. Berlusconi said that "20 years of service to my country has been rewarded with a groundless sentence that deprives me of my personal freedom and political rights." However, he said the ruling means his supporters must "continue the battle" to reform Italy's judiciary.
Mr. Berlusconi was convicted in October on charges that Mediaset, MS.MI +2.50%Italy's dominant private television broadcaster, bought U.S. film and television rights at inflated prices, allowing the company to fraudulently lower its tax bill. Mediaset itself wasn't charged. Mr. Berlusconi has repeatedly denied the charges, saying he didn't take part in talks over TV rights.
Trying Times for Berlusconi

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That conviction included the jail sentence of four years as well as a five-year ban on holding public office. While the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and the jail sentence, it ordered an appeals court to review the ban on public office, which could see it shortened to between one and three years.
That decision could take months, during which Mr. Berlusconi can retain his Senate seat. In turn, a ban would only become effective after the Senate holds a formal vote on his ejection.
In the fall, magistrates will decide whether to subject Mr. Berlusconi to house arrest or community service. House arrest would make it difficult for the former premier to continue to conduct political activities.
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Zuma Press Silvio Berlusconi, seen in a July photo



The ruling is a serious setback for the conservative billionaire, who has staged a remarkable comeback since falling from power in autumn 2011.
Mr. Berlusconi has made his legal woes a major campaign issue, accusing magistrates of conducting a bitter political campaign against him and appealing to Italians' frustration over the country's tortured judicial system. Magistrates have strongly denied any political motivation.
While Mr. Berlusconi appears willing to continue to support the Letta government, the news could nonetheless weaken the coalition, said Vincenzo Scarpetta, political analyst with the London-based think tank Open Europe.
"Crucially, Prime Minister Enrico Letta's Democratic Party will come under the spotlight soon," Mr. Scarpetta said.
Growing divisions inside the governing coalition make it harder to pass economic reforms needed to spark growth in the euro zone's third-largest economy, which is mired in its longest postwar recession.
Since April, Mr. Letta has been leading a coalition government cobbled together after February's inconclusive elections. His own left-leaning Democratic Party requires the support of Mr. Berlusconi's conservative forces to survive.
However, the government has been weak since its birth, hobbled by squabbling among the Democratic Party, the People of Freedom party and the Five Star Movement, an anti-Establishment party that surged to take a quarter of the vote on the back of Italians' outrage with political inaction and austerity policies.
The Berlusconi verdict could heighten animosity between the left and right and deepen divisions within Mr. Letta's party, which has increasingly chafed at governing alongside Mr. Berlusconi amid the former premier's latest legal woes.
In June, Mr. Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in jail and received a lifetime ban from public office for having paid for sex with an underage woman and then having abused his power by trying to cover up the relationship. Mr. Berlusconi, who denies those charges, has appealed and the case is far from conclusion.
"Already internally divided ... the (Democratic Party) must now decide whether Mr. Letta's government is more important than its visceral dislike of Mr. Berlusconi," said Nicholas Spiro, head of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London.
Mr. Letta appealed for calm after Thursday's verdict. "For the good of the country, a climate of serenity and institutional responsibility must win out over partisan interests," he said in a statement.
 

camaleonte

Forumer storico
01/08/2013 17.08
USA: a luglio diminuisce inaspettatamente la Spesa per Costruzioni Edili (-0,6% m/m)
E' stato reso noto che negli States la spesa per le costruzioni e' diminuita nel mese di luglio dello 0,6%, deludendo le attese degli economisti che avevano stimato un incremento pari allo 0,4%. Tuttavia e' stato rivisto al rialzo il dato di giugno a +1,3% da +0,5%.
(CC)

(FTA Online News)


Notizia di ieri .
 

camaleonte

Forumer storico
Spread in diminuzione e CDS in diminuzione...da noi si dice: che tenaglia!!


Aspetto il FBTP a 116 :

"News
02/08/2013 08.59
Draghi parla, volano le banche, durera'?
Draghi parla, volano le banche. Il presidente della BCE, Mario Draghi, ha parlato di una ripresa graduale nel resto dell'anno e ha confermato che i tassi di interesse resteranno al livello attuale, o inferiore, per un periodo di tempo prolungato. Draghi ha poi aggiunto che le condizioni del mercato del lavoro restano deboli."
 

stefanofabb

GAIN/Welcome
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 02 ago - Forniamo di
seguito, in collaborazione con Intesa Sanpaolo il calendario
dei principali eventi in Europa e in Asia della giornata (dati
macroeconomici e appuntamenti istituzionali). Venerdi' 02/08
EUR - PPI a/a, giugno h. 11,00 precedente: -0,1% / consenso:
0,3% precedenti: 2,1% / consenso: 1,4% EUR - BCE annuncia
rimborso dei fondi da seconda LTRO a 3 anni, h. 12,00//// Buon giorno:)
 

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