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Sometimes the bullshit just gets too much to bear, apparently. Minister Fornero began by saying the reforms were very strict, and that they were asking all Italians to sacrifice but then she could not continue, Prime Minister Monti finishing the remarks for her.

via Australia's News.com.au

Italy's Cabinet has adopted a package of tax hikes, budget cuts and pension reforms worth 20 billion euros ($27 billion) in a rush to avoid a bankruptcy that threatens to bring down the eurozone.

"This is a decree to save Italy," Prime Minister Mario Monti said at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting.

"This is a moment in which Italy risks being responsible for helping to drag down the economy of Europe."

Italy will "put its deficit and debt under strong control" so that the country is "not seen as a suspicious flash point by Europe", he said.

He also warned that Italians had to make "sacrifices" and said he was renouncing his own salary as prime minister in a gesture of solidarity.

The three-year package includes a controversial pension reform that will increase the minimum pension age for women to 62 starting next year and fall into line with men by 2018, by which time both will retire at 66.

The number of years that men have to pay contributions to receive their full pensions will also be increased from the current level of 40 to 42.

Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero, whose proposals have already been slammed by Italy's main trade unions, broke down in tears as she outlined the changes.

Below, in Italian, is what she said in the la Repubblicca video:

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Steve Benen had a couple of notes in his daily mini-report that, to say the least didn't exactly warm my heart to read about when it comes to what's going on in Europe and Greece right now and how that might eventually end up affecting the already ailing economy here in the United States. Par for the course, if you want to look at who the culprits are behind this, they're the same ones that are being protested against with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

For a reminder of who caused a great deal of Greece's problems to begin with, The New York Times did a good job of covering this back in early 2010 of last year -- Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis:

Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.

As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

Even as the crisis was nearing the flashpoint, banks were searching for ways to help Greece forestall the day of reckoning. In early November — three months before Athens became the epicenter of global financial anxiety — a team from Goldman Sachs arrived in the ancient city with a very modern proposition for a government struggling to pay its bills, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting.

Much more so go read the rest and here are the two notes Steve posted in his mini-report from this Tuesday:

* This was supposed to be reassuring: “Greece has enough money to pay pensions, salaries and bondholders through mid-November, the finance minister said Tuesday.”

* Europe’s steep climb: “Europe has had a rough ride since Greece confessed it falsified its books to join the euro. Now the economic situation is set to worsen, as the sovereign debt crisis that erupted in early 2010 threatens to send the euro zone into its second recession in three years.”

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