Denials all round: The EU insists it is not practising "digital protectionism" and that the bloc is open to all tech players.
THERE Italy goes, threatening to blow up the euro again. The uproar over the budget proposal put forward by the new left-right insurgent government has reignited fears that the eurozone’s third-largest economy is on the path to fiscal ruin and will drag the rest of the currency bloc down with it. It could happen, although not in the way or for the reason you may think.
The numbers look bad. The coalition of the right-wing League and sort-of-left-wing 5 Star Movement is proposing to overspend revenues by 2.4% of gross domestic product for the next few years—and that’s if GDP growth meets their rosy assumptions. This is a crisis, we’re led to believe, compared with the 1.6% of GDP deficit Brussels might otherwise have accepted from technocratic Economy Minister Giovanni Tria.
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