Italy + Russia

choi

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(1) Richard Barley, Italy Is at Risk of Catching the Spanish Flu. Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2011 (date in print)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576433542635301446.html
("The two countries face different challenges. Spain had a high budget deficit of 9.2% of GDP in 2010 and needs to restructure its savings banks. But its overall debt-to-GDP ratio is lower than the euro-zone average, and growth has started to recover. Italy, by contrast, has a low budget deficit of 4.6% and hasn't had to prop up its banks. But it has barely grown for a decade, and its debt-to-GDP ratio of 119% in 2010 was second only to Greece.")

My comment: A few years ago, CIA World Factbook for 2 or 3 years would place per capita GDP (adjusted by purchase power parity, PPP) of Taiwan ahead of that of Italy at the beginning of a new year, only to revised downward in mid-year to behind of that Italy (which then remained unchanged)--though I thought there was nothing going for Italy. The same happened to Taiwan's and Western European nations' (of UK, France and Germany for two sebsequent years: two years ago and last year). At last, Taiwan leapfrogged them all for good early this year by a wide margin.

(2) Andrew E Kramer, As More Investors Seek Shelter in Gold, Russia Is Only Too Happy to Sell. New York Times, July 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/business/global/russia-sells-gold-as-world-prices-rise.html?scp=1&sq=kramer%20rusia%20gold&st=cse

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