It's Italy Now.

I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible for the fact that Euro Contagion 2011 has now shifted its spotlight on the Italian banking mess.  After all, I did ask Trichet for exactly that just last week:

From A Humble Request:

“Only Italy will scratch our itch.  The food, the culture, the place names!  We could do Italian debt crisis jokes seemingly forever!  Or at least until you see fit to give us Spain.”

Anyway, here’s what the financial media is going to be beating you over the skull with tomorrow, hope you had a nice weekend…

From the Telegraph:

Top European Union officials will meet in Brussels on Monday morning to discuss the growing eurozone debt crisis amid fears that Italy could be the next country to be affected…

“The EU is definitely worried about what happened on Friday. Key people have suddenly realised that this [contagion] is going to hit big economies and they have little defence,” said one observer.

And here’s what “a source” told the German newspapers over the weekend (via Reuters):

“The existing rescue fund in Europe is not sufficient to provide a credible defensive wall for Italy,” the central bank source was quoted telling the newspaper in an advance text of an article to appear on Monday.

“It was never designed for that,” the source added.

We’ll see how the whole dollar-stocks seesaw reacts in the morning.  Arrivederci til then…