Italian debt: Italy for sale

When you are in a box, it pays to think laterally. That’s what Romano Prodi should be doing as he contemplates Italy’s Himalayan debt moun-tain. Conventional solutions are unappealing. Tighten the belt too severely, and you might get a full-blown recession. Gently tweak taxes and expenditure and you might avoid that - but it will be a long time before you reduce debt significantly. Meanw-hile, for maybe decades, Italy would be vulnerable to shocks that could tip it into crisis. So what about a ...