ITALIAN POLITICS: Berlusconi’s bluster

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. With only months to go before the Italian general election this spring, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, has launched an attack on the opposition’s links with business. Under the spotlight are the left’s close ties with Unipol, the insurer whose controversial attempt to take over larger bank Banca Nazionale del Lavoro was recently blocked by the Bank of Italy. The political storm was whipped up by a leaked wiretap of a conversation in whi...