Berlusconi stepping down...right after shepherding Italian austerity plan through Parliament

[Poll_Blind]

From USAToday, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-11-08/greece-crisis-EU/51121174/1">Italy's Berlusconi to resign after economic changes OK'd

ROME – It wasn't the charges of tax evasion, bribery, influence peddling or even paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl that brought down Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

On Tuesday, Europe's fast-growing debt crisis claimed its latest victim in Berlusconi, who has led Italy for 11 of the past 17 years. He vowed to resign after shepherding the country's economic austerity package through Parliament, creating at least some short-term relief for Europe's fourth-largest economy.

If Berlusconi steps down it would mark the fourth European government felled this year amid costly bailouts and emergency austerity measures.

--snip--

Berlusconi later announced he would resign after the approval of the budget measure, which contains spending cuts and reforms demanded by the European Union finance ministers.

Just...stew on that for a while. Also, recall just about the same thing is happening/going to happen with the Greeks.

It's a pretty sobering thought.

PB