Compared to this, Greece was just a sideshow. Italy could blow Europe to pieces. By Daniel Hannan 10th November 2011.

Watching the cost of servicing Italy’s debt surge past the level that triggered bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal, I found one of Kipling’s verses forming in my mind:
This is midnight — let no star
Delude us — dawn is very far.
This is the tempest long foretold —
Slow to make head but sure to hold.
Italy is the third-largest economy in the EU, and the eighth largest on the planet. Its outstanding debt of €1.9 trillion (£1.6 trillion) accounts for 25 per cent of all the debt in the eurozone.
Too big to fail? Italy is the third-largest economy in Europe! The Greek crisis was never a serious threat to Europe. Greece accounts for less than two per cent of the EU’s economy. A default by Athens could be managed as a controlled explosion. A default by Rome, on the other hand, would blow the European economy to smithereens.
The calamity now overtaking Italy was ordained when the euro was launched. In order to qualify, governments were supposed to have brought their total debts below 60 per cent of GDP; Italy’s was 114 per cent.Several economists pointed out at the time that admitting the Italians would be like inviting an elephant into a coracle but, as usual in the EU, political dreams trumped economic reality. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2059637/Italy-debt-crisis-Compared-Greece-just-sideshow.html#ixzz1dIFvFkbF

The troubling thing is precisely that whenever he speaks about the EU - Dan The Man is the nearest thing on two legs you will find to an oracle!