Greece is down, Spain, Portugal and Italy are close behind. These countries will be forced to leave the European Union and revert back to their currencies. Their economies are non competitive and corruption is rampant. When I was in Italy in April this year, I travelled the length and breath of Italy from Milan & Venice through every major city all the way to Naples and found that the average Italian was declaring 39,000. Euros annual income yet, when one compares cost of living against Income one can clearly see Italy may be at the top of the list with Greece, Spain and Portugal as havens for tax cheaters. I was surprised in Milan, Perugia, Florence, Sienna, Pisa, Rome etc police were actually pulling over drivers of expensive cars like Porsches, Lamborhinis etc so I asked  my niece, who is a senior economic advisor to the EUC, now based in Italy to advise the Govt on debt relief programs , what the heck was going on and she told me the Italian Govt Dept  of Revenue and the Police are working together and sharing software information to capture tax cheats who own multi million dollar mansions , yachts and high end cars but in the title of their deceased parents and relatives , declaring low incomes and robbing the nation of revenue . The Italian govt has opened it's doors to investors and I noted the Chinese , Germans and French were buying up Venice and restoring the delapidated buildings there to become 5 star hotels and plan to start a regatta in the gulf of Venezia around Laguna . The Chinese , japanese and other asian countries have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to restore Basilicas and other historic sites all across Italy and the Brits have fixed the leaning towers of Pisa's foundation. Since these 4 southern financially strapped european nations have non competitive economies they should leave the union , revert to their original currency and lift the financial burden off the shoulders and heads of the citizens of these countries who are under a yoke being members of the union , if not , they will bring the entire northern european Union members down with them. It's not always about economies , finances etc but culture of the people . Southern Europeans have a completely opposite mindset from their northern cousins.

Kid,

Thank you for telling us about your trip to Italy. Do you mind posting some pictures for us to see?

Maybe we can have Glen Lall  use his connections to retrieve those lost pictures.

Was in-transit at CBJ?