On the other hand, the Mediterranean countries fiddled with their accounts in order to meet the "Maastricht convergence criteria" needed to join the Euro.

I guess nobody's perfect.

Italy's being royally screwed by their inability to apply their traditional fiscal policy, which involved large devaluations of the Lira at regular intervals. They can't touch the interest rates, they can't borrow above 3% and they can't inflate themselves out of trouble. I guess they'll have to learn to run their economy like everyone else.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper