Fitch downgrades Italy but acknowledges that without Monti the judgment would have been more severe

As widely announced, Fitch also downgrades Italy and lowers its rating from A+ to A- with a negative outlook. Prime Minister Monti didn't get upset: "I hear the judgment with detached serenity" also because it is a report card based on the past and because the agency itself, perhaps feeling a little ashamed of the untimely nature of its judgment, acknowledged the good work done by the Italian government in office and admitted that, without Monti's recovery and reforms, the votes would have been much worse. The partiality and the temporal disconnection - it is curious that the downgrades did not arrive last summer when Italy had a government lacking international credibility - strongly reduce the influence of the rating agencies even if they weigh on the portfolio choices of international funds . But it is now clear that the exit from the crisis does not depend so much on the votes of the rating agencies as on the ability of the two Super Marios (Monti and Draghi) to convince Germany that defending the euro is convenient for everyone but that to do so speculation must be stopped by offering a shield (the ECB itself or the bailout fund transformed into a bank) capable of supporting the sovereign debt of the most exposed countries with unlimited means.