Promisee, promises. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, used to say that his government would never put its hands into taxpayers' pockets. Little wonder that his "heart was bleeding" when he announced crisis measures on August 12th that aim to eliminate Italy's budget deficit by 2013. Parliament had approved an austerity budget less than a month earlier. But it disappointed the markets. With Italian bond yields soaring, the European Central Bank was forced to step in. Its help came with strings: hence the new budget.
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