NEW YORK TIMES:   Italy moved back to the center stage in the euro crisis on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Mario Monti called on European Union leaders to emphasize growth as the country’s borrowing costs rose sharply in a debt auction.

Mr. Monti told the lower house of Parliament in Rome that leaders, who are to hold a summit meeting in Brussels on June 28-29, needed to quickly implement concrete steps for “a credible emphasis on growth.” Such steps should include more public investment and eventually issuing joint euro bonds.

He spoke as the Italian Treasury this week prepared to test investor appetite for the country’s debt for the first time since the weekend Spanish banking sector bailout lost its luster. Italy was offering one-year debt Tuesday, and longer-term debt on Thursday…  (more)

EDITOR:   Just as the Right Wing of the Republican Party has prevented a recovery from our steep recession, similar demands for austerity to balance budgets in Europe has proven counter-productive, leading to wide scale unemployment without narrowing deficits or reversing lender flight.  

Finally Europe is awakening that recession and deficits can only be redressed through getting people back to work….through economic growth.  

With the political knives out here in the USA, it is doubtful that our approaches are likely to alter despite the urgings of the vast majority of economists over past years for additional economic stimulus to get America back on the road to prosperity.