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Italy is back. Germany’s Angela Merkel sits at the top of Europe’s power list. France’s Nicolas Sarkozy can lay claim to be the continent’s most energetic leader. Mario Monti is its most interesting. After an absence lasting a couple of decades Italy has returned to the stage. Mr Monti’s fate may turn out to be Europe’s.

The other day the White House said that Italy’s prime minister would soon meet Barack Obama. To describe its announcement as effusive would be an understatement. Mr Monti and the president would discuss “the comprehensive steps the Italian government is taking to restore market confidence and reinvigorate growth through structural reform, as well as the prospect of an expansion of Europe’s financial firewall”. Translate and you...