The stage is set for the collapse of the world’s largest economy—the European Union. The trigger: Italy’s exit from the euro currency.
The Financial Times recently put it this way:
An Italian exit from the single currency would trigger the total collapse of the eurozone within a very short period. It would probably lead to the most violent economic shock in history, dwarfing the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008 and the 1929 Wall Street crash.
If the FT is even partially right, it means we’re looking at a possible stock market crash of historic proportions. It could devastate anyone with a brokerage account. But it could also present enormous opportunities to profit.
Here’s how it could happen…
What started out as a joke has become Italy’s most popular political party.
In 2007, Beppe Grillo, an Italian actor and comedian, launched Vaffanculo Day (“vaffanculo” is Italian for “f*** off”).
Grillo and his followers used V-Day to bluntly express their displeasure over Italian establishment politicians using imagery from the movie V for Vendetta.
V-Day helped organize Italians frustrated by their political system. It gave birth to the Five Star Movement, Italy’s new populist political party.
Grillo’s Five Star Movement—or M5S, as it’s known by its Italian acronym—is anti-globalist, anti-euro, and anti-establishment. It doesn’t neatly fall into the left/right political paradigm.
According to the latest polls, M5S is now the most popular party in Italy. It won mayoral elections in Rome and Turin earlier this year.
M5S is riding a wave of populist anger at entrenched political elites over economic stagnation. Italy has had virtually no productive growth since it joined the eurozone in 1999.
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