Not a great occasion for a political row

Yesterday saw Italian bonds take a serious beating in a development that sent shivers down the spines of every eurozone leader (and everyone else with even the slightest stake in the eurozone) - and today Italian bonds keep on plunging, it appears.

EU ministers are simply failing to convince investors that Italy is on a safe distance from Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

The following graph (HT FT Alphaville) shows how alarmingly quick things can move.

To add fuel to the fire an almighty row has broken out between PM Berlusconi and his Finance Minister Tremonti, with Berlusconi reportedly saying:

"You know, he [Tremonti] thinks he's a genius and that everyone else is stupid...I put up with him because I've known him for a long time and one has to accept the way he is. But he's the only one who is not a team player."

Ouch. Neither of them have spoken publicly since last week, save comments from Silvio today on the death of an Italian soldier in Afghanistan (no mention of the euro).

Not exactly inspiring confidence.