Yanis Varoufakis: Why this was no time to try and check out of the EU

Europe performed better last year than expected, so it is very easy to start thinking it may be a source of good news for 2017/18 - but some caution is advised before you come to this conclusion. Take Italy. It is too large to bail out, too large to ignore and too large to be bullied the way Greece was bullied. Italy is about to enter its perfect storm. So far, European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi has purchased €210bn (£176bn) worth of Italian government bonds. In the next period, Italy will have to roll over €1 trillion, at a time when Draghi is being forced to taper. N...