The full Monti

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http://www.economist.com/node/21538778

N ITALY things seldom happen abruptly. Italians prefer compromise, half-measures and gradual change. But in just four days in mid-November, the pendulum of Italian public life has swung giddily from one extreme to another. Silvio Berlusconi, a prime minister notorious for his buffoonery, scandalous private life and iffy business methods, has given way to a sober, monogamous academic and former European commissioner, Mario Monti.

The TV mogul’s cabinet included a former calendar girl, a minister who walked a pig on land earmarked for a mosque and another said to have links to the Cosa Nostra. The new government sworn in on November 16th has the chairman of NATO’s military committee, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, as defence minister; the boss of Italy’s biggest retail bank, Corrado Passera, as minister for economic development and infrastructure; and no fewer than seven professors, including the prime minister, out of a cabinet of 17. Mr Monti himself takes the finance portfolio.

Only one of three women in the Berlusconi government had a heavyweight job. All three of those in Mr Monti’s will have onerous responsibilities. Anna Maria Cancellieri, a former prefect, becomes interior minister. Paola Severino, a law teacher and courtroom advocate, is the justice minister. Elsa Fornero, a pension expert, takes employment and welfare. The new government’s only defect may be that it contains no young people.

It is rare for the intellectual firepower of so many technocrats to be trained on a country’s problems (see article). But it is also rare for the problems to be as grave as those left by Mr Berlusconi’s tragicomic administration. Even as Mr Monti conferred with party politicians this week, the interest rate on Italy’s government bonds twice leapt above 7%. That was the level at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal all needed bail-outs. The problem—not just for Mr Monti, but for the euro zone and the world economy—is that Italy, the zone’s biggest debtor, is too large to be bailed out with the resources currently available.