'PIIGS'. This was the name coined for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. These were the countries in the Euro zone that posed to be a serious threat to the existence of the zone itself. Greece has an unstable economy. Spain has insufficiently capitalized banks. Ireland has huge deficits. But Italy the other 'I' in the equation has none of this. Yet its borrowing costs are one of the highest. So one wonders as to why this is the case. The big reason behind this is its erratic political leadership of the past. The former leader of the country had pushed its finances and deficits in the same direction as that of the other three struggling countries. Fortunately for Italy, the leadership changed this year. But even now, Italy is close to the brink of a disaster. A lot rests on the new leader. If he is able to sort things out, the country would be able to come out of this relatively unharmed. But if he follows his predecessor's footsteps, then Italy is headed the Ireland, Greece and Spain way. Unfortunately considering Italy's size, it would be too big for the Eurozone to bail out. So as Peter Spiegel of Financial Times rightly suggests- 'The really big show in Europe is actually Italy.'