“Greece is a serious case but is one that but it is one that can be solved easily because it is a small country," said Marzinotto. "If you have financial markets betting against Italy, that it is as if the financial markets were betting against the euro zone as a whole.”
The European countries depend on each other to be strong export markets, as do many of the world’s developing countries. That means long term economic problems in some European countries will drag down the growth prospects for the rest of the continent, and for much of the world as well.
The evolving uncertainty about the strength of key European economies made for a volatile and ultimately down day on most world financial markets Monday. And experts say that is likely to continue unless European leaders agree soon on new, perhaps uNPRecedented, steps to prevent the fragile financial state of some eurozone countries from spiraling out of control.