By Patrick Clark 5/09/12 8:08am

Morning Read

BofA

Downgrades Looming, Green Mountain’s Stiller Margin-Roasted, Charlotte Set for BofA Protests

Long-promised downgrades are set to kick in for Italian banks, Green Mountain’s chairman loses his post to margin call and, thankfully, new Charlotte ordinance barring crowbars at large events was passed in time for Bank of America’s annual meeting. All that and more, in today’s Wall Street roundup.

Scissor season: Moody’s is expected to begin cutting ratings on banks any day now, and Bloomberg notes the consequences: Higher funding costs, curbed lending and another thorn in the side of economic growth. According to a Moody’s note last month, Italian lenders are first on the chopping block, to be followed by banks in other European countries. U.S. banks will also come in for potential downgrades, but are unlikely to see ratings changes until June. Read More

By Tom Acitelli 8/29/11 8:56am

Book Review

Giuseppe Garibaldi, formerly of Staten Island. (Photo: nndb.com)

Explaining All the Italian-Americans in New York

In November 1853, a 46-year-old candle-maker set sail from Staten Island for Europe, where he had been one of the most famous soldiers since the fall of Napoleon 40 years before. Giuseppe Garibaldi was already one-half on his way to becoming “the Hero of Two Worlds” of legend, as he had the previous decade fought for Uruguayan independence in South America. His fighting on behalf of his native soil, however, had not gone so spectacularly. Read More

By Sam Chandan 7/21/11 8:52am

the lead indicator

Blitt - Chandan

Lessons for the U.S. in the Italy Crisis

SWITZERLAND—Europe’s intractable sovereign debt crisis engulfed Italy with surprising speed last week, forcing the adoption of $56 billion in austerity measures that are projected to bring the country’s budget into balance in 2014.

Once again, European leaders are working to contain the crisis, which has only now spilled over from the peripheral economies to one of the Continent’s largest. Read More

By Maika Pollack 5/24/11 11:21pm

Museums

The Cone Sisters’ Art Collection Imitated Their Lives

Today, art fairs bring the international avant-garde to every urban doorstep, but collectors once had to track it down for themselves. In the early 20th century, when Gertrude Stein wrote, “You can be a museum or you can be modern, but you can’t be both,” two sisters from Baltimore, Claribel and Etta Cone, amassed one Read More

By Nate Freeman 9/28/10 10:02pm

Art and Sculpture

Art Star Gives Milan The Finger — In Statue Form

Thanks to artist Maurizio Cattelan — the prankster artist and sculpter who splits his time between the East Village and Italy — an 11-meter installation of a severed hand with its middle finger firmly raised is currently placed in front of the Milan Stock Exchange. The bird-flipping effigy is called “L.O.V.E.”

The decision to direct such a Read More

By Jason Horowitz 8/28/08 1:42am

The Other ‘Democrats’ on Democratic Unity

DENVER–How fractious is Italy’s political left?

Senator Francesco Rutelli, former candidate for prime minister in Italy, who is attending the Democratic National Convention, said Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton provided a valuable lesson in unity for him and his fellow Italian politicians.

“This is one of the important lessons America gives us,” said Rutelli, speaking Read More