Lagarde: Don’t Short Italy

Could things be turning around in the euro zone? Just as the debt situation in Greece looks promising with immediate default likely averted, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is throwing her support behind another embattled state, Italy. Lagarde, sparring with economic historian Niall Ferguson Thursday night at Newsweek and The Daily Beast's Women in the World Summit in New York's Lincoln Center, Lagarde praised Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti as a responsible technocrat, saying: “it could well be that Italy is going to be the light of the European tunnel. I would not short Italy, at all.”