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UniCredit announced plans to reorganize its Central European and Eastern European banking operations and increase its capital by 7.5 billion euros. Unicredit showed a third quarter 2011 loss of 10.64 billion euros after losses on Greek bonds and goodwill writedowns. The Italian bank said the capital increase will bring its Tier 1 ratio to above 9% as required by Basel III rules. UniCredit is listed as one of the globally systemically important financial institutions or G-SIFI's. Unicredit plans to make the placement of the rights issue to raise capital in 1st quarter 2012. Pricing remains a difficult matter considering that Unicredit shares have dropped precipitiously since 2007 when it had a market capitalization of 100 billion euros. Its market capitalization is now about 15.3 billion euros. Just in the last year the shares have dropped 50% to 0.68 euros a share in Sept. 2011.

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Mario Monti, the head of the new Italian government after the resignation of prime minister Berlusconi, taught political economy at Bocconi University in Milan. He is the president of Bocconi University. He spent a decade in Brussels as a member of the European Commission. He was commissioner of internal markets, and then served as commissioner for competition. He is known for antitrust enforcement during his work as EU commissioner of competition. First, blocking the merger of Honeywell and General Electric, and then imposing a fine of $650 million on Microsoft for antitrust violations. He is also the honorary president of Bruegel, an economics research institute in Brussels. Monti is an outsider to Italian politics in Rome and depends on the goodwill of the political parties to implement his program.

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Mario Monti takes office as prime minister of Italy as Italian bond yields reach 7.4%. Italy faces the task of refinancing 200 billion euros of maturing bonds by April 2012. Bond yields exceeding 7% make the task of refinancing Italian debt even more difficult. Monti said he would try to restore Italy to financial health without giving up "social equity," and added that "we owe it to our children to give them a dignified and hopeful future."

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Michael Getler describes the missed opportunity under President Obama for using one of America's most talented diplomats to engineer a peace agreement between the warring factions in Afghanistan- the U.S., the Pakistan army, the ISI and its support in the army, the Taliban, and the other parties such as the Haqqani faction and the Afghan government of Karzai. Holbrooke had used his experience for another President, with the same force of his larger than life personality, when he helped bring about the Dayton Accords in a similiar area of stubborn ethnic strife. Could Obama have tapped Holbrooke's skills and set aside the distractions of his personality as coming from an American with unique gifts, talent and achievement, is the question Getler asks. And is this a comment on the nature of the Obama Presidency and America's poorly invested hopes.

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Syracuse's basketball coach, Jim Bonheim, says even iconic college coaches like Duke's Krzyzewski, who follows in the footsteps of names like John Wooden and Bob Knight, are under pressure. Such is the extent to which competitive spirit and the demands made by fans and sportswriters, have remade college sports in the U.S. The introspection follows the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno after sexual misconduct allegations against assistant coach Sandusky were not followed through at Penn State. The support from fans for Paterno and their lack of remorse showed the extent to which Americas heartland has changed, and the extent to which the strong underpinnings that support it have weakened, from spheres of finance and industry that caused the financial crisis to sports where winning has obscured other serious values.

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This televised debate of Republican presidential candidates focussed on Iran's development of a nuclear weapon. Rick Perry said he would impose sanctions on Iran's central bank, something the Obama administration is reluctant to do because it might disrupt international oil markets. Romney and Gingrich said they would use military action if other measures failed. Huntsman called for a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, saying: "This nation's future is not in Afghanistan. this nation's future is not in Iraq." Ron Paul said hw opposed military interventions in conflicts overseas. Perry and Gingrich said U.S. aid to Pakistan should be suspended because Pakistan was not a reliable partner.

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Katie Roiphe describes the kinds of irreverent jokes, wildness and sexual advances, that may not be sexual harrassment. She says its better to live in a world that allows colorful comments, even if inappropriate, than to be obsessed with sexual harrassment every time anything happens.

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Tyler Cowan writes about the problems of crony capitalism and lack of opportunities in American capitalism as it is practiced today.