It looks like the debt-crisis days of 2012 all over again for investors, as Italian, Portuguese and Greek bond yields surged and billionaire George Soros warned of an "existential threat" to the EU. The trigger was the prospect of anti-EU, nationalist parties in Italy turning a repeat election into a de facto referendum on Italy’s membership of the euro. Italian assets sank across the board Tuesday, with the risk premium on 10-year bonds over German benchmarks rising to the biggest in almost five years. "Italy is now facing elections in the midst of political chaos," Soros said at a speech in Paris, warning that failed economic and immigration policies mean that "it is no longer a figure of speech to say that Europe is in existential danger; it is the harsh reality." For all the talk of an economic recovery and a return to stability, recent days have shown how quickly sentiment can get upended on a continent where disillusionment and division are still rife, especially in the south....
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