OUR VIEW

Of the 25 European banks that failed the so-called rigid financial stress test, nine were Italian.

Now most are familiar with Italy's long standing record on the lack of fiscal discipline, ask just about any German. But has anyone--and we're sure they have-- looked at the possible hidden message in the ECB's findings as a shot across the bow of  Italy's young, brash, newly elected leader Matteo Renzi?

Renzi along with some obstreperous French leaders has been an unwanted thorn in the side of Brussels bureaucrats since he arrived on the national scene.

That Spain,which seems since the crisis erupted, has fallen into the EU party line, came through unscathed suggests Machiavellian tactics are still alive and functional. Spain is the country remember during the downfall that had 25 percent, most likely a soft number, of unemployment during the crisis.

Taking a page from their French counterparts, Italian banking officials, according to the Financial Times, "..criticised parameters in the regulatory stress test as unrealistically harsh on the nine Italian  banks that failed and disputed the exact number of failures by the European Central Bank."

Anyone surprised here?

European central bankers and their MSM cohorts have a clear-cut message for those who care to swallow hard. We are doing something and things are not so bad after all. 

It's about restoring investor confidence. And they don't care how they do it, especially when it comes to the old fashioned way, fudging the truth.

True to its code MSM resorted to semantics, including the Times. 

"However, many of those failures were in effect technical ones, because banks raised money from investors subsequent to the December 2013 cut-off date."  

Translation: We're coming to your house in six months. Please don't hide the worst in obvious places.

We don't know about other countries, but in the U.S. random on-the-job drug screens have been around for a while.There is even a proposition on the California ballot in next month's election for random drug testing of health care workers, the first of its kind in the nation.

What these banks really need is a good old fashion random drug screen to get at the real truth.

Some are claiming this stress test was much more stringent than its predecessor. But if that one were any softer it could've been served over toast for breakfast.

The beat goes on. And so does the sham.

That's our view. We hope you know yours.