A Tale of Two Nations - Professionals to Help Greece and Italy Weather Crisis

It's now the turn of professionals to find a solution to the debt crisis of the two beleaguered nations that shook the very existence of eurozone - Greece and Italy. The political leadership of these two nations is going to be in the hands of technocratic economists in the bid to lead them out of the debt trap.

In Greece, Lucas Papademos, former European Central Bank (ECB) vice-president, was sworn in as prime minister of the interim three-party coalition government on Friday. The unity government cabinet includes 48 MPs drawn from the conservative New Democracy party, the populist far-right Laos party and the outgoing socialist government.

The nation is putting all its hopes on the coalition government and believes that the low-key, non-political leadership can lead the country out of its problems. "We must all assume out responsibilities to take the country forward," the new prime minister said, addressing his first cabinet meeting. "We are living through critical and historic times and it is imperative that we co-operate," said Papademos during the swearing in ceremony which is held under the blessings of the country's spiritual leader, Archbishop Leronymos.

Italy is another instance where the affairs of the country are going to be handled by an economist. Former European Union Competition Commissioner, Mario Monty, is expected to take over as the new prime minister of the broadly-based transitional government. Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to resign during the weekend.

Meanwhile, Italy's senate passed a number of austerity measures in order to avoid a bail-out. The bill is meant to save 59.8 billion Euros by introducing a set of reforms by way of cutting public spending and arresting tax evasion. Now it has to be passed by the lower house of parliament and signed into a law by the outgoing prime minister.

Both the appointments are seen by the leaders in the region as well as the markets across the world as positive developments. They hope that the murky situation in these countries can be handled by these technocrats in a better way to avoid a bail-out and a subsequent eurozone disaster.