The Economist took an unsurprisingly British perspective on the result of last week’s summit of European leaders. Calling it “Europe’s great divorce,” the magazine that calls itself a newspaper led with the United Kingdom’s decision not to sign onto a new treaty of 23 nations that is designed to establish more careful, centralized governance over each country’s budget. This is all intended to promote austerity and more responsible decision-making in Europe, in the hopes that this will relieve investor angst over the 17 countries that make up the troubled eurozone. I’m not sure that the U.K. is the story here, unless of course you’re British. And like a lot of market watchers, I’m doubtful this deal will solve the crisis.

The risk of a global recession is “high,” says Sadiq Adatia. He doesn’t expect a long one, unless Italy’s debt woes spread across the eurozone.

New political leadership in Italy will result in much-needed mid- to long-term structural reforms. But it won’t be enough to resolve the troubled country’s short-term debt problem, and Italy will be one of several countries to exit the eurozone. That’s according to a forecast by Megan Greene, director of European economics at Roubini Global Economics. She predicts a domino effect kicking in as early as 2013 or 2014.

Friday’s edition of Brighter Life likes included a link to a new economic forecast from The Conference Board of Canada. The headline: Canada is not headed into a second recession. In fact, we can expect 2.1% gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year and 2.4% in 2012.

Canadians looking to the U.S. for signs of meaningful economic recovery got a bit of bad news yesterday. A new study, by David H. Papell and Ruxandra Prodan of the University of Houston, reports that the downturn following the Great Recession could stretch out into the fourth quarter of 2016. The prediction is based on a study of financial crises and recessions since the Great Depression of the 1930s. If it’s correct, the Americans have not yet reached the halfway mark.

If you asked me to recommend two books on the global credit crisis, Michael Lewis’ 2010 best-seller The Big Short would be one of them. (I suspect Too Big To Fail is on the top of most everyone’s list.) Lewis painted a picture of organizational dysfunction and individual zaniness in the months leading up to the 2008 collapse that turned mistrust in high finance into something just short of scorn. It was awe-inspiring in its bleakness.

Canada represents less than 3% of the global economy. So why do we insist on investing so much of our savings inside our home and native land?

Richard Koo sees parallels between today’s economy, Japan’s Lost Decade and the Great Depression. Here’s why we should pay attention.

Global financial markets are dominated by fear, said Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada at an event in Saint John, N.B. yesterday. Three reasons: a weakening global economy, the European sovereign debt crisis and “growing questioning of the ability of policy-makers to respond,” he explained. Pretty strong language, coming from one of the world’s most respected central bankers. But that wasn’t all he had to say.

Jobs lost, jobs planned and a big TV to watch it all happen.