(New York)

US investors got a rude shock yesterday: the Dow fell a whopping 391 points. The reason? An election in Italy that occurred several weeks ago led to the president there announcing someone else as prime minister, leading to a political crisis that could see alternative parties come to power. The big question now is whether this is the kind of situation that will blow over in a few days, or whether it is the kind of protracted issue that can ruin a whole summer, such as in 2011 and 2012.

FINSUM: We are worried this could take longer to play out than US investors would like. The big worry here is that Italy might default and then leave the Euro, which could lead to an unwinding of the whole currency. The size of those implications coupled with the complexity of the situation in Italy means this could take some time to play out.