Berlusconi Secretary: Let's Drug Test Stock Traders

Are stock brokers trading under the influence? Carlo Giovanardi seems to think so. Giovanardi, an undersecretary to Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, intends to contact regulators and industry groups about a plan to drug test stockbrokers, lest families entrust their savings to someone “not capable of making decisions,” he tells Bloomberg, citing unspecified “US studies” suggesting that the financial crisis was exacerbated by “people who’ve lost touch with reality” due to drug use. He also noted that cocaine users can experience "brain meltdown."

So what’s Berlusconi himself been up to while Giovanardi was dreaming this up? Partying with Vladimir Putin of course! On Friday, Putin celebrated his 59th birthday with “close friends,” according to the AFP, which apparently includes Berlusconi. And if the festivities in the streets of Moscow were any indication, it might have been a wild time—the attractive young ladies of “Putin’s Army” were feeding cake to passers-by ... and asking said Russians their opinion on the sexiest part of the premier’s body, the Moscow Times reports. (More Silvio Berlusconi stories.)