That's actually true, the Economist has always been very critical of Italy. I have a couple Italian friends who cut their subscriptions a while back because of one article or another. I wouldn't go so far as to say they have no credibility, but they do have a sizable history of negative articles about Italy. Their criticisms may have been justified, but I think that's still a useful piece of knowledge.

Quite the opposite: their hate of him has been consistent and their predictions have proved quite accurate. It would be much less credible if they only started hating him now, after everybody else realized he's a crook too.