The market has set its heart on a coalition involving center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani and current Prime Minister Mario Monti, which it considers most likely to stick to the reform program embarked on by the current technocratic government.

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With one or two exceptions that do not stick it to taxpayers, the other prominent postal reform bills also count on transfers from taxpayers to the USPS. Some contain adjustments that would reduce costs, such as shortening mail delivery to five days a week, but those proposed changes are only band aids given the dim prospects for mail volume.

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Putin essentially said that the country would take gradual steps to reform, and would stick to its current conservative fiscal policy of low debt.

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New Democracy (ND) wants to stick to the fiscal limits agreed with Brussels but unleash a radical, free-market reform onto the economy: privatising faster, possibly introducing a flat tax to free up small businesses.

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The assault on Mr Toledo's authority will make it harder for him to stick to his plans for economic reform.

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