Word: lira
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...thus set for the most critical election Italy has faced in 30 years, one that would not only absorb 35 million Italian voters but also be closely watched throughout Europe and in much of the rest of the world as well. The same issues that toppled Moro-the weakened lira, rising inflation, unemployment and scandal-will be refought in the campaign. But the overwhelming issue facing the country is quite clear: Whether Italian voters, with their country's traditional center-left politics at a point of impasse, are prepared finally to allow the Communists to share national power...
...Christian Democrats (DC) have proved increasingly incapable of governing Italy. The past few years have seen an endless succession of collapsing cabinets; in the face of waves of strikes and political violence, the DC has been unable to enact badly needed social reforms. The lira has fallen drastically and economic growth has come to a standstill. DC rule has been marked by widespread corruption and scandal. The recent charge that party leaders accepted payoffs from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation is a stellar example. Furthermore, their conservative position on social issues has become increasingly unpopular with the electorate, sixty percent...
...eleven elevated highways and twelve helicopter pads, has finally brought fluidity to the traffic of our metropolis." Some miracle has cleary occurred, by the time this "chronicle of the next Italy" is written, in the year 2000 and in the Italy of the "Second Republic." The devaluation of the lira has been solved; it is possible to move in Rome--where in today's reality a second subway line has been in lentitudinous progress for over a decade. The sarcasm peels off in layers. The phrases of the book, the pompous, eulogistic style, ridicule bureaucratic rhetoric, while the content...
...with the economy in such dire shape that the lira has dropped 28% since Jan. 21, the Communists were not altogether certain that at this point they wanted such a role. Party Leader Enrico Berlinguer last week offered an alternative: a "political accord" in which the Christian Democrats would govern but socialists and Communists would participate in decisions on abortion and other major issues. The proposal sounded very much like a "mini" historic compromise. The Christian Democrats at week's end sought instead to force a better accord in parliament. The situation left Moro-and the country-with...
Although the gyrations will presumably stop soon, they already have had pernicious effects. Some economists estimate that the fall in the lira has doomed Italy to a 20% inflation rate this year-v. 12% last year-by making imports more expensive. The European snake has been reduced to a small grouping of Germany and some close economic allies; it cannot be, as it was once supposed, the foundation of European economic unity. The central problem is to find a way to let currency values shift to reflect changing economic conditions, and yet keep them reasonably stable; the current turmoil illustrates...