Word: lira
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...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...
...latest trouble, which had been simmering since January, turned worrisome two weeks ago (TIME, March 22), when the lira's drift downward accelerated and the pound fell below the psychologically sensitive $2 mark. The basic cause was economic disarray in Italy and Britain, which have the highest inflation rates among major European countries. The declines immediately made the goods of both countries cheaper in world markets, and moneymen began selling francs in the belief that the French government, which is struggling with a 10% inflation rate, would have to let their value fall to keep French exports competitive...
...nervousness generated by the troubles of the franc and pound intensi fied the already alarming slide in the lira. In a single day, the lira fell from 842 to the dollar to 880; it closed at 875-down 27.6% from 686 as recently as Jan. 20. To boost government revenues and restore confidence in the lira, the government of Prime Minister Aldo Moro started a harsh austerity policy. Among other things, it raised taxes on auto sales, lifted the price of gasoline by 14.3%, to $1.73 a gallon, and raised the government bank lending rate a startling four points...
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...