Word: lira
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Italy's economy is like its wines-robust, zestful, unpredictable. Two years ago the lira was among the strongest currencies of Europe. Last winter the currency seemed headed toward devaluation. Now, in a remarkable turnaround, the lira has recovered, and a measure of business confidence is returning to Italy...
...lira's volatility reflects a particularly Italian combination of economic assets and liabilities. The nation's real rate of growth-5.5% in 1970-is among the highest in the Western world. Italy's hoard of gold and net foreign reserves is Europe's second largest, after Germany's. Yet a primitive and easily manipulated stock exchange, an outmoded bureaucracy, and unenforceable tax laws encourage Italians to invest their money abroad. Even before last winter's series of strikes and government crises, Italians reverted en masse to their old habit of carting lire across...
...move, the bank decreed that lire from abroad would henceforth be converted to other currencies only at the bank's headquarters in Rome. It also made it clear that clerks would take their time handling the transactions. Swiss banks immediately passed on the cost of delay by accepting lira deposits only at discounts...
Coming atop Italy's other problems, the action was enough to bring the once strong lira down to 650 to the dollar last week, its lowest level since 1952. The irony is that Italy's labor costs are lower than those of any other industrialized country, and rapidly rising productivity will offset much of the wage increases won in the autumn strikes. Yet to achieve the rate of investment necessary for the economy to continue to grow, the country needs a government capable of inspiring confidence. Until such a government comes to power, even Italian officials admit that...
Italians are making a jet-age Robin Hood of Skyjacker Raffaele Minichiello. When he comes to trial for that gunpoint odyssey from Los Angeles to Rome, the young Marine should have no trouble financing his defense. He stands to get lira aplenty from Producer Carlo Ponti, who will make a $2,000,000 movie about the adventure. And why not Mrs. Ponti-Sophia Loren -as the hostess who volunteers to go all the way with TWA and Raffaele...