Word: lira
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...completely unrelated to the realities of post-war Italy: the beggars, the unemployment, the poverty, the ruins. Many of the rivers are still spanned by U. S. army Bailey bridges set on the bombed rubble on ancient edi- fices. Inflation is particularly bad in Italy--the lira is a mere fiftieth of its prewar value. American wallets were much too small for the wads of paper money they had to hold. The thousand lire note, worth about $1.75 this summer, was the size and consistency of a large piece of Kleenex...
...devaluation of the British pound also hit the Italian lira. The Italian cabinet had decided not to devalue the lira, which had already been drastically devalued two years ago, but to let it find its own level on a more or less free market. Forthwith the lira fell from 630 to more than 700 to the dollar. The Communists thereupon challenged Premier Alcide de Gasperi's government to parliamentary debate...
Antonio Pesenti, Communist economics expert, fired the first broadside in what the Italian press had dubbed the battle of the lira. Said Pesenti: "Unless the government revises its economic and financial policies radically and immediately, our dear country will plunge into the most frightful economic chaos . . ." Then Minister Pella played his trump cards. He announced 1) an immediate 10% reduction in the controlled price of bread, in answer to Communist alarm cries that as a result of the lira's slump prices would rise; and 2) the purchase in Washington of a little more than $100 million worth...
...week's end, the lira rallied at 688 (free market rate) to the dollar. Commodity prices showed no signs of rising. The Italian government had clearly won a round in the battle of the lira...
...scores of other contests came off in style. The Big Balloon, an undersized young hawker in the piazza of San Cosimato, won 20,000 lira (about $35) for his exceptional fruit stand, which boasted 15 varieties of fruit and a trimming of laurel and myrtle leaves. Grazie Ceci, who is 90 years old and who shares three rooms in Bologna alley with 22 relatives and acquaintances, won a 1,000 lira prize as the oldest grandmother, announced she would spend a good part of it on wine...