Word: lire
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Packed in suitcases and hidden in the false bottoms of automobiles, lire are being smuggled out of Italy at the rate of more than $200 million a month. In any other nation, such a capital flight might lead to alarm or panic. In Italy it is recognized as only another ingenious ploy to cheat the tax collector. No one really worries, because the fleeing lira usually returns to Italy wearing a disguise...
Italians spirit their lire over the border to Swiss banks, which then use the money to open foreign accounts in Italian banks and buy Italian shares and securities for their Italian depositors. Since dividends are paid to the anonymous Swiss bank account, the Italian investor can collect his profit without attracting the attention of the hated tax collector...
...polizia, another member of the gang steals a parked car, drives exactly eleven inches, feels a mighty thump, realizes red-faced that one rear wheel is gone-the car was standing on a jack. In the end, Capannelle & Co. cop the swag, a matter of 80 million lire ($130,000), but only by dumb luck. They stow it in a suitcase and the suitcase in a baggage room. The check-"Hey!" hollers Gassman. "What did I do with the baggage check?" He put it in his pants pocket, that's what, and he forgot to take it out when...
Ultimately, the Common Market's most far-reaching reform may lie in its plan for a monetary union, starting in mid-1963, that will accelerate its progress toward a U.S.-style federal reserve system. Francs, marks, lire and guldens may continue to carry different inscriptions and have different values, as their holders speak different languages; in time all will be interchangeable and backed by the Community's massive gold and foreign exchange reserves, which at present stand at $16.4 billion...
...accounts they factor. For higher earnings, factors look to increased volume. Their fondest hope is that President Kennedy's new trade expansion bill will spur new interest in European sales among small and medium-sized U.S. companies. Already factors are planning overseas operations to handle accounts in lire, kroner, pounds, Deutsche marks, francs and just about every other currency in which accounts can be receivable...