Word: lired
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...Sept. 20 French referendum on the Maastricht treaty approached. If the result of this vote on the package of new steps toward European economic unity were to be non, no one wanted to be caught holding a weak currency. Banks, pension funds and private investors began selling off Italian lire, and Italy, fearful of depleting foreign reserves, was forced to devalue its currency...
Then, after much roaring over a forthcoming cut in its interest rates, the German Bundesbank delivered a monetary mouse -- a reduction of only one- quarter of 1% in its key rate. That did more harm than good, and currency traders resumed dumping lire and billions of British pounds. In London Prime Minister John Major's government, determined to stay with the E.C. system in the face of the pound's continued fall, tried to lure investors at midweek with an increase in the Bank of England's interest rate, from 10% to 12%. Even when, in desperation, the rate...
...less than 10% of GDP. By contrast, the worst U.S. ratio was 3.8% in 1983; last year it was only 1.8%. Moreover, most of Italy's debt is short to medium term, subject to volatile interest rates. A 1% rise in short-term rates costs the government 7 trillion lire ($5.1 billion) annually in extra interest...
...that illusory feeling of sudden wealth! For decades, travelers wearied by the blur of borders and time zones have known they were in Italy after being showered with vast sums of lire in return for a traveler's check or two. But that heady experience may go the way of the Medici, thanks to a proposal by the Italian Cabinet to lop three zeros off the lira. Instead of doling out 1,250 or so lire for a dollar, bank clerks would slap down a single new lira and 25 centesimi, or cents. Advocates of the plan say the current...
Horror stories abound, especially in the health and postal services. Urgent operations can be postponed for three to four months while a patient waits for a hospital bed. "You can queue up and wait to die," says Ferrarotti, "or you can drop 400,000 lire (($325)) up front to ensure yourself a place." A payoff helps to get things done. In a new study, Professor Franco Cazzola of the University of Catania estimates that the kickback industry, the entrenched system of institutionalized bribery, amounts to 3.3 trillion lire ($2.7 billion) a year. One Turin industrialist admits that he does...