Mafia is No. 1 lender in Italy

Mafia now "Italy's No.1 bank" as crisis bites

ROME (Reuters) - Organized crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy during the economic crisis, making the Mafia the country's biggest "bank" and squeezing the life out of thousands of small firms, according to a report on Tuesday.Extortionate lending by criminal groups had become a "national emergency," said the report by anti-crime group SOS Impresa.
Organized crime now generated annual turnover of about 140 billion euros ($178.89 billion) and profits of more than 100 billion euros, it added.

"With 65 billion euros in liquidity, the Mafia is Italy's number one bank," said a statement from the group, which was set up in Palermo a decade ago to oppose extortion rackets against small business.
Organized crime groups like the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Naples Camorra or the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta have long had a stranglehold on the Italian economy, generating profits equivalent to about 7 percent of national output.

Extortionate lending had become an increasingly sophisticated and lucrative source of income, alongside drug trafficking, arms smuggling, prostitution, gambling and racketeering, the report said.
"The classic neighborhood or street loan shark is on the way out, giving way to organized loan-sharking that is well connected with professional circles and operates with the connivance of high-level professionals," the report said.

It estimated about 200,000 businesses were tied to extortionate lenders and tens of thousands of jobs had been lost as a result.

Typical victims of extortionate lending were middle-aged shopkeepers and small businessmen who would struggle to find a new job and who were ready to try anything to avoid bankruptcy, it added.
"They are usually people in traditional retail sectors like food, greengrocers, clothes or shoe shops, florists or furniture shops. These are the categories which, more than any other, are paying the price of the (economic) crisis," it said.

According to a separate report this week from small business association CNA, 56 percent of companies had seen banks tighten their lending requirements in the past three months.

My view:

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that when you talk to very elderly people who remember life in the 1930s they were so fearful about borrowing money.

Now we are not just dependant, but addicted to credit, and the mafia in Italy is the "dealer".

How long before a great credit crunch strikes the rest of Europe and North America?

Comments

  1. Interesting PW...I guess someday we will all swim with the Fishes :)

    Bill

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  2. Were being Duped PW...wake up America

    Your being Duped America

    List of Top Contributors to Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. - Imgur

    Romney's list looks just like Bama's...

    http://imgur.com/a17Ac

    ReplyDelete

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