Word: confesercenti
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...problem: organized crime, or what we might call our criminal economy. Talk of this corruption crisis never goes beyond expressions of solidarity with the victims, praise for the valiant police, and generic appeals to morality. All of which leads nowhere. Last year, a report by the Italian business association Confesercenti estimated that the Mob in Italy generated more than $125 billion of annual revenue, a figure equal to 7% of the country's gross domestic product. That's more than double the annual income of Italy's entire agricultural sector...
Coupled with other crime syndicates across Italy's south, including the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Camorra around Naples, the Mob is not just murderous, but also a major drag on Italy's economic development. A recent report by the Confesercenti small-business association estimated that organized crime accounts for 7% of Italy's GDP, a larger share than any corporate behemoth, even the energy giant ENI. The Sicilian Mob is one of Italy's original multinationals, having partnered with its Italo-American cousins and gangsters around the world to traffic drugs and weapons, launder money and promote other illegal...
There's no such thing as the Mob, huh? Try telling that to small-business organization Confesercenti, which released a report alleging that the Mafia is Italy's "largest firm." "Mafia Inc," composed of Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Naples' Camorra, Calabria's 'Ndrangheta and Puglia's Sacra Corona Unita, brings in more revenue than the country's largest legal business--its government-owned energy company...
...that's the irony. Even if the anti-usury activists get everything they want, many ordinary Italians will still be choking on high-interest debts. Confesercenti, an association of retailers, reckons that about 120,000 Italian shops are in the clutches of loan sharks, or strozzini-literally, stranglers. A special commission has been set up to fight the loan sharks, who make billions of dollars a year off the backs of debtors. The strozzini have thrived because of weak competition from legitimate lenders. Banks rarely allow overdrafts or unsecured loans, for example. For small businesses in particular, a loan shark...
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