An article by Mary Jordan in today's Washington Post says that Italians are turning to the Mafia for loans as Italian banks shut off the credit faucet:
"It's a fantastic time for the Mafia. They have the cash," said Antonio Roccuzzo, the author of several books on organized crime. "The Mafia has enormous liquidity. It may be the only Italian 'company' without any cash problem."The article estimates that Italian retailers pay the various Mafia groups approximately $315 million per day. The article lists several "branches" of the Mafia (?):
- Camorra (in Naples)
- Cosa Nostra (in Sicily)
- 'Ndrangheta (in Calabria)
104. Is the American mafia thriving, currently, for the same reason --- the ability to step in and offer liquidity when banks cannot?
I have experienced first-hand the credit-crunch with the stops and starts of trying to refinance my place, which is stemming -- according to my mortgage broker -- from the lenders' inability to obtain comps for free-standing condos similar to mine. The whole experience has brought home to me just how slow/cautious the banks are being right now with disbursing loans.
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On a separate note, the Vatican "un-excommunicated" four bishops early in February, but on Friday of this past week they hedged on their position towards the most controversial - Bishop Richard Williamson of Britain.
Specifically, the Vatican said that Williamson's apology for his past Holocaust denials "was not sufficient to restore him to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church" (here's the article in the NYT).
The background:
Pope Benedict XVI has said he revoked the excommunication of the four bishops to heal a schism in the church. The four were members of the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X, which was founded in1970 in opposition to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The status of Bishop Williamson and the three other bishops remains uncertain. It hinges on internal discussions between the four and the Vatican committee that oversees relations with the society.
