Comments on: Need cash in Italy? You know who to call [Cousin Vinny]

By: Kristy @ Master Your Card

Kristy @ Master Your Card — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:19:27 +0000

I knew some form of the mafia still existed, but I wasn’t sure to what extent. This is pretty interesting. It’s a bad sign, though, when people are willing to take their chances with the mob. The idea of paying 120% is pretty daunting, but the idea of having my legs bashed in if I can’t is even worse. I bet these business owners have given up sleeping.

By: fathersez

fathersez — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:13:19 +0000

Every country has its own version of the Mafia. They indulge in many of the so called activities and rake money. Then they invest in legitimate activities to wash their money. Along the way they find power.

Malaysia has a whole lot of these street lenders with the signs advertsing their “cheap”, quickly processed and little documentation required loans. Cheap would be any number > 30%, I suppose.

Many do borrow from them, pay back and life goes on. For the few that default, then the consequences are dire.

By: TaxRascal

TaxRascal — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:34:37 +0000

Wow! Apparently Italy’s illegal economy is about 27% of their GDP. Pretty impressive that they can function at all with that kind of corruption.

By: Vinny Scordo from Scordo.com

Vinny Scordo from Scordo.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:53:02 +0000

No, I’m not THAT Vinny!

The mafia is a very complicated entity and very entrenched in Italian society (they’re actually part of the functioning economy in many parts of the country and especially in Southern Italian provinces like Calabria, Sicilia, etc.).

For a good primer on the mafia in Italy see Roberto Saviano’s book Gomorrah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Saviano).