Today I learnt the Mafia is now Italy's biggest business and biggest bank! I guess it is not that surprising since Italy is the home of the Mafia, but to think that organised crime is actually a bigger earner in Italy than any other profession! There goes the saying crime doesn't pay, it seems in Italy it pays big time! The article says that they have cash reserves of €100 billion, about 7 percent of Italy's total Gross Domestic Product, and that the Mafia loan sharking arm or the Mafia Inc bank has liquidity of €65 billion.
I do question the legitimacy of the data gathered because I do not understand how they managed to work out the liquidity and size of the Mafia's finances. I always assumed that the Mafia would keep secret records of their loan sharking and other businesses, but perhaps they are not secret any longer in this day and age, where gangsters are businessmen with smart phones not hoodlums with machine guns. The article says the study was released by an employers association, Confesercenti. I don't know what this company actually does, even after reading it's website, but it apparently knows much about the finances of the Mafia. Or perhaps what they know is actually only the tip of the iceberg and the Mafia is even richer than estimated by Confesercenti? My final thought on the subject is that perhaps this is all a ploy by the Public Relations division of the Mafia (I assume there must be one, everyone is doing it these days) to give them a bit more of a legitimate feel by calling them a bank!
If you would like to read the article, it was on The Age, you can also read Confesercenti's website
I am surprised that I am still learning!
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