ABSTRACT
The contrasts and paradoxes of the Italian economy are a constant source of amazement for observers in other industrialised countries. The Italian economy is permanently in a state of crisis, so much so that for Italians the very word has been stripped of all real meaning. New expressions have to be invented to cope with problems such as an inflation rate of over 20%, a devalued currency, high unemployment, wildcat strikes and mastodontic state corporations staggering under mountains of debt.
