Great Depression Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Italy=== {{Main|Economic history of Italy}} [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12509, Italien, Arbeitslose vor Fabrik.jpg|thumb|Unemployed outside a factory in Italy, October 1931]] [[File:Mussolini visiting Fiat, 1932.jpg|thumb|[[Benito Mussolini]] giving a speech at the [[Fiat]] [[Lingotto]] factory in Turin, 1932]] The Great Depression hit [[Economy of Italy under fascism#The Great Depression|Italy]] very hard.<ref>Vera Zamagni, ''The economic history of Italy 1860–1990'' (Oxford University Press, 1993)</ref> As industries came close to failure they were bought out by the banks in a largely illusionary bail-out—the assets used to fund the purchases were largely worthless. This led to a financial crisis peaking in 1932 and major government intervention. The [[Industrial Reconstruction Institute]] (IRI) was formed in January 1933 and took control of the bank-owned companies, suddenly giving Italy the largest state-owned industrial sector in Europe (excluding the USSR). IRI did rather well with its new responsibilities—restructuring, modernising and rationalising as much as it could. It was a significant factor in post-1945 development. But it took the Italian economy until 1935 to recover the manufacturing levels of 1930—a position that was only 60% better than that of 1913.<ref>Fabrizio Mattesini, and Beniamino Quintieri. "Italy and the Great Depression: An analysis of the Italian economy, 1929–1936." ''Explorations in Economic History'' (1997) 34#3 pp: 265–294.</ref><ref>Fabrizio Mattesini and Beniamino Quintieri. "Does a reduction in the length of the working week reduce unemployment? Some evidence from the Italian economy during the Great Depression." ''Explorations in Economic History'' (2006), 43#3, pp. 413–37.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page