Th e renewed favorable environment for investment is visible in the remarkable growth of share prices. In Britain these prices increased by 63 percent from 1923 to 1928. In Italy the index of stock and dividend yield too made an astounding recovery aft er a bad setback during the red biennium. Indeed, as we know from chapter 7, privatization, tax breaks, and bank rescues provided "excellent profi t opportunities for fi nancial intermediaries" (Toniolo 1995, 300- 302). It guaranteed a total yield of stocks and dividends that almost tripled over the course of the decade. From 1923 to the end of the decade, the new publicly traded companies increased their value by almost 40 percent. Th is rise indicates how austerity created favorable conditions for the Italian fi nancial world (see Siciliano 2001, fi gure 1.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1731