“About the only growth industry” on the troubled Italian economic scene “is kidnapping,” observes Time magazine wryly. In fact, “kidnapping has become a very profitable industry,” says a member of Italy’s parliament. “In the last five years kidnappers have raked in $24.5-million, no less than $8-million in 1974 alone.”

Some prosperous people in the north of Italy are reportedly sending their children to school in nearby Switzerland, hoping that they will be safe there.