Venetian subprime discount

Jeremy Gantz

In what must rank as the most ineffective solution for the subprime meltdown, a Venice restaurant is now offering a discount to all Americans: A notice in English now hangs on the door of [owner Arrigo Cipriani’s] restaurant: “Harry’s Bar of Venice in an effort to make the American victims of subprime loans happier has decided to give them a special 20% discount on all the items of the menu during the short term of their recovery”. A novel idea, but misplaced: In the Italian newspaper story, the owner notes that most of the Americans in the restaurant are “extremely affluent and immune to ‘subprime sickness.’” Meanwhile, the U.S. economy’s “long hangover” continues.

Jeremy Gantz is an In These Times contributing editor working at Time magazine.

The text is from the poem “QUADRENNIAL” by Golden, reprinted with permission. It was first published in the Poetry Project. Inside front cover photo by Golden.
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