Fascinating story in the Financial Times about how the Mafia has been cashing in on the financial crisis with two apparently "Japanese" men bringing $134 billion worth of fake Treasury bills into Switzerland. The men were questioned by Italian police who subsequently let them go. Surprise surprise.

This comes a month after authorities had cracked a $1 billion bond scam run by the Sicilian mafia. And last month, Bloomberg reported about the mafia's money laundering and using its hoard of cash for investing and lending money to those who can't get it from the banks.

As reported here, Italy's shopkeepers' association last year did a study showing that the mafia is that country's biggest business. Not that this would surprise anyone who has spent some time there.

Still, maybe the mafia has something to offer here. They do, after all, have lots of cash. Ill-gotten or not, it's worth something and provides business with more than what the banks have to offer. The only alternative is getting the banks to start lending again.