In a time where companies are going belly-up left and right all around the developed world, one country stands apart from the crowd: Italy. Yes, that Italy. How are they doing it? By bailing out f*@#&ing everything.

Nineteen companies sitting on at least 5.7 billion euros ($8.1 billion) of debt have said since April their auditors had “significant doubts” about their ability to continue as going concerns. More than 20, among them Maserati designer Pininfarina SpA, have said they can’t pay their loans and asked banks to freeze or delay payments. Italy aims to save them all.

The strategy harkens back to Italy in the 1930s under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who formed a state industrial company to bail out banks and beef up national infrastructure. Only one publicly traded company, IT Holding SpA, owner of the Gianfranco Ferre fashion house, has filed for bankruptcy protection this year, amid the worst recession in six decades. No publicly traded company has gone out of business.

In business, as in all things, a good strategy is always “When in doubt, just do what Mussolini would do.” WWMD wristbands are hot sellers in tough times. No, of course, I kid. The current policy has everything to do with trying to fend off unemployment for the sake of salvaging the economy, and nothing to do with corporatism as championed by Mussolini. Still, the corporate-government alliance is quite similar.

Still, it’s a bit odd to see a country like Italy, whose debt is something around 110% of GDP, shelling out all this money that it does not and never will have to save a handful of companies whose collapse will not actually endanger the world’s financial system. For comparison, US debt is “only” in the 90% range, and you know how bad we’re doing.

But one area where Italy is way ahead of the pack is in its banks, who are turning regular profits and are able and willing to help out. But why?

Lenders have been anxious to keep companies out of extraordinary administration, Italy’s version of bankruptcy protection, because their claims come after those of employees, certain suppliers and taxes, slimming a chance of repayment, said Francesco Faldi, managing associate at law firm Linklaters LLP in Milan.

That’s some incentive right there, as opposed to bankruptcies in the US where near-ubiquitous blanket liens often ensure creditors are repaid first, before employees can recoup wages or benefit plan contributions, and even before most taxes. It would appear that banks are more likely to be a pal if there’s something in it for them. Shocking, I know.