The intervention of the Governor of the Bank of Italy Ignazio Visco at the presentation of the first volume of the collection of Luigi Einaudi's writings, which was edited by Pierluigi Ciocca, former deputy director of the central bank, did not get the attention it deserved. In fact, the Governor did not limit himself to a speech for the presentation of a gigantic work (it will consist of 13 volumes) which took place in front of the highest authorities of the State, the President of the Republic is that of the Council, but he drew from endless, but clear, Luigi Einaudi's lesson, ideas of particular relevance for current events.
First the bailout of the banks. Einaudi, as a good liberal, was initially reluctant to consider positively a public intervention in credit companies in difficulty. But then, with the pragmatism that characterized him, he realized that in the face of liquidity crises due to waves of mistrust that could hit even solvent banks, he said that the State and the central bank had to provide all the liquidity necessary to restore the confidence of depositors . Today, with the banking system closely interconnected, it is easy to demonstrate, precisely by following Einaudi's train of thought, that bailout interventions are less costly for the taxpayer than a crisis which would jeopardize the stability of the entire financial system with disastrous consequences for the businesses and workers.
Up to now we are dealing with a traditional position of the Bank of Italy, while what appeared truly new was the emphasis placed on the to condemn with harsh words any sort of sovereignty in favor of free trade and of the supranational authorities which should regulate relations between the various economies of the world. Where there is trade there is no war, Visco said, which instead is intrinsically connected to the existence of national states, to the "evil power of the fixed idea of sovereignty", a "daunting myth" as Einaudi wrote.
The opening of borders to the exchange of goods, money and men has benefited all humanity. And also on monetary stability Einaudi he viewed the Bretton Woods accords positively thanks to which each state will give up "its monetary sovereignty to acquire a share of everyone's sovereignty over everyone's things". Of course this is only true if monetary union is managed prudently and wisely, and yet international economic cooperation has in the past always benefited the poor more than the rich. “But it will only be like this if we firmly want it”. Certain in 1945 the Euro had not yet even been thought of, but those words are even more popular today when the interconnections between European economies and between them and the rest of the world are enormously higher than those of the post-war period.
The risk of a return to protectionism is deadly. Apparently the closure policy seems to benefit individual peoples who once again become masters of their own homes, but it is enough to delve into the issues a little to understand that many countries could not survive without strong relations with the rest of the world. Just think of a country like ours that needs energy and food products and that has to pay for them with its own exports. Shall we go back to surrogates?
Finally, the Governor mentioned a celebrated maxim by Einaudi "know to decide” which invited the authorities and citizens to adopt their own choices after having studied the theme in all its aspects, paying close attention to what is called the heterogeneity of ends and that is that often the effects of certain measures turn out to be different or opposite to those imagined. In a political phase in which technicians are mocked on the basis of an alleged popular will, this simple reference to Einaudi's healthy common sense should make our rulers reflect.
