Continuing to believe that finance drags down industry is one of the most pernicious legacies of the monetarist scourge. It's best to acknowledge, even with just a tweet, that finance can tighten but not push the economy. It is no coincidence that the liquidity injected into the markets, interest rates close to zero and the abundant supply of credit have not moved Italian entrepreneurs "en pantoufle" to resume the path of non-financial investments which have been declining for years, as I said in my previous writing yes this head.
It is also said that entrepreneurs "en pantoufle" are waiting for the recovery of domestic aggregate demand (read recovery in household consumption) to resume investment activity. It is a narrative that recalls the speed races on the Vigorelli track in Milan and to the surplece of the two competing cyclists. But today, in Italy, it is not believed that consumer families are the first to take action by drastically reducing their propensity to save to increase their propensity to consume and to start the virtuous circle invoked by entrepreneurs "en pantoufle". The widespread perception of future insecurity affects the consumption of notoriously risk-averse households. The first move therefore belongs to private entrepreneurs to create new aggregate demand that triggers the virtuous circle: private investments, household consumption, investments. A stimulus that brings entrepreneurs out of their torpor may be appropriate.
Expenditure items in favor of maintaining the status quo are recorded in the state budget alone: around 17-18 billion between current transfers and capital account grants to businesses, often disbursed in droves by the stimulus effect for new investments, very uncertain if not null.
These are public expenditure flows which, in line with the economic policy of a "balanced budget", but with significant multiplier effects, could be reconverted in favor of tax relief on company profits reinvested in new investments. This would reduce the degree of financial exposure of many companies towards banks and their financial fragility. Then we should look at the budgets of the Regions to deprive them of any ambitions of industrial policy and bring resources back to the centre.
What is certain is that not all entrepreneurs en pantoufle would be able to benefit from such a measure: probably the less dynamic ones who survive thanks to "mother state" would not survive, but the more dynamic and innovative ones capable of grafting the virtuous circle of investments, consumption households, investments.
