In the aftermath of the Istat data, which confirms those who had formulated the least optimistic economic forecasts, Labor Minister Elsa Fornero said that the responsibility for the current situation does not lie solely with politics, "but also of credit and of the entrepreneurs themselves who must have an attitude more aimed at investment and aggregations that make economies of scale".
Of course, the entrepreneurial fabric of a country can always be improved, and certainly the Italian one is, but deluding ourselves (and deluding ourselves) that the crisis could end by magic if only companies decided to invest more is at odds not with the macroeconomy, but with common sense.
In a market economy, the company invests when the entrepreneur is convinced that he can sell the product. And if the banker is also convinced that the product will sell, the credit arrives too. In a word, there is a question. And austerity policies have so far had only one certain effect: the systematic reduction of the disposable income that European families can spend.
I remember that Ronald Reagan also tried to tell the Americans a similar thing at the height of the 1981 recession saying: “In America there are 12 million businesses and 12 million unemployed. If every company hired even one unemployed person, the recession would end now.”
Naturally, no one followed the president's advice, and the recession continued to bite. But two years later, when tax cuts were coupled with a massive increase in military spending against the Evil Empire, the recession ended. The president who had made a balanced budget the password to beat Carter it triggered America's largest post-war deficit, followed by economic growth rates of between 2.5 and 6 percent and, lo and behold, a decline in the deficit-to-GDP ratio.
Curbing businessmen for an excess of caution in one of the longest and worst postwar crises reveals an emerging weakness in government policy. You might as well tell the Italians the truth: growth will come when Europe agrees to less repressive fiscal policies.
