The long season of reaffirmation of the role of the market certainly cannot be said to be over. Today, however, we note that the liberalization policies and those of budget austerity that have shaped the action of European governments and international institutions in recent years are unable to overcome the crisis.
On the other hand, we are all aware of the limits that Keynesian policies encounter in the face of the high public debt and the enormous budget deficits of the main economies of the world. We are all looking for a new way to achieve the development that everyone recognizes as the most effective way to fight the crisis. The approach of good economy suggests that, in a context like the one that occurred after the great shift of wealth from advanced countries to emerging countries and the strong change in income distribution that followed, one cannot help but look at policies oriented towards a long-term horizon.
It is necessary to start from the idea that what we are going through is a period of structural change rather than a cyclical phase of the economy. We still continue to talk about measures to get out of the recession but it happens that expansion and recession indicate phases of a cycle that in fact we do not observe given that, at least since 2008, the economy has been going through a phase of stagnation.
It is therefore necessary to take note of the changes that have taken place and immediately start a program that gives precise indications of the phases in which it develops over the years.
The time for direct interventions to deal with the emergency is well represented by what the Monti government has done and is doing very effectively. The most important issue we are facing is that of the lack of productivity growth over the last ten years. Only if we are able to intervene on the reasons that have slowed down productivity will we be able to overcome the problem of debt and the public deficit. It should not be forgotten that, if we want to intervene effectively on growth, we need to tackle the problems of the economy and those of the welfare state together.
The strong income inequalities, the increase in poverty and the worrying increase in youth unemployment place the theme of justice and social cohesion at the center of attention as a precondition for development. This is not just an Italian problem. And not just European either.
Nobel laureate Stiglitz pointed out that in the United States 1% of the population owns 40% of the wealth and the same 1% receives 25% of the total income produced each year. It goes without saying that the growth mechanism itself creates inequalities and that, within certain limits, they help development.
The question to be addressed is to prevent inequalities from becoming a limit to development. There good economy suggests increasing inclusion and social mobility, through investment in human capital, creativity and innovation. It is a choice which, even if it takes a long time, must be started immediately, indicating the phases in which it is carried out. The position of Europe and of our country in an international context in which it is necessary to compete, through particularly qualified human capital, as well as the need to quickly bring young people to the position of employed people to avoid the waste of resources which today is linked to the high rate of youth unemployment, requires interventions on training and education systems welfare that go together with an industrial policy oriented in the same direction.
