A more cohesive Europe is a Europe that is stronger against any speculative attack and against the crisis. This is why there are "important political decisions, which are talked about constantly" which can give the euro the right solidity. Choices from which it could be understood that the continent is progressing not only "on a monetary and banking level", but also on a political level.
“Much could be gained from the pooling by the Member States of the European Union of large sections of our public budgets, from infrastructure investments to research, defense, in the process that from the Economic Union, via the Banking Union and that of the budget tends, or should tend, towards political union”. These are the conclusions of the Governor of the Bank of Italy Ignazio Visco, on the occasion of the XXX Reading of the Mill, in Bologna, where the publishing house is celebrating today the 60th anniversary of its foundation.
The sign of a political change in these sectors, argues the number one on Via Nazionale, could send a definitive message and "help eliminate the perception of the risk that everything could still break down". Those who still fearfully look at the spread or who attempt speculation in this area are actually looking in a rear-view mirror, because the critical phase is behind us, but Europe must still go further.
It is primarily politics that is called into question, so that it plays a decisive role in "governing change" in a phase of epochal changes on a global level, brought about primarily by the digital revolution. This innovation is, for Visco, comparable to the discovery of electricity and we still don't see all the effects. Preparing for this future by managing the transition is the task of our societies. The title of Visco's reading, "Why times are changing...", is borrowed from a line from a song by Bob Dylan from 50 years ago and in this temporal oxymoron there is the task before us: to read the past, intuit the future, govern the present, to implement suitable and coherent policies, especially on the employment front, in a context where wealth increasingly tends to be concentrated in a few hands.
"In this reading I will discuss the theme of change - explains Visco - in particular the rapid and continuous one, today associated with technological developments and the multiple interrelationships between the legacies of the crisis and new technological challenges", without forgetting the impact that these have on places of work and skills. Indeed, one of the greatest risks of contemporary society lies in the inequalities that "between countries have decreased", while "within each country they have widened". A second risk is inherent in the lower productivity growth in advanced countries like ours. Today we are living in a great recession, perhaps a "secular" stagnation, if we listen to those who believe that "the great innovations generating significant increases in productivity" have already been "mostly invented". However, it must be noted that the digital revolution offers a great opportunity, because "it is still far from having unfolded its effects on productivity".
And there are other fields of research such as "robotics, genomics and artificial intelligence itself, which can have extraordinary applications on productivity and well-being". If anything, the problem lies in the fact that digital technologies tend to quickly replace work, to the point that in the USA, in the next twenty years, one job out of 2 will disappear. The same will happen to us, who are already struggling on the employment front due to globalization and competition from emerging markets. This doesn't mean we will go from bad to worse, because new jobs will replace old jobs. Nor is it a question of hypothesizing catastrophic scenarios and a future inhabited by robots, with owners of capital intent on hoarding profits and almost all the income produced. Instead, it is a question of becoming aware of the change, managing the transition, aware that knowledge and excellence will also play an increasingly important role in the future of each of us.
“Topics such as the concentration of market shares, equality of opportunities, the progressiveness of tax systems, the employability of people, property rights – underlines Visco – will inevitably be the subject of debate and political decision in the coming years , in a difficult context because it is no longer limited to a single nation". Our contemporary living fits into this space between the past and the future. , “We must start from the observation that there is a serious lack of demand and therefore of employment and income, as well as growth”, therefore “a strong stimulus to public and private, national and European investment is essential”.
And “increasing the productivity growth rate requires targeted investments in new technologies, but also in immaterial infrastructures. If you don't invest due to the high cost of capital - says Visco - due to doubts about expected demand, due to uncertainty about the state and continuity of 'structural reforms', it is the responsibility of politics and economic policies to work to remove these impediments ”. In Italy ” in the face of a society and an economy that had been at a standstill since well before the financial crisis, the potential for improvement that can be obtained by removing constraints and rigidities, accelerating the adoption of new technologies, bridging the gap of the productive frontier is very large in many sectors, raising the general state of infrastructure, even the more traditional ones”. Greater automation also means greater savings and therefore advantages for everyone, bearing in mind that growth comes from innovative sectors.
"Many times I have recalled the importance of an organic design in defining the structural reforms that are needed in Italy", a design that improves the conditions for doing business, removing bureaucratic obstacles and which intervenes on justice, schools and infrastructures, in a context where the rules are respected. “Much of our progress also depends on being in Europe” , concludes the Governor, even if these are “difficult moments on the path towards a full Union. I would just like to recall that Nino Andreatta, in an essay written almost fifty years ago, saw the technological gap already existing then with the United States as a fundamental 'political stimulus' for Europe”.
