In two years we go from "whatever it takes" to "whatever it comes" or rather to "who gave gave and who had had had". This is the deepest meaning of a recent article by editorialist Federico Fubini in La Repubblica following by one day Eugenio Scalfari's reproach against Mario Draghi, who, instead of talking to the Italian press, would prefer to stay in his country house hunting butterflies (sic). What happens? Individual journalistic interventions, even if by illustrious signatures, should never be overestimated but it is the first time that the Draghi icon has been criticized in Italy so far seen as the savior of the euro as well as of our homeland. And this cannot fail to make us reflect.
In the background it can be seen the race to the Quirinale which begins to count on many members, precisely among those who declare they do not aspire to the highest seat. But perhaps they are also the first cracks in a myth.
On the merits, Fubini's accusations I'm vitriolic. Succubus of the Germans with the undeniable charm of president of the highest European economic office who, at each monthly press conference, sees a recovery of the economy which instead is increasingly moving away and reproaches the European countries, inviting them to fill as much as possible, even at buckets, the vessel of reforms. It is a 'make haste' that recalls the admonition of the great professor Federico Caffè not to trust those who invoke the emergency to introduce reforms that would not pass in normal times.
The 'quantitative easing' initiatives, in the most common sense of the 'unlimited' injection of liquid assets into the economy without too many distinctions as did the USA, Japan and Great Britain, are then excluded by the president of the ECB, because in Europe and in our country the transmission belt between the central bank and the economy, i.e. the banking system, has actually stopped working for a few years.
No responsibility from the ECB, awaiting the fateful response of the Asset Quality Review, with hardly expansive effects? To the notes of the Republic it should be added that the other innovation desired by Draghi - the European supervisory mechanism - will need quite a few years to become fully operational and that, probably, it will be able to cope with the structural problems of the European banking system or of parts of it, if not of the euro. And meanwhile how to survive in times of procured deflation?
Two conclusions/questions which are also the subdued thought of a citizen interested in the monetary and financial affairs of the country in which he lives. The new European governance is being built, i.e. the distribution of offices after the European elections. To try to count a minimum of more, – one could not take note that the President of the ECB cannot be an expression of the country with the highest public debt in the world due to the inevitable conflict of interest that undermines the credibility and the independence of the institution? – could one not think that Draghi, for the reasons indicated by Fubini, is not on the Italian level but on the German level?
Perhaps it is too much, but, as Fubini concludes, only Mario can deny Mario.
