Not a day goes by without some politicians or groups of technicians putting forward proposals to try to reduce the Italian debt which has reached 125% of GDP towards lower and therefore manageable levels. This would lead to the restoration of market confidence in Italy's solvency and therefore would lead to a lowering of the spread with respect to German bonds.
The conviction is slowly gaining ground that no matter how many sacrifices can be made to restore the annual deficit, which we are actually doing, the mountain of debt that we have accumulated over so many years of waste still represents a weight that continues to drag us bottom. Hence, both in Parliament and in the political parties, proposals are put forward aimed at giving a sharp blow to the debt in order to reduce it over a certain number of years by 300-400 billion in order to arrive at a ratio of 100% with respect to GDP. Having lower rates, credit to the economy would get going again and therefore our companies could start producing again with benefits on employment. The latest proposal was elaborated by Bassanini and Amato in the ambit of the Astrid study center and envisages a cut of 200 billion in debt over five years, to which another 150 billion in cuts could be added in the following five years. The proposal is very detailed and lists both the assets to be disposed of and the operating methods to be used to achieve the result. It should be emphasized that it is in no way a question of extraordinary asset taxation measures or coercive loans, but of using existing or new vehicles to carry out these operations also obtaining, at least in part, the refinancing of these securities with the ECB thus avoiding further drainage of liquidity which would be negative for the economic situation. The advantage of this proposal lies in the fact that it moves in the wake of what was outlined by Economy Minister Grilli, however considerably strengthening it and thereby sending a much more substantial signal to the markets.
With no illusions about the possibility of receiving substantial aid from other European states or from the ECB in a short time, Italy must organize itself to be able to do much of the recovery work on its own. Surely the ECB will be able to lend a hand by purchasing short-term securities and thus avoiding a further credit crunch by our banks which are no longer able to have access to the international capital market. But if you do not rightly want to resort to aid from the bailout fund, the only possibility we have is to complete and strengthen the action to restore our economic system. On the other hand, recourse to European bailouts would entail not only a loss of political autonomy (already partly lost in the recent past) but above all a prospect of greater difficulty in resuming a path of growth as Italy would in any case remain a label of a Country placed under guardianship, not able to manage itself, and therefore not worthy of trust by international investors.
Completing our recovery process requires the ability to address two issues: the first is to send signals of a willingness to reduce debt with a credible plan and above all to be adopted quickly, and the second (but no less important) is that of trying to raise our competitiveness. It is often overlooked, when it comes to relaunching internal demand, that our problem is not only that of the drop in consumption, but above all that of the scarce competitiveness of our productions, for which there is the risk that even if we manage to relaunch internal demand, this would be satisfied by foreign productions and not by those of our country, with therefore little impact on employment.
Competitiveness depends on many factors. We have addressed some of them, such as those of liberalization or the labor market, even if even in these sectors there would be further steps to be taken. However, we have still done little in attacking what seems to be the most penalizing factor for our economic system and that is the inefficiency and extreme onerousness of the public system starting with the heaviness of the institutional system, among the most expensive and least reliable in the world. It is not just a question of arguing about the "Casta" or its privileges, but of outlining a more functional and rigorous system of attribution of responsibility to all levels of central and peripheral administration in order to have clear decisions in certain times. We need a system that knows how to prevent a case like that of Taranto and which does not leave the judiciary the possibility of making sensational decisions, unthinkable in any western country and which certainly contribute to giving a not exactly favorable image of our country to any foreign investors. State reform is the indispensable premise for carrying out a spending review which must substantially reduce public spending, primarily affecting the robbery and collusion between parties and administrations to share public money. But then it will also be necessary to review some parts of the welfare system to make it more equitable and more functional, also entrusting citizens with part of the responsibility for outlining their own future.
Only in this way will it be possible to reduce taxes on labor and businesses and thus gain competitiveness. They are not easy choices. We have seen how much resistance it will be necessary to overcome coming both from corporations and above all from the party apparatuses which for many years have essentially lived on the administration of public expenditure.
A plan for debt reduction is at this point indispensable and urgent. But it must be taken into account that even if we manage to bring all of our debt back within the country, that is, if we place it entirely with Italian citizens, this, as the example of Japan demonstrates, does not guarantee us the possibility of starting to grow again. something we badly need to give work to the many young people who are unemployed or are forced to emigrate abroad. Debt relief and reforms for greater competitiveness must go hand in hand. We have done a piece of the road in recent months with Monti. Now in order not to make the sacrifices endured so far useless, we must not let our guard down, but on the contrary try to complete the path we are missing to return to being a country full of opportunities for all its citizens.
