The history of the ten-year financial crisis of this end of the century from which nations are slowly emerging continues to lend itself to a critical re-reading, both to better understand the mistakes made by politicians, institutions and economic/financial operators, and to outline a virtuous path to follow avoiding painful relapses and taking the path of a desired socio-economic development. It fits well in this context the latest book by Ignazio Visco which, with the usual methodological rigor and a considerable wealth of statistical and bibliographic apparatus, touches on the themes of the double crisis that has also affected our country: that of the global financial crisis and that of the sovereign debts of the euro area.
Thus scroll pages containing interesting contributions, recently presented on various public occasions and partly reworked and integrated; contributions in which the Governor of the Bank of Italy also addresses topics of great delicacy and topicality, such as: supervision of banks, the protection of savings, the duties and limits of monetary policy, the importance of financial education.
In an era in which, as he underlined, even for central bankers "communication has taken on a crucial role" and one's professional responsibility is declined not only in "accounting for one's work but ... in accompanying the exhibition of the aims of the economic policy choices with the illustration of the nature and the possible consequences of the underlying economic and financial phenomena”, this book carries out a significant cultural operation. In fact, the importance to be attributed, alongside traditional knowledge, to ad a new set of skills useful for dealing with unprecedented situations and which play an ever more decisive role in the modern organization of work, the so-called soft skill; in the awareness that without an adequate investment in human capital there will be no lasting economic-social development.
A warning clearly addressed also and above all to our country which continues to lag behind its main economic competitors in terms of competitiveness and in terms of the amount of resources allocated to education and research/development.
Therefore, the "almost epilogue", placed at the end of this volume, which is centered by Visco, is not accidental on the importance of investing in knowledge, recalling Benjamin Franklin's famous phrase: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest (the return on investment in knowledge is higher than any other investment)”. A precept, which has its roots in Greek philosophical culture and which, having passed through the centuries, has come down to us to show us the correct way to definitively emerge from the difficult years evoked in the title of the book and improve not only the economic situation, but also the social dimension of humanity.
