The real economy, no one talks about the passing part of the country – Corriere.it

CIt is surprising that, in these weeks before the drafting of the budget law, the discussion about the Italian economy was present There are two common vulnerabilities: on the one hand, financial uncertainty and public financing; On the other hand, there are doubts (and lack of knowledge) about the stability of the real economy.

The media is full tremors over ever-increasing debts; On the rush to find additional resources; On the possibility of Europe rejecting the excessive maneuvers; Due to fears that international financial markets are trying to sell sovereign bonds; And more. Reading the hundreds of pages devoted to these events is certainly not reassuring, because the announcements and proposals that follow lack an accurate and common idea about the budget and public finances: there is no common ground or common options. Deficit spending Of hereditary origin, no strict selections of Andrian origin. To get something more precise, you just have to wait and see what comes out of the hundreds of poses on the mat.

But what’s even more disturbing is that it all comes with it – There is no parallel discussion about the stability and cohesion of the real economy. Those who lived through the Italian economy in previous decades remember well how public opinion often felt reassured when faced with a gap in public finances because of the sense that in reality, in everyday life, things were less bad.

In fact, I personally remember what happened in the mid-1970s: the accounts were at such a terrible level, that the Governor of the Bank of Italy had to ask the government Do not allow oil tankers to dock in Italian ports because, literally, “there was no money to pay for this oil.”. However, this dramatic sense was contemporary with a widespread awareness that the real economy was not just floating, but clearly Unexpected strength of local economies, Especially those where the underground economy reacted. I am not ashamed to announce in some workshops that the trade surplus of the provinces of Prato and Sassuolo was higher than the deficit in all other manufacturing sectors.

Someone made a few jokes about the folkloricism of this assessment (I think of the smiling phrase with which the lawyer Agnelli and Professor Modigliani greeted my arrival at Cernobbio: “Here is a friend of Prato Stracciaroli”). but In the end, it was clear that the real economy was significantly stronger than the economy managed by public accounts. Gradually the submerged consciousness of the known true vitality asserted itself. But today I wonder who can spread this much optimism about the fate of the real economy, given that no one cares to understand whether and how the daily reality of the many companies and localities that have grown in the meantime will hold up. Debate is practically non-existent, and most of those who sang about the submerged vitality of the years between the 1970s and the 2000s devote themselves to other things, perhaps to more prosaic but fashionable topics. The daily reality of powerful regions ends up being that they “shuffle their feet”, that is, slowly and with little conviction, almost suggesting that their economic dynamics are slowing down as well.

However, for those who still travel around Italy, reality gives contradictory, but not idle, signals: Milano and Lombard engine throbs well. The northeastern economy is overcoming the crisis of dependence on the decline of the German locomotive. Emilia-Romagna and part of the Marche are full of excellent subjects; Tourism in Tuscan, Umbria, Lazio (Roman), Apulia and Sicily showed great firepower. It may be more useful than ever to pay some attention to these vital components of the system: let us try to leave them to themselves, in the intellectual laziness resulting from not treating the precise situation. To preserve the country’s collective psyche In the face of what promises to be a difficult winter, they are more important than many fiscal revenues.