Il Mercato e le Politiche Economiche in Italia

All existing international indicators - both ordinal and cardinal - of structural nature signal that Italy is a country cronically characterised by great inefficiencies, though it succeeds in remaining among the 7 economically most powerful countries in the world. Both in cyclical terms and in the medium- and long-run, lights and shadows co-exist in our country. Traditional macroeconomic policies, in particular the monetary and fiscal ones, must not raise concerns. In Italy, a presumption of guilt should be set on microeconomic policies envisaging excessive allocations for some Welfare items and insufficient resources for pure public goods and for the public accumulation of both human and material resources. But, more than that, market regulation policies should be in the dock. Competition is hardly prompted, while there are too many "protections" granted by law to workers and firms, often to the detriment of consumers and outsiders (unemployed, young first job seekers, women, Southern people). As it is well know, in Italy both the Marxist and the Catholic traditions obstacle competition, as does a Crocian school of thought which is minoritarian in the country.