Come rifare Maastricht. L’Europa e la stampa

This work is fully integrated and unitary. It starts by analyzing the 2019 Stability Law and its financial accounts, which are illustrated, discussed and shared. How to reform the Maastricht parameters is then examined in some depth. One of its major conclusions is that the fiscal system should be reoriented toward a national model, similar to the one in vigour in Italy until the 1970s. Most of the work is concerned with this discussion, conducted by reporting all the articles, published and unpublished, sent to ItaliaOggi during this and the previous Legislature (2014-2018). Two papers follow, illustrating what the Bank of Italy should but cannot do, being “entangled” by BCE policy. The papers had in fact been sent to important seminars held in the Bank of Italy (2017 and 2018), but they were both rejected. Then other papers, published in Mondoperaio, Nuovi Lavori, and various newspapers, essentially delve deeper into the macroeconomic question. Here, following Keynes, it is shown that investment and amortisation are now more or less equal in the major European nations, so that net saving equates with the sum of trade surpluses and/or public deficits. This is a fundamental question, since trade surpluses are unsustainable, so public deficits become necessary and the rate of interest is compelled to zero, both in the public and the private system. A period of serious reforms is advocated, following what was thought and taught during most of the past century by the Italian School of public finance. This is illustrated by discussing my comments in a book edited by GORINI, LONGOBARDI, VITALETTI, entitled “Economia, Politica, Cultura nell’Italia del XX Secolo. Il pensiero critico di Sergio Steve”, FrancoAngeli, 2018.