L'Italia e la crisi della golden age. La politica monetaria italiana dalla meta' degli anni Sessanta alla vigilia dello SME (1965-1978)

This paper examines Italian monetary events between the mid-1960s and the late 1970s in the context of the crisis of the 'golden age' of Western economic development, also considering the factors that made the Italian experience somewhat different from that of other countries. The essay documents the pervasiveness of the interventions through which Banca d'Italia carried out the policy of stabilizing long-term interest rates in the second half of the 1960s and in the early 1970s. It goes on to show that monetary accommodation in the period preceding the oil crisis of 1973, as well as in certain moments of the subsequent phase, was due not only to the increasing borrowing needs of the State, but also to a precise monetary policy choice; lastly, it examines the partial macroeconomic re-balancing of the late 1970s. The vicissitudes of the bond market – which interacted with monetary policy and contributed to the financial stability problems that emerged towards the mid-1970s – are an important thread of this analysis.