My countryman and great scholar of European civilizations, Fernand Braudel, chronicles that wealthy Venetian merchants in the early 1500s used to instruct their agents to “never leave ‘li danari mortti’, money lying dead.” “Sell quickly, even at a lower price, in order to ‘venier presto sul danaro per un altro viaggio.’” 2 It would be nearly impossible to find a more fitting description of the inner force that moves a market economy.
In a vibrant market economy, money does not rest and is used to serve the creativity and the effort of undertaking enterprises. II. The financial crisis  Let me start my remarks by recalling the origins of the crisis as I see them. Over past decades, our economies have greatly benefited from the effects of financial liberalisation and financial innovation.