Every country faces the crisis with its own special strengths and its weaknesses, its own history. There is a national aspect to the response: for Italians, the repercussions will be more or less severe depending on our own choices. In the last twenty years our story has been one of stagnant productivity, low investment, low wages, low consumption and high taxes.
We must lift our gaze from the present woes to take the longer view. An effective response to today’s emergency is possible only if it is accompanied by the sort of conduct and reforms that can raise our growth above the low path of recent decades. Italian banks’ balance sheets are not weighed down by a legacy of impaired assets.