According to the Bank of Italy’s periodic survey, they expect their turnover to increase in 2010 by 3 percentage points more than that of comparable firms that had not restructured. Industrial firms with 50 or more employees that had invested in R&D in the three years preceding the crisis expect their turnover to increase by more than 6 per cent.
That commitment is central to the success of either approach. Yet, I would suggest that the old “rules versus discretion” debate is alive and well. This, of course, is not a new tension within the FOMC, nor is it one that is likely to go away in the near term.