War, prices, interest rates
The imminent threat of war is invariably like having a real, current war. At least, this is what strong market players seem to believe, which is no surprise as their job is to predict the unpredictable and to offset any dangers with other, less harmful ones. In this manner, the economic values which uphold our society can be maintained in equilibrium – a transient one – that allows our economic life to go on. For going on is what counts, regardless of whether things are going well or not. Things, in fact, are not going well, but people don’t seem to have grasped this. Even the most optimistic among us have been trying lately to convince us that «things won’t get any worse.» The truth is, however, that the boom of the previous years was largely ephemeral, not because we could have avoided a negative economic cycle, but rather because much of the money won during the euphoria was spent either on the stock market or on investments that helped reproduce the current economic model, without correcting its intrinsic problems. The same thing happened to us. We spent money, our money as well as EU money, on dubious investments, corrupt balances, secret foreign firms and on a greedy, yet defective, state mechanism. We squandered the great impetus that the adoption of a strong and stable currency, the euro, would have given to our economy. We saw inflation climb as a result of previous mistakes. Now, we grumble that our interest rates slide below the inflation level. However, what our economy needs is more investment, more business, more competitiveness. And these goals are best served with lower interest rates. We should not only think as rentiers-savers. We should also bear in mind those who are seeking a job and a decent wage to build their life on – not to mention that this is the only way to really curb inflation.
