ARCHIMED EGCT – Ε.Ο.Ε.Σ. – AECT – GECT – European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation

Thomas Herndon, PhD student in Economics at the University of Massachusetts, the son of a Texan and a woman from Hong Kong, found the error that calls into question the dogma of austerity, the study by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff published in 2010 the American economic review, according to which if the debt exceeds 90 percent of GDP growth stops. This approach has been used by liberals, those who reject any state intervention in economy and label each state intervention with the thick public as an error, as inviolable dogma, built on an equation cold, numeric, a blade that separates the virtuous by negligent, the good from the bad, the leaders from the surface. Many economists have always considered this processing is no longer an excuse to ensure that the views of the economic powers oligopolitistiche and support the advantage of large groups of capitalist power, to the detriment of the majority of citizens. There is no need to invoke Marx and Keynes to understand the arbitrariness. Already the great recession of 1929 is a perfect historical example to understand that, in a situation of crisis, austerity policies can only lead to even greater recession: if the income is generally lower, inevitably it also lowers the level of consumption, production remains unsold, companies are in crisis, lay off employees and end up closing. In fact, this situation is not a disadvantage for all: they are large multinational companies to take advantage by eliminating the competition of small businesses, reducing citizens to subjects (remaining unchanged equality before the law in the democratic world, however subduing freedom through economic dependence). Today it turns out that this alibi is also unfounded by the theoretical point of view: the terrible equation of liberalism is simply wrong. The austerity policy is only one of the powers that be, a threat to civil liberties, an argument to destroy civil liberties and democratic. In order for the deficit spending (the Keynesian system to overcome the crisis of ’29) to be effective, it must be said that public spending should not be used for current expenses (assignments and personal benefits), but for structural investments (and in fact this theme should have clear resonances for a critical reading of the use of public resources in Italy, and should be the focus of the debate much more than the alleged “moral issue”). The task is to bring the institutions under the guarantee of the democratic role of the state and territorial democratic governments, to go beyond liberalism and return to the rule of law and guarantees of a welfare for all citizens. Europe must aim at this direction: the European Parliament elections of 2014, the next great opportunity to relaunch the debate.