How to escape from the crisis. The divergent opinions of Italian Economists

This paper focuses on the analyses and remarks carried out since 2011 by Italian economists concerning the nature and causes of the current economic crisis and its negative effects on the Italian economy and society. Four main orientations have critically been analysed. The first one focuses mainly on the limits deriving from the existence of a currency area which lacks political unity. The second orientation highlights the great difficulty to implement an effective integration process among geopolitical economic areas, which are very different from each other, within the Eurozone. The third interpretative line is that of the left-wing 'critical' thought which underlines the inner contradictions of market capitalism as such. Finally, the fourth field of observations criticises the inadequacy of Italian ruling classes as well as an insufficient level of civic and political maturity displayed by the national public opinion. The paper also discusses the various concepts of austerity which come from these four interpretations of the Great Recession in Italy. Jel codes: O 520 – B2 – B5