Summary of the Article “A crisis of Capitalism”

In the article “A crisis of capitalism” we are given some important information about the recent european crisis, in particular the italian one. After a brief introduction, the journalist explains that to understand deeply the Italian crisis we also need to look carefully at european problems. In fact, within the limits of the eurozone we can notice: the single currency, a central bank that doesn’t act  correctly, and no significant public budget.

Moreover, according to the writer the italian crisis was not born in Italy. It depended on stagnation in Europe caused by neo mercantilism in Germany and carried on by United States driven exports. The main problem, was the incapability of refinancing Greece first, then Ireland and Portugal. In fact, governaments became more and more scared about rescuing indebted countries. Thus, they started to use self defeating austerity programmes. Italian crisis was born in the mid 60s and started to increase both in labour productivity and in the growth rate. As a consequence politicians answered with a intensification of labour instead of a step ahed in innovation. The policy of flexibility led to the collapse of labour productivity. In a few words, it led to unemplyment especially in the north east. Starting from 1992 Italy left the Europen monitary system, a consequence of that was the deterioration of workers conditions.

Towards the end of the text, the writer suggests that the crisis could be overcome just dealing at once with the european problems, to stop the domino effect. In conclusion, he underlines that the european (and italian) crisis is not just a financial but a capitalist crisis. The European left should promote a socialisation of investments, banks as public utilities and intervetion of the state in the labour sector, especially in the problem of unemployment.