Southern Italy needs a new vision for the future built on consideration of its system strongpoints and on a deeper scrutiny of its problems, with a view to identifying alternative proposals focused on the competitive capacity of those regions, with the goal of improving the business environment.
In stark contrast with the past, any analysis of the year 2020 is dominated by the profound impact of a pandemic so capricious as to thwart any attempt at predicting the future. The fundamental question is whether the change has been a structural one and, as regards energy, if it is capable on its own of accelerating or slowing decarbonization, given the fact that the energy industry remains a prime sector within which to seize recovery-related opportunities.
The Italian healthcare system continues to feel the pressure of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the outlay of financial and organizational resources needed to confront the emergency must not take the focus off the structural issues posed by the need to protect a steadily ageing population’s health. Instead, the pandemic should offer an opportunity to highlight existing shortcomings and create new models with which to confront a future return to normality.
A return to life in small towns and outlying areas could offer a strategic opportunity for Italian post-pandemic economic recovery. Italy’s environmental and cultural heritage can become pivotal elements in the framework of long-term policies conceived in continuity with some ideas previously promoted at both national and local levels, with the aim of regulating the equilibrium between the economic development of cities, small towns and remote areas.
An overall energy transition is under way, and has been for several years despite significant structural obstacles and cyclical ups and downs. The ongoing pandemic and the related economic slowdown have come at a critical juncture in this respect. Today’s situation has highlighted a connection between GDP levels, population density and the impact of Covid-19 infections – likely through air quality – as manifested in various areas of Northern Italy and probably elsewhere.
The daily effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on every individual and organization are clearly foregrounding how wealth and health go hand in hand. The quest for health – the focus of the political agenda and objectives of every government – will influence every government’s process of reconstruction for months to come.
Business is the fundamental agent in the recovery of an economy struck as dramatically by the pandemic as Italy’s has been. To determine whether that recovery will be a success we need to consider the system’s economic armature of countless small and medium-sized family-run enterprises. Today’s generational hand-over becomes even more important than it has been over recent decades. At stake is the result of the major challenges awaiting national manufacturing: the digital transformation and the environmental transition.
“Doing business” is a term that evokes complexity and challenge, especially when paired with “in Italy”, a country well known for its structural problems and irreconcilable contradictions: Structural problems consisting of a slow and chaotic bureaucracy, lack of legal certainty – due to repeated impulsive legislative modifications as well as to inconsistency and sluggishness in the judicial application of the law – and excessive difficulty accessing credit; irreconcilable contradictions in the form, first, of constant references to entrepreneurs as the drivers of economic recovery clash, wi
Joe Biden is not going to have an easy launch into the White House. Not only because of the way Donald Trump’s behaving but, essentially, because the Democrats have lost several seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate run-off elections in Georgia on January 5th could award the two missing seats to the Republicans, creating a “divided government” that would make it very difficult for Biden to stick to his agenda – especially in terms of the economy.
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world to the edge of a new frontier, and underscored the urgency need to redesign economic systems and development models, opting for what the new European Commission has described as greener and more sustainable and inclusive approaches. China, where it all started, has been the first nation to succeed in controlling and preventing the pandemic.
The pandemic has had a considerable impact on lifestyles, both temporarily and longer term (structurally). Even after the arrival of an anti-coronavirus vaccine, an interconnected society is going to have to recuperate a good number of physical living spaces in order to get back to “normal”. That means fewer distance-based activities, some of which, however, are bound to remain useful and will tend to be employed more as we move forward than they were in pre-emergency times.
The most accurate way to assess the 2020 election would be to compare it to Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, when Hillary Clinton carried 20 States to his 30.
The 2020 situation is significantly different. Joe Biden’s basic goal was to win in the States that Clinton lost back then by less than 1% and he has done that, which is enough to explain the gap in his favor both across the nation and in key States such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
The relationship between politics, science and society is playing an increasingly prominent role in rising to the challenges of modernity. A strong alliance of political institutions, scientists, experts and citizens is essential to defeating the global pandemic, but also an essential prerequisite for the success of policies aimed at inverting the advance of climate change and introducing new technologies and new solutions for boosting the quality of life, prosperity and wealth of modern societies.
Almost without exception, the polls point to a situation differs structurally when compared with 2016 – despite the statements of both electoral campaign, and precisely in relation to the reliability of predictions, aimed at mobilizing their respective supporters.
The majority of pollsters assign a probability of no more than 20% to a Trump victory in the Electoral College, which is the real determining factor in who becomes President, regardless of the popular vote. While Biden winning by a slim margin is realistic, a bigger win seems more probable at the present moment.
Orbital angular momentum microlaser[1] – A semiconductor laser of micrometric size that produces twisted light by exploiting an “exceptional quantum point”: this is the study that won the fifth edition of the Aspen Institute Italia Award for collaboration and scientific research between Italy and the United States.
In the July 21 agreement guaranteeing the arrival of resources from Europe in response to the economic consequences of Covid-19, strategic sectors such as infrastructure are to receive significant support. Nevertheless, a series of both technical and institutional complexities threaten to slow the distribution of these funds. The controversy that has developed around a mechanism that hinges on the rule of law is paradigmatic: both the so-called “frugal four” countries and Finland consider the theme central, in contrast to the bitter opposition of countries such as Poland and Hungary.
Science and technology parks are an essential part of the innovation ecosystem. Their ability to link a variety of experiences and disciplines, thereby creating networks of research centers, spin-offs, start-ups, incubators, business angels and venture capitalists makes them a major factor in the country’s competitiveness, in addition to offering nation-wide opportunities. This important contribution is even more fundamental in the field of life sciences, where development timelines are very long and risks quite high.
