The presentation of the Aspen Institute Italia Award for scientific research and collaboration between Italy and the United States provided an opportunity to celebrate two of the Institute’s core values: that of promoting transatlantic relations and that of facilitating interdisciplinary debate.
The fifth edition of the annual National Conference on the Italian banking system sought to offer a forum for a wide-ranging discussion with a view to giving the participants the opportunity to reflect on the consequences of developments in the banking sector on the economy and society. In this regard, banks were acknowledged as the very lifeblood of economies, linking those who save with those who invest.
Unless we wake up to an overturn, Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. In the final days of a campaign with little content, cheap shots and anything but stirring electoral debates, Donald Trump remains behind her in the polls, is – if at all possible – turning up the volume of the shouting match, and threatens to violate the 240-year basis of democracy in America by announcing that he might not acknowledge any winner other than himself.
Italian industry has always managed to combine intellectual creativity with manufacturing. This is reflected in the history of its brand names, both great and small. They embody certain values but also have their own specific meaning. Their protection is of crucial importance both to their respective companies and to consumers.
The participants at this seminar observed that Italy and France have both necessitated proper administrative reform apt to improve the competitiveness of their economic systems and make the relationship between citizens and the State simpler and more immediate. In Italy and France alike, the formulation and implementation of such reforms have had a number of factors in common.
Participants at this Aspen Junior Fellows Conference characterized the current era as a time of change for space exploration, with humanity’s presence off-planet directed at reaching new destinations and new ambitious goals. It was acknowledged, however, that there are various challenges to achieving these objectives, both in outer space and in terms of purely “Earth-based” decisions. The race for Mars has begun, creating a cultural and economic buzz at a global level.
Participants at this national roundtable embarked on their discussion by first observing that, over the last thirty years, the Italian National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale – SSN) has assured generations of Italians a good standard of universally accessible services. Today, however, the system finds itself operating in different circumstances to the past due to technical, economic, and ethical factors.
The starting premise of discussions at this talk-debate session was that developments in the space sector are reshaping geopolitical ties and generating new economic opportunities – two closely interwoven aspects.
Discussions at this national conference began with recognition that, in a globalized economy where the standardization of consumption risks reducing competition between companies to a simple price war, a firm’s culture becomes a key selling point. In this regard, culture was interpreted in its broadest sense, as an amalgam of values, knowhow, and traditions handed down from generation to generation and which helps to shape the uniqueness of a given local area and the identity of a particular company.
A little over 25 years since its establishment, Italy’s Antitrust Authority – hailed by those attending this national roundtable as an indubitable success story – was characterized as facing new challenges linked to profound changes that have impacted on the entire economic system. Cited among these were ever-greater global integration, a new dialectic between the real and financial spheres of the economy, and, above all, a complete rethinking of value-creation models due to the increasing digitalization of every aspect of human lives.
The participants at this international workshop noted that the political situation in the UK has been confused and in many respects unpredictable in the immediate wake of the recent EU membership referendum. This is especially because the outcome of the vote caught many of the key players unawares in both the “leave” and “remain” camps.
Smart cities: drivers for energy management and quality of life
The Paris Agreement has received mixed assessments, but it is widely recognized that it is indeed a step in the right direction. The framework allows for improvements and adjustments with respect to the key goal: Paris aims for peaking of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as soon as possible and undertaking rapid reductions thereafter.
However, the 2°C target is unlikely to be achieved without the adoption of new policies and technologies.
By way of opening premise, the participants at this National Interest event observed that nanotechnologies have for several years now been at the center of global technological and scientific development and are based on the ability to control matter on an atomic scale. They are highly multidisciplinary in nature and have gained importance in many fields of scientific and technological interest.
Aspen Institute Italia’s aim in organizing this roundtable was to spark debate on the current economic conditions and future development prospects of southern Italy, in the belief that it is essential for the issue of the country’s neglected South to be once again tackled as a key concern of national policy.
Opening discussions at this National Interest session was the observation that new advanced therapies, which are being increasingly adopted today, represent a real revolution in the health sector. They look set to enable a redefinition of the medical as well as social approach to dealing with diseases, especially those defined as rare, which affect around 500 people per million of the population and for which there is largely no treatment available.
