The financial markets are in great difficulty and the world economy is going through troubled times. The current crisis has brought about profound social and cultural change. Never in the past have people and nations with histories and cultures so diverse expressed the same desire for certainty and called for a shared system of rules.
The participants in this roundtable discussion observed that in order to debate the issue of culture and its link with society (hence, with the places where culture exists or is showcased) and with businesses (those in a position to fund cultural initiatives and make them possible and accessible), an understanding of what “culture” means is vital. Indeed, it was observed that the concept of culture is polysemous.
The aim of this meeting was to debate the issues raised by a White Paper entitled “Living well in an active society: the future of the Italian welfare model”, recently published by the Italian Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Policies, and to focus specifically on the concerns facing young people in Italy today.
The 11th annual spring meeting of the Friends of Aspen, held in Milan at the Palazzo Trussardi alla Scala, was attended by members of the group as well as leaders and members of the Institute. The meeting centered around a debate on the issue of nuclear power in Italy, whilst at the same time offering an opportunity to introduce new members of the group, elicit suggestions for topics for future events and announce the group’s upcoming annual conference (the 14th in the series) to take place in the fall.
At the May 2009 Aspen Seminars for Leaders, leading representatives from financial institutions and public authorities discussed the financial crisis and the emerging challenges in the structure and dynamics of international financial markets.
The crisis we are experiencing has not spared anyone, taking in the economy, society and institutions. It has hit the financial sector, spilled over into the real economy and labor market, and called into question the role of the State and international organizations. The crisis has also raised doubts regarding our model of development, the ability of the political sphere to control economic processes, and the reliability of those who had sufficient information from which to predict the worst financial disaster since the end of the Second World War and who did not do so.
In response to the crisis, the State has intervened to rescue banks and financial institutions, to restore confidence in the market, and to guarantee loans and transactions. Within the space of a few weeks, the State in many countries has become the largest shareholder in major banks and insurance companies, resuming the role it had abandoned during the protracted era of privatizations.
The approval of a renewable energy and climate change legislative package by the European Union in December 2008 is part of a wider push to formulate a global policy to combat climate change. Indeed, the Copenhagen Conference to be held in December this year will play a key role in deciding what should follow the Kyoto Protocol once it expires in 2012.
This seminar, focusing on the topic of cities of the future, brought together specialists in the field of urbanism, local administrators, entrepreneurs, urban traffic experts and representatives from the welfare sector. Divided into three day-long sessions, dealing with governing complexity, competitiveness and quality of life respectively, the seminar raised various issues for debate and put forward a series of concrete proposals aimed at resolving the many problems afflicting the governance of Italian cities.
“This plague has been a great scourge, but it has also served as a good broom, for it has swept away some, my children, from whom I never thought we would free ourselves… If things always worked out this way with the plague, it would really be a sin to speak ill of it”. It was in these words that the character of Don Abbondio, in Manzoni’s The Betrothed, described the epidemic that had brought about the demise of Don Rodrigo.
The participants at this ASL seminar observed that history has always been marked by periods of change – the current one being no exception. The failure of the economic paradigms that underpinned Western development for decades has triggered a widespread sense of fear, which has translated into mistrust and instinctive and irrational behaviors.
The 8th Annual Conference of the Aspen Junior Fellows addressed the issue of solidarity at a time when the global crisis is widening social gaps. Indeed, imbalances in the concentration of global wealth and poverty are increasing, no longer merely signaling economic disparity but also a geopolitical – as well as a moral – differential that is impacting more and more on our future and on the carrying capacity of our planet.
This informal dinner event, organized by Aspen Institute Italia, focused on global governance issues and involved the participation – as guest speakers – of Joseph Stiglitz, economist and professor at Columbia University and Nobel Laureate, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, President of the OFCE in Paris, Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus at the London School of Economics, and Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
As a concept, fraternity, the most obscure of the three words in the French revolutionary motto, has been sidelined for some considerable time, but today, the notion of solidarity that it represents is one that is giving many of us food for thought. At a time when we have reached a historical and cultural crossroads marked by an obvious global economic crisis that many believe has triggered the huge identity crisis that western society is currently experiencing, it is also providing the rationale behind some very real political proposals aimed at resolving the situation.
If Italy’s university system is to proceed in a new direction, there are two crucial areas that must first be given a complete overhaul: its governance and its financial framework. And, that such reforms have become necessary is certainly a widely held view. The shape of these reforms and the regulations and procedures to be adopted, on this, the eve of the sitting government’s presentation of its university reform bill, is however still a matter for lively discussion both within academia and, in more general terms, the public arena.
This talk-debate session focused on early signs of a global economic recovery. Whilst the light at the end of the tunnel may not yet be clearly visible, some important signals are already starting to emerge. The first of these is that the governments of EU countries have acted in a timely and effectively coordinated manner. Indeed, their actions have confirmed the primacy of the political sphere and an intergovernmental approach over action through EU institutions (and the European Commission in particular).
The participants of this roundtable discussion emphasized that any consideration of relations between banks and businesses should steer clear of simple dichotomies that view them as two opposing types of commercial entities. The behavior of banks and businesses should be assessed on a case-by-case basis in order to avoid simplistic generalizations.
The discussions at this roundtable event got underway with the acknowledgement that the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) is an indicator which provides a snapshot of a country’s investment attractiveness and its competitiveness.
