The participants at this roundtable were deeply critical of the lack of transparency in the international financial system, the product of an out-of-control laissez-faire capitalism and a global lex mercatoria that has swept aside traditional capitalist organizational forms and the regulatory functions of public authorities.
Hence, it was felt that, in order to overcome the crisis, there is a need, on the one hand, for the State to adopt targeted measures whose cost is not borne by citizens, and on the other, for a new international order, built on an increasingly stronger integration of monitoring activities at the European and global level.
To this end, it is necessary to better utilize public resources, using market terms as a benchmark where possible. Public guarantees should be selective, ensuring support to manufacturing sectors and encouraging the assumption of responsibility by managers and directors.
Moreover, the crisis signals the end of the illusion of the market’s capacity for self-regulation. From this point of view, it was observed that European and Italian regulations have functioned better, preventing the assumption of excessive risks. Yet even in Europe there are some lacunas, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon countries, which have enabled regulatory competition to be used as a means to shop for jurisdictions with the least regulation, tax havens to be preserved and liabilities to be kept off balance sheets. Hence, there is a need for stricter rules and controls given that the risk of loss of reputation has completely failed as a deterrent.
More generally, it was felt necessary to rethink the respective roles of the State and the private sector. For instance, the role now undertaken by ratings agencies clearly cannot be scrapped but rating be should be a public function, just as the role carried out by competition authorities is also important in order to avoid companies smug in the knowledge that they are “too big to let fail” acting with reckless impunity. Finally, the participants acknowledged the need to strengthen the role of non profit organizations to respond in a more far-reaching manner to the needs of those people most seriously affected by the crisis.