Draghi returns and knocks for money
Did you think you had gotten rid of Mario Draghi? Well that’s not the case. Now he is a “consultant” for the EU on European competitiveness. And so yesterday, on the sidelines of the informal Ecofin held in Ghent, he explained his thoughts: “In recent years many profound changes have occurred in the global economic order and these changes have had a series of consequences, one of which is clear: a huge amount of money will have to be invested in Europe in a relatively short time, and I look forward to discussing what finance ministers are thinking and preparing about how to finance these investment needs.” Draghi is working on drawing up a dossier on Europe’s competitiveness.
And so he continues: “When we look at our main competitors and the United States in particular, the gap is everywhere: in productivity, in GDP growth, in GDP per capita. The global economic order in which Europe has thrived is shaken for dependence on Russian energy, Chinese exports and on defense from the USA. Other factors are the speed required by the green transition and the speed imparted by AI”.
And then, after speaking of the highest systems, he got to the point, that is, the classic servant’s bills, that is, the little bill to be presented to the citizens: “The needs of the green and digital transitions are estimated at at least 500 billion euros a year, to which must be added defense and productive investments. The gap between the EU and the US is widening, especially after 2010. The US is It took us two years to return to previous levels, the EU took nine years, and we haven’t gone up since then. There is an investment gap of 1.5% of GDP, equal to 500 billion euros.”
“What do you need Ma?”, one might say, but he gave us the answer himself even before asking the question: they need the trifle of 500 billion euros. And what is this money for? But of course to the ecological transition (now the term has taken the place of the good old “climate change”, which has had its day) and to the digital one. And behind it, of course, as the former prime minister slyly hinted, there is you, that is, Artificial Intelligence ready to take away money and jobs if not controlled.
But when Draghi comes calling for money, you know how it ends. The EU never fails to point out to Italy how we are the leading savers in the world and how good we are at being little ants and that we have too much money in the bank that needs to be put back into a virtuous circle and in short that we owe the money give up on us, that is, the taxpayers, and not that logical and abstract entity called the State.
And if Draghi knocks for money on behalf of the EU someone, sooner or later, will knock for money because “Europe asks us for it”. And the “Ecological Transition” is dangerously reminiscent of the energy efficiency of buildings, with the concrete threat of the EU to block sales in the real estate market if every owner does not pay a lot for efficiency, in the wake of the recent bonuses and superbonuses which are resulted in the largest chasm in Italian public debt (the result of Giuseppe Conte’s populist demagogy), as the government pointed out. After all, thinks Draghi, My fellow countrymen have the money and keep it in the bank, let’s get it from them. He will have them somewhere else.