economics taught at that time was of a wholly keynesian stamp. it was a mature and systematic keynesianism, which had of course lost something of the brilliant, clever, daring, eclectic and iconoclastic imprint of the founder of this school and was conscious of its orthodox academic status. i think that the atmosphere of that time is neatly summarised by this extract from a book by eric roll, 9 not only in honour of this occasion but also because it is a textbook that i studied at university back then : for those who have learnt their economics since the end of world war ii and to whom the currently used terms and the concepts to which they relate are commonplace, it is almost impossible to imagine the sense of emancipation bordering on revelation with which the generations that preceded them greeted the emergence of what became known as the ‘ new economics ’. … “ [ i ] t is now easier to see the ‘ great divide ’ that separates the economics of the period up to the thirties from what came after. ” ( p. 481 ) [ f ] or at least over thirty years after the appearance of keynes ’ s general theory, the status of economics, largely of the kind associated with his name and general approach, increased steadily until it reached a position of authority, both as a branch of social science and as a perceived tool for the better ordering of human affairs, unparalleled in its history and unequalled by any of the other of the non - physical sciences. ( p. 560 ). in practice, a construction that seemed to rest on such solid foundations was already wobbling ( perhaps in this case, too, these movements hit italy ’ s academic world with a certain delay ). i quote roll once again : yet in the latter phase of this period, the authority of the views of economists begins to be doubted, to the point that uncertainty starts to creep into the pronouncements of economists themselves, both about practical matters and about the limits of understanding of their whole intellectual apparatus ( p. 560 ). some doubts had in fact emerged as early as the 1960s, when fine - tuning the economy had turned out to be more difficult in practice than expected, creating a tendency on the one hand for frequent ‘ stop & gos ’ and on the other hand for a ‘ creeping ’ increase the most illustrious representative of this group was perhaps federico caffe. his lezioni di politica economica ( lectures on economic policy ), which shaped generations of italian economists

and credit markets. the primary objective of the common monetary policy is price stability. the mandate, clear and unequivocal, given to the european system of central banks is based on two tenets held by the drafters of the treaty : that the stability of the value of money is a public good which does not hinder, but rather fosters, sustainable growth of the real economy ; and that maintaining stability depends crucially on the operation of monetary policy. the european system of central banks will enjoy complete autonomy ; it will regularly provide information on its activities and report on them to the other community institutions. in particular, the european central bank will be required, pursuant to article 109b of the treaty and article 15 of the statute of the european system of central banks, to publish periodic reports on the activities of the escb, with a description of the current and future stance of monetary policy. the european parliament will be able to debate these matters and invite the president and the other members of the executive board of the european central bank to be heard by its competent committees. in particular, the need for a “ single ” monetary policy will have to be reconciled with the principle of “ subsidiarity ”, which has also been embodied in the statute of the escb and is intended to permit the highest possible degree of decentralization in operational terms. more specifically, provision is made for a division of tasks along the following lines : - - the decision - making powers in monetary policy matters, especially with regard to interest rates and compulsory reserves, will be centralized in the european central bank. the ecb will exercise these powers through the governing council, comprising the governors of the national central banks and the executive board, composed of the president, the vice - president and four other members. the executive board will be responsible for implementing the decisions of the governing council on a continuous basis ; the operational implementation of monetary policy will be entrusted to the national central banks. each national central bank will thus have two tasks : it will contribute, through its governor, to the decisions of the governing council ; and it will implement these decisions in its own country. operations in the money and foreign exchange markets will normally be carried out by the national central banks. within this framework, the bank of italy will continue to carry out all the operational functions that it currently performs. the procedures for conducting monetary control operations will be different in part from those used today ; the draft legislative decree currently under discussion in parliament is designed to permit