final years of the second world war, he started to write again on the same theme. what should a european federation do? his views were ambivalent in a way reminiscent of today ’ s debate. einaudi is absolutely clear about the urgent need for “ unifying some economic matters ”, among these money. “ devolution to the federation of the regulation of money and money surrogates appears to be uncontroversial ”, he writes. ( it took a mere 45 years for this “ uncontroversial ” item to materialise ). he goes on to list the advantages of european monetary union in terms unmistakably similar to those used in the debate on the euro that took place almost half a century later. the main virtue of a monetary union lies in its doing away with the monetary sovereignty of national states, which “ boiled down often to the right to falsify money ” via inflation, or hyper - inflation. on the political aspects his views are less clear - cut. he does not want member states to renounce political independence, a step for which “ our spirits are not prepared ”. but following the tragic experience of war, he comes down squarely in favour of a fully unified “ army, navy and air force ”, and of clearly defined federal legislative and executive bodies. these are boldly integrationist views, even by today ’ s standards. in 1939 einaudi ’ s thoughts on europe came to the attention of two careful readers who would later play a key role in european federalism. ernesto rossi and altiero spinelli – the first a friend and student of einaudi ’ s, the second a former communist party member – had been imprisoned by the fascist government for 10 years, and later exiled to the tiny mediterranean island of ventotene. spinelli was at once fascinated by the “ junius ” articles ; rossi managed to get through to him material on the debate on federalism in england, including works of lionel robbins. we may say that einaudi contributed indirectly to the birth, in 1941, of the manifesto di ventotene, a cornerstone of the european political federalist movement. i cannot refrain from briefly recalling einaudi ’ s role in ending post - war inflation and opening the way to a long period of sustained growth and stability. the monetary stabilisation of 1947 bore his mark and is an enduring legacy left by einaudi as a policymaker. economic historians still debate the

pillar 1 measure. the measure would be applied to npls stemming from new loans, to allow banks to adjust their lending policies to the new rule and to grant them an adequate transition period. the ssm is working on a non - binding guidance to address the same issue under a pillar 2 framework. the two proposals, which will be finalized in march, should be adequately coordinated to achieve optimal results and to avoid generating confusion among banks and investors. the european council also stressed the importance of public asset management companies ( amcs ) and encouraged the european commission to develop a blueprint for setting them up. making banks ’ participation voluntary is necessary to avoid possible instability due to a generalized surge in credit losses. the transfer price, while allowing the amcs to be profitable, should not be far from the real economic value of the assets. in order to reduce uncertainty, ex - ante guidelines should be provided on how to estimate market prices and real more than 125 years ago the famous austrian economist carl menger wrote : ‘ consider … the owner of a stock … who is obliged through sudden distress, or through pressure from creditors, to convert it into money. the prices which it will fetch will be highly accidental … and this holds good of all kinds of conversions which in respect of time are compulsory sales ’. in a footnote he continues : ‘ herein lies the explanation of the circumstance why compulsory sales, and cases of distraint in particular, involve as a rule the economic ruin of the person upon whose estate they are carried out, and that in a greater degree the less the goods in question are saleable. correct discernment of the uneconomic character of these processes will necessarily lead to a reform in the available legal mechanism. ’ carl menger, 1892, ‘ on the origin of money ’, economic journal, pp. 239 - 255. see footnote 3. see http : / / www. consilium. europa. eu / en / press / press - releases / 2017 / 07 / 11 / conclusions - non - performing - loans / pdf. economic values, on the building blocks of the restructuring plans, and on the governance and funding of the amcs. the blueprint should clarify to what extent the brrd and state aid rules could be interpreted in a way that facilitates npl disposals. given the importance of this initiative, it is key to avoid the risk that overly tight criteria could end up preventing the creation of an amc. but on the npl