Tackling demographic change has recently become an explicit policy target at the EU level. A series of reports and initiatives at the European Commission has addressed this issue, focusing in particular on the consequences of low fertility.

In Italy, microfirms and self-employment are particularly common - more than in other OECD countries – and women account for the 25% of these entrepreneurs. Bank overdraft facilities are an important source of credit for liquidity provisions for these firms. Within this category, microfirms held by women pay a higher interest rate (0.3% more) than firms managed by men.

In March 2000 the European Council set in Lisbon the goal of making the EU the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. Two years before that deadline, this goal seems as unattainable as ever for most European countries. This is most visible in the university sector.

We are living difficult times. Inflation is up and running. The United States has been hit by three simultaneous shocks – the new oil shock, the stock market crash, and the fall in housing prices – and hence the recession seems unavoidable. It will be a new US stagflation 30 years after the first.

The new Italian Cabinet, the 4th Berlusconi Government, is simultaneously strong and weak. It is strong because the Government has solid majorities in both the House and Senate and the supporting coalition is less fragmented than in previous Berlusconi cabinets. It is weak because the Government is starting off with relatively low popular support and no honeymoon with voters.

The offshoring of activities of manufacturing firms and industries often features at the centre-stage of the political arena for its allegedly negative effects on domestic employment. During the 2004 US presidential campaign, the concern that outsourcing had gone too far creating more hardships than necessary for American unskilled workers was one of the hot political issues.

Habemus pactum. But it’s not the start of a new pact between generations. It’s a plug to buy time while holding out for new corrective measures. But all the fundamental problems remain unresolved, whether in form or substance. No “concertation”¹ took place.

For more than a decade, Italy has been ruled through a bipolar political system. Voters could choose between a left-wing coalition and a right-wing coalition. Those disappointed by the incumbent government could vote for the opposition.