Luigi Einaudi as seen by Francesco Forte
Luigi Einaudi as seen by Francesco Forte
Thursday, 17 March 2016: 9:50 AM
Professor Francesco Forte has written a number of essays regarding Luigi Einaudi. Taken together Professor Forte’s essays constitute both a sort of introduction to the liberalism of Luigi Einaudi, and an instrument for critical comparison of the thought of the economist of Piedmonts with economists, intellectuals, politicians of his time.
Keynes was among the key interlocutor partners of Einaudi. "My plan is not that of Keynes", is the title of one of Einaudi’s essays where he emphasizes his distance from the thought of the Cambridge’s economist. However, as Professor Forte highlights in his writings, if Einaudi and Keynes were far apart in terms of government debts and deficit of the State budget, yet they approached concerning their concept of the importance and impact of productive public expenditure. Einaudi, as Professor Forte highlights in his own writings, discussed this idea also with many representatives of the liberal thought. Among these included Wilhelm Roepke on the issues related to the social market economy. At the national level is famous the debate, that Professor Forte explains very clearly, between Einaudi and Croce on the topic of liberalism-liberalism (Liberismo e liberalism nella polemica). Still on national plans Einaudi discussed with Francesco Saverio Nitti, economist and politician of his times. With Ezio Vanoni, economist and politician, Einaudi discussed on the fairness of taxation policies.
The common link between these battles of Einaudi is, according to Professor Forte, the argument that the centrality and primacy of the private initiative are not incompatible with a fair assessment of tasks and scopes of economic intervention by the State. Forte highlights especially the character of Einaudi’s reflection: “a civil anxiety always supported by a concrete commitment.”
Keynes was among the key interlocutor partners of Einaudi. "My plan is not that of Keynes", is the title of one of Einaudi’s essays where he emphasizes his distance from the thought of the Cambridge’s economist. However, as Professor Forte highlights in his writings, if Einaudi and Keynes were far apart in terms of government debts and deficit of the State budget, yet they approached concerning their concept of the importance and impact of productive public expenditure. Einaudi, as Professor Forte highlights in his own writings, discussed this idea also with many representatives of the liberal thought. Among these included Wilhelm Roepke on the issues related to the social market economy. At the national level is famous the debate, that Professor Forte explains very clearly, between Einaudi and Croce on the topic of liberalism-liberalism (Liberismo e liberalism nella polemica). Still on national plans Einaudi discussed with Francesco Saverio Nitti, economist and politician of his times. With Ezio Vanoni, economist and politician, Einaudi discussed on the fairness of taxation policies.
The common link between these battles of Einaudi is, according to Professor Forte, the argument that the centrality and primacy of the private initiative are not incompatible with a fair assessment of tasks and scopes of economic intervention by the State. Forte highlights especially the character of Einaudi’s reflection: “a civil anxiety always supported by a concrete commitment.”
The common line that links these battles of Einaudi is, according to Forte, the argument that the centrality and primacy of the private initiative are not incompatible with a fair assessment of tasks and the scope of economic intervention by the State. Forte highlights especially the character of Einaudi’s reflection: a civil anxiety always supported by a concrete commitment.
The writings of Forte put in evidence another aspect of the thought of Einaudi, namely his plan for a Federal Europe. This plan was in real anticipation of the European construction whose various treaties, from Rome to Lisbon, have deeply drawn from Einaudi.