Low growth, low investment, insufficient spend on infrastructure, weak bank lending to the corporate sector, and funding deficiencies of small and medium-sized enterprises are all causes of concern in Europe. To many, they point to fundamental problems in the financing of European companies and...

This essay discusses the endemic weaknesses of Italian industry in a historical as well as analytical perspective. The main conclusion is that these weaknesses may not be determined by some hereditary shortcomings of character and skill of our entrepreneurial class, but rather by the economic...