Subprime mortgages lie at the origin of the crisis. So what are they exactly? And what problems do they bring?
 

STEFANO ZAPPALA' (linked in video conference)

How and how much do processes of globalisation influence changes in values and social recognition for intellectual professions? How does the relationship between professionals and users change? What responsibilities are there towards the community?

 

How is a brand constructed? What relationship is there between the identity of a product and the identity of a company? Global markets, brand identity and cross-influences: issues to reflect on in a transitional phase of marketing, moving towards so-called ‘societing’.
 

President MASSIMO GAGGI
Prosecution ROBERTO PEROTTI
Defence LUIGI GUISO

Depositions by NOURIEL ROUBINI, NICOLA PERSICO

Reasoning about the future means interpreting the present. The crisis also affects social enterprises and many players in the third sector, but overcoming it involves a different role for the economy in which they are actively involved. This world innately promotes cooperation between players, enhances the local identity  and generates social capital. These values are indispensable in order to come out of the crisis stronger than before.
 

There are collective forms of denial of reality in line with the rational choices of individuals. These collective mechanisms can explain economic bubbles and the collapse of trading markets.

Identity is an essential competitive factor in the success of an author and of publishing houses. In global literary markets the rights of authors who have become publishing brands in their own right are fought over, while there is an explosion in phenomenal sales. Large increasingly more multinational groups must manage their best-selling authors and at the same time construct the success of new writers, dealing on the one hand with a growing concentration in terms of distribution and on the other with the effects of the Internet.

How the Italian entrepreneur can interact with a business culture as different from our own as the Chinese culture, which has completely different rules and attitudes, meaning that it is often necessary to refute consolidated certainties and identities.
 

Who is the new Roosevelt? What do the different fiscal stimulus packages drawn up by the governments of the G20 consist of? And will they be effective in combating the recession? 

Today the geopolitical space of the European Union is constantly expanding, what is more with very variable structures. To what extent is it homogeneous and representative of a common identity going beyond national and sub-national confines? This is a central question for understanding the future of the EU as a potential geopolitical force and as a coherent and competitive economic space.


 

speakers MARKUS BRUNNERMEIER (video link) and MARCO ONADO, lavoce.info
 

The weakness of proportional systems is the fragmentation of power. However, the weakness of first past the post systems is the lack of representation for minorities. So how should democratic systems  design systems combining the decision-making capacity of the simple majority system with measures to protect minorities? How can they reach these objectives while treating all citizens in the same way? How can they give weight to the minorities without compromising the wellbeing of the majority?

The case of Ecuador represents a total innovation. Alongside the public and capitalist economy, the recently approved new constitution also recognises the role of the solidarity economy, including cooperative businesses, fair trade, ethical finance, peasant organisations  and the ethnic minorities. It provides for a varied combination of experience and good practice designed to promote  socio-economic participation, social protection and the development of personal potential.

In Italy there are two management systems: one based on loyalty to the owner, the other on performance. The second seems to work better than the first in generating added value, employment and work for the company and at the same time satisfies managers. So why do so many companies adopt the loyalty model?

The role and importance of the SME system, which could now become the driving force in helping the country come out of the crisis, if supported by appropriate measures to relaunch the economy, thanks to their widespread diffusion.

 

Many economic activities – the purchasing or sale of assets, investment, hiring and firing – are influenced by social relations and take place in the context of norms and cultures. The choice of an identity, of who one is, is perhaps the most important economic decision made in one's life. The limits imposed on this choice by social divisions can represent the most significant deciding factors for the wellbeing of individuals. Some win and some lose as a result of these constraints. We take a look at who and why.

Thanks to Slow Food thousands of small producers have succeeded in preserving traditional local foods and the local identity against the mass production of large multinational companies. The founder of the movement – a supporter of biodiversity – discusses the question with an experienced economist-manager who has always affirmed, on the basis of economic results, that freedom of trade and movement for people has increased wellbeing and the possibility of choice.