2009 Economics Festival

“Identity and Global Crisis”

Fausta Slanzi

Now in its fourth edition, this year the Economics Festival will focus on the theme “Identity and Global Crisis”; wellknown experts will provide occasions to think about, discuss and compare notes on one of the most frequently-asked questions of recent months, i.e., what is the solution to the worldwide crisis? As happens every year, there will be the different, often opposing, theories and points of view that make the Economics Festival an exciting opportunity to participate in the changes overtaking the world. After “Wealth & Poverty” in 2006, “Human Capital, Social Capital” in 2007 and “Market and Democracy” in 2008, the Festival returns once again with a very timely subject that brings great economists like George Arthur Akerlof, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and James Heckman, an American statistician, to Trento. The Festival’s presenters are not only economic experts but also scholars working in a variety of fields and no discussion on the subject of identity could do without the famous sociologist Giuseppe De Rita who is an attentive observer of economic and social transformations and Italian institutions, one of the founders of Censis -The Social Investment Centre, a socio-economic institute at which he serves as Secretary General. Just as one could not do without Lucio Caracciolo, one of the foremost experts on international questions and the director of Limes, an Italian geopolitical journal, and Heartland, the Eurasian Review of Geopolitics. The Economics Festival is sponsored by the Autonomous Province, City and University of Trento and organized by Il Sole 24Ore and the publisher Laterza. Intesa Sanpaolo Bank is a partner in the initiative while the content is the responsibility of  Tito Boeri, professor of Economics and Labour at Milan’s Bocconi University and the founder of lavoce.info, an on-line journal founded to discuss Italian and international economics. But the Festival is also offering a broad range of cultural opportunities including children’s activities, movies, performances, concerts and entertainment for young peoples, in short, an intense “four days” that will not fail to involve and enthuse both presenters and the “ people of the squirrel, the Festival’s logo”.