ABSTRACT
The issues we had to face in this conference are protracted problems as far as slow and erratic growth and high unemployment in Europe (in contrast of the United States) is concerned, they have afflicted most economies since the mid-1970s. The agenda included also more recent problems, such as sharp short-term exchange-rate volatility, longer-lasting overvaluation and undervaluation of key currencies, and unsustainable trade and current account imbalances. The papers and the discussions were expected to provide new answers to these problems and, in particular, to settle the controversy over policy paradigms, diagnoses and therapies, with the ultimate aim to enlighten policymakers.
