Commentary – The market and human relationships.

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on May 5, 2013

Movie theaters are not only businesses but a unique means to build relationships. However, lately a great number of them have had to close down due to the crisis. Unfortunately, they have been replaced by goods that better respond to the demands of today's consumeristic, lonely individuals. Some believe this change is a result of the law of the market. I agree that the market does sell goods against loneliness, and that the demand for such goods was created by the market itself. However, only a sector of the market.

Commentary – Italy and today's May Day celebration.

By Luigino Bruni

Pubblished in Avvenire on May 1, 2013

This year May Day is celebrated with mixed emotions. Today we celebrate labor (which is always a good thing) while remembering its absence. Those who lost their jobs and the young people unable to find work may shed tears or even fall into depression while others rejoice. The youth implore us, more than ever, to listen to them and stand by their side. Nevertheless, we should celebrate labor since the ability of festivities to lift people's sprits becomes even more precious during hard times. Otherwise, people begin to feel like the Hebrews in the desert and crave the 'onions' they used to receive as slaves in Egypt.

Commentary – Genovesi's call to Italy (and South of Europe): Be yourself!

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on April 28, 2013

The connected, interdependent networks making up the market economy can bring about both wonderful and terrifying outcomes. In times of prosperity, wealth is distributed among everyone, while during depressions problems are interconnected and amplified; the virtue of interdependence is replaced by a vicious cycle of people inflicting losses on one another. Customers don't pay, banks don't loan, and suppliers don't receive payment and are unable to pay their own debts. This process, like a maelstrom, spirals ever downwards swallowing factories, jobs, houses, lives.

Commentary – Today's social blight: a crisis of “great depression”.

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on April 21, 2013

While the suicides of entrepreneurs and workers continue to hit the headlines, there's no news about the excessive involuntary “death” of businesses. The signs of a “great depression” are everywhere: chronic sorrow, lack of enthusiasm, loss of desire, and hopelessness. People do not enjoy life; they wake-up unready to face the day and meet people. They can only hope to do something worth remembering, something worth telling family members and friends.

Commentary – Recovering the purpose and productive capacity of capital to overcome the crisis.

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on April 04, 2013

Crises, especially deep rooted and severe ones,  cause a loss of productive capacity in the economy and civil society, inhibiting the ability to create true economic, civil, political, cultural and scientific value; society unable to distinguish what is truly valuable. At the heart of the evolution of economies and civilizations is the following rule: when the productive power of society reaches its peak, its ability to continue to create ceases.  An economy's continued successes eventually extinguish societies' hopes and dynamism, which are both necessary for economic growth.

Commentary – Italy and Europe, government and business

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on April 07, 2013

We are caught in a trap of poverty and are witnessing its distinct cycle: (1) States are in debt and have to find resources; (2) they can't count on the income of their GDP because of the recession; (3) they must therefore increase the fiscal burden on families and companies; (4) excessive fiscal pressure further reduces productive income; (5) new taxes are necessary to gather more resources; (6) income continues to decline, and the cycle restarts. It moves like a morbid dance that spirals ever downward.

Commentary – Society and the economy, women and charisms

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on March 30, 2013

It has never been more clear that the political, civil, and economic world we built in the 20th century is over and far from “resurrection”. It's Saturday, and the new world has 'not yet' been fully realized. Actually, it is not 'here' at all. There are plenty of Holy Saturdays in History, and many of them have marked profound change. European humanism flourished under Christianity, which is rooted in the Holy Saturday, the time between death and resurrection. As a matter of fact, Salvation History repeats itself throughout the history of humanity. One should consider Holy Saturday something more than just an interval or a period of emptiness, absence, hibernation, and expectation.

Commentary – Idea and action for a culture that includes embraces

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on March 24, 2013

St. Francis' name evokes many meanings, including some related to the economy and finance. If we want and are willing to listen, he will reveal an essential message on how to truly and completely overcome our crisis. St. Francis of Assisi loved “mother poverty” and due to this he inspired important theoretical and practical economic changes. In fact, the Franciscans gave birth to the first school of economic thought, started banks, and began other finance traditions (the famous “Monti di Pietà” pawnbrokers were the predecessors of Italian popular solidarity finance).

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Città Nuova n. 5/2013 on March 10, 2013

In our hedonistic, consumeristic, and finance centric culture, love may be the most used and worn out word. However, Benedict XVI made it the core of his social doctrine. Deus Caritas est and Caritas in Veritate, are, respectively, his first and last encyclicals.

Despite being discarded by our society, love was chosen by Pope Benedict to be the cornerstone of the Church and his reign as pope, from beginning to end. This love is called charitas, a latin word carrying a long and intriguing past. It was used for trading (it meant expensive or valuable) before the first Latin Christians adopted it to translate the word agape.

Commentary – Beauty brought about the Economy and Civility in Italy. Let’s protect it and start producing it again.

By Luigino Bruni

Published in Avvenire on March 17, 2013

Beauty’s civil and economic virtues are vital for us. Beauty is necessary to renew the economy and labor market, to establish new schools and universities, and to guarantee care for those who didn’t choose to be poor. The old and new kinds of poverty afflicting the poor can only be overcome through the beautiful poverty of St. Francis. Although the Italian economy and civil life “produced” (artistic, musical, urban…) beauty, it was beauty that first brought about the economy and civil life.