After analysing the present phase of the crisis, which is marked, among other things, by continuing unemployment, the essay discusses the draconian measures adopted by various states (which have made the general macroeconomic scenario even more uncertain) and the characteristics of the disparities between European countries. This can be ascribed to the worsening of the public deficit and to the reinforcing of specific global imbalances between states that pre-dated the crisis and to a return to business as usual. All these factors, as well as the inadequacy of the measures adopted by the recent European Council (where there seems to be a return to a blind, monetarist, neolaissez-faire orthodoxy) will have clear reverberations on the action and inaction of the Italian government in economic policy. only subscribers can see the full article