Not just Telecom. Privatizations as seen by Bernabé
“On balance”, the new book by Franco Bernabé (edited by Guido Oddo, Feltrinelli), read by Tullio Fazzolari. We speak not only of Telecom-Tim
Who will win the ongoing war for control of Tim? You can indulge in making predictions or even assessing whether the French or the Americans are preferable. But all in all it is a useless exercise. The real question to ask would be when will the clashes over the fate of a company that, despite everything, continue to be of strategic importance for the country, finally end? Hostilities have reopened periodically and for a quarter of a century now. Maybe the name of the company is changed (from Stet to Telecom and then to Tim) but the problem of chronic instability reappears.
To understand the reasons for this, which appears to be a genetic disease, it is necessary to read the latest book by Franco Bernabè who twice, after ten years, was at the top of Telecom. But “On balance” (edited by Guido Oddo, Feltrinelli, 368 pages, 20 euros) is not just a book of memories. The subtitle “Forty years of Italian capitalism” immediately suggests that this is an in-depth analysis of how the Italian economy, or rather what its driving force should be, has been able to move in recent decades. And the resulting diagnosis is anything but exciting.
It is difficult to say that we have been able to keep pace with the transformations taking place in other countries. Equally risky to say that all the reforms have been made to make the system more competitive. With rare and often small exceptions, "capitalism without capital" (as Napoleone Colaianni called it) has not become more dynamic. And if you don't want to call it decline, you have to at least admit that great opportunities have been missed.
The troubled story of Telecom-Tim is a bit the emblem of this phenomenon. Franco Bernabè was a witness and protagonist of this. And, without letting himself be influenced too much by the experience lived in the first person, he tells in detail the crucial moments that occurred at the end of the 90s. Which, incidentally, are the cause of all problems including today's wars. But the sad story begins there, with the climb led by Colaninno, with the support of Cuccia, with the nefarious decisions of the government. The "brave captains" mentioned by the then Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema did not prove to be experienced navigators. And nothing was done that would have taken Telecom to consolidate.
Reading "On balance", however, suggests reflections that go beyond the single story. And retracing the privatization period thanks to Bernabè raises some questions. It has been said about Telecom but what happened to chemistry and the steel industry? And was it better with the highways? Then we add the observation that some companies that have never severed the umbilical cord with public ownership (from Eni to Leonardo passing through Fincantieri) seem to be the flagship of our economy and then a doubt arises: on balance we did something wrong.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/non-solo-telecom-le-privatizzazioni-viste-da-bernabe/ on Sat, 11 Dec 2021 08:46:19 +0000.