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A new paradigm of thought and action is needed: society must be at the heart of economics, not vice versa, as dominant culture has asserted in the last forty years. The erosion of social capital leads to that of economic capital, therefore leveraging on social capital is essential to get out of the crisis. Because of the financialization of the economies, attention has shifted to financial markets at the expense of the real economy: the rules of the former, however, are very different from those of the latter. Neoliberalism without ethics means the law of the jungle and an unequal society. The US, where the dominant model is oligarchy, has increasingly distanced itself from European culture and its principles of solidarity. It is no surprise that American society is on the verge of collapse. We therefore must rediscover people as a subject rather than an object, and that the prime mover of history is their emotional nature.

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Fabrizio Pezzani is Full Professor of Planning and Control in Public Administrations at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, Adjunct Professor of Creative Altruism at the University of Parma and Vice President of the Cariparma-Crédit Agricole Bank Group.

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