Josef Steindl: Introduzione: sulle cause reali della crisi finanziaria (Introduction: on the real causes of the financial crisis)

The article introduces to the present issue, reviewing its contents and placing them in the context of the current European crisis. It shortly highlights the relevance of the article by Josef Steindl published in this issue for the first time, as well as the article by Nina Shapiro on the Austrian economist. These contributions provide the occasion to discuss the often neglected issue of the long-run consequences of several forms of stimulus of aggregate demand, such as fiscal deficits or current account surpluses. Such issue highlights some long-run real economic causes of the recent financial crisis, thus allowing to effectively bypass the false dichotomy between real and financial variables.