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The importance attached to subject indexing in library services, librarian awareness of its social role and practical purposes, attention to indexing practices and the use of catalogs: How are these elements reflected in the system of rules governing subject indexing in Italy? What does "rule following", to use Wittengenstein's well-known expression, mean in our field? Why and how do we follow a rule? In which sense is following a rule a practice? How and in which conditions does the rule relate to the practice and vice versa? Beginning with these questions, the main features of the Italian subject indexing rules are illustrated: explicit rules, based on linguistic criteria, contain justifications for why a given rule should be followed and should be sensitive to the use-context. All three of these features imply a relationship with practice; at the same time, the rules presuppose a social practice in which they are employed and express their pragmatic meaning. Thus, the indexing rules are manifested in the language of indexing through the means by which this language is used; that is, in the indexing activity and in the use of catalogs. Hence, the call for libraries to attend to the pragmatic dimension of subject indexing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Play and the game, the central themes of this issue of FAMagazine, bring together various fields of artistic knowledge to become a key to understanding their use in recomposing the multidimensional nature of knowledge and the world itself, able to oppose reality by presenting an alternative, while almost capable of assimilating certain aspects of the sacred. The game as a combinatorial process, as a capacity for assemblage like a montage, but also as an educational and pedagogical tool of knowledge and transformation of the world which ignores the conditions of reality since it spontaneously performs an abstraction. The game, as such, has its own rules which determine what will happen inside the temporary world it delimits, rules which are absolutely mandatory and irrefutable but can be encoded and transmitted.

A place in the first book of the princeps edition of Fortunio’s Regole, in the section entitled to relative and interrogative pronouns, lends itself to a reading that differs from the generally accepted one. In this paper, we describe it and take into consideration some reasons that could support it.

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Copyright of Cuadernos de Filología Italiana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article contains the introduction to the meeting on the financial crisis held in February at the Accademia dei Lincei, by Alberto Quadro Curzio, president of the division of Moral Sciences of the Accademia. The introduction deals with three main topics: a brief account of the crisis, the relevance of a distinctively European and Italian approach to political economy, the historical development within the Accademia of a critical and constructive thought in the field of the socio-economic sciences. JEL: E44, E60, G01

The Italian economy is going through its deepest contraction in history. Even more worrisome is the negative trend in productivity and capacity to export, which has persisted since the early 1990s. The paper analyzes the root causes of these twin evils, as well as the linkages between them. An attempt is also made to sketch the economic policy measures and the autonomous responses by producers that could improve the long-run, structural perspectives of the economy and, via expectations, accelerate the escape from the present phase of stagnant domestic demand JEL Code: E32, E44, E65

Some unpleasant characteristics of the financial reality over the last few years are examined. First, financial growth was largely based on products that are not exchanged on organized markets, but rather over-the-counter. Moreover, they are often opaque and illiquid, and lack symmetric information. Therefore, important conditions that enable competitive markets to determine efficient allocations were absent. Second, banks tended to reduce risk taking through the packaging of credits into securities. This behaviour generated an increase in moral hazard and consequently, was another source of inefficiency. Third, the rules known as Basel 2 and IAS are strongly pro-cyclical, so that over the long run they favour systemic financial instability. With respect to these three problems, no relevant regulation has been introduced in the U.S. or Europe. JEL: G01, G21, G24

Up to now, the G20 has supervised the process to revitalize the real economy affected by the Great Recession through fiscal stimuli and a very easy monetary policy, and to rescue the battered financial system by injecting capital into giant banks and firms. The G20 is now turning its attention to financial regulation, with the FSB as its main operational arm. The ideas that are being proposed stress the need for disincentives toward too much risk taking (more capital, higher liquidity, limits to remunerations and bonuses, etc.), particularly by big and complex financial institutions that are likely to entail systemic risks. The paper maintains that, as the disincentive approach is insufficient to deter financial managers looking for power, some kind of segmentation needs to be introduced, as suggested by Paul Volcker. JEL: E44, G1, G18, G28

The financial crisis of 2008 is put in relation with two bubbles, financial and housing. Easy credit is at the origin of both bubbles. Risky bonds were issued to mobilize mortgages originated in the housing market, and bad bonds entered a fantastic number of institutional and private portfolios all over the world without any perception of the their risk. Unfortunately, bank credit to speculators was abundant and fed the final growth of the bubbles. When fears started to spread, the fall was immediate and expectations impaired very rapidly. The main aggregate demand components were severely curtailed and production fell as well. This is the crisis of the real economy. Fortunately, as opposed to what happened in 1929, the interventions of central banks and governments have been of an unprecedented size. The bail out of insolvent banks in particular has been providential. The exit from the current crisis, however, will surely be slow. JEL: E44, G01, G10

Con questo numero, Moneta e Credito riprende la sua regolare cadenza trimestrale dopo l'interruzione connessa al passaggio di proprietà dalla Banca Nazionale del Lavoro alla Associazione Paolo Sylos Labini. Abbiamo tentato di colmare tale interruzione con i numeri speciali per il 2008 e per il 2009 usciti nei mesi scorsi: nel primo caso con gli indici dei primi sessant'anni di vita delle riviste e due articoli introduttivi di ricostruzione del loro percorso (Roncaglia, 2008a e 2008b), nel secondo caso con una raccolta di articoli pubblicati negli ultimi anni su temi connessi alla crisi finanziaria ed economica che sarebbe poi esplosa e una breve introduzione per inquadrare questi contributi nel dibattito teorico più recente. JEL Codes: E44, G01

In this paper a distinction is made between the immediate technical-financial causes that unleashed the crisis in the United States, and its macroeconomic causes, which also explain its international transmission. Two formal paradigmatic models are considered. The first is Li’s formula on default correlation (“The Formula that Killed Wall Street”), whose misuse gave rise to the crisis. The second is the international financial multiplier set forth by Paul Krugman. After examining these two models, the paper concludes that, contrary to widespread opinion, the crisis was indeed foreseen by some economists, who, coming from the non-mainstream side of the profession, were largely ignored. JEL: G01, F3, E44

The drive towards radical reforms of financial regulation is weakening as financial firms seem to be returning to calmer waters. The proposals that now appear to be having a higher probability of adoption leave the financial structure and its regulation substantially unchanged. An analysis of the systemic crises, or potential ones, that, starting from the 1970s, have interested countries at every stage of development, suggests that the current crisis is the last manifestation of an evolution that has produced an endogenous push to increasing financial fragility. A more radical approach to regulatory reforms is then required if we want to lessen the probability of a new major crisis within the next ten years, a period that will find the official authorities with depleted ammunition to fight it. JEL: E44, G1, G18, G28