L’Osservatore Romano weighs in on the economy

An editorial titled "The roots of the crisis and the difficulties of politics", written by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, contends that the unavoidable solution to our long-term economic problems lies in a period of protracted austerity, a solution difficult to implement because it is electoral poison, and further calls for production to be "returned to it's home countries". 

Tedeschi believes that the current predicament will lead to a "more prominent role for the state" on both sides of the Atlantic, a conclusion Tedeschi does not quite cheer as he laments that our economic elite are "men [who] have sophisticated instruments at their disposal, but they do not have sufficient wisdom and maturity to think of the common good." 

The editorial ends with the pointed observation that at the root of our trouble is a false understanding of man:

But are all of these problems really the consequence of today’s economic crisis? Or are we only experiencing the effects of a preceding crisis, which is not economic but has produced economic effects? In reality, the real crisis has been created, lived and fed by the Western world, in accepting the idea of a man who needs to be satisfied only materially, making him consume.