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AC WORLD NEWS

> INTERVIEW > EXCELLENCE

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have arrived anyway. Then there was the housing bubble with the

subprime mortgages and the collapse of Lehman. The markets lost

50% and then took off again. Now the reasons are different, petrol

and China. The markets bend and then take off again. The law that

says the bigger the fall the bigger the recovery has no exceptions

and not in this case either. So, for the saver prepared to accept

volatility in investment returns there are many opportunities today.

The lower the fall, the greater the opportunity. This is all good news

for the shrewd or well-advised saver.

5.Is

the European banking system solid?

The European banking system is solid. We have to take into account

that after the collapse of Lehman, state hand-outs were heavily used

in order to restore those banks in the world that had over-stretched

themselves with very risky financial operations and therefore had

brought the solidity of the systems into discussion. Increases in

capital were carried out throughout the world at the expense of the

taxpayer. In America they spent 350/400 billion dollars to reinforce

bank assets. The American state then made money by selling those

stocks. Then there were all the increases in capital at the expense

of the shareholders, so basically the majority of banks in the system

are now solid. Today, due to the new “Bail-in” law the states can no

longer intervene in a possible rescue, the bank is a company like any

other: it measures up to market forces and therefore if it is weak, it is

destined to fail. Nowadays the customer must learn to evaluate the

bank with which it wants to work in order to understand which are

the ones that will not make it in the market place, not only because

they are not well-organised or because they don’t have the best

products or because they don’t follow their customers properly,

but also on the basis of their solidity index. Watching these solidity

indices, which must be made public by the banks, is fundamental

when trying to understand if the bank is solid or if it is one which

runs the risk of being expelled from the market.

6.We

are manufacturers of tractors for specialised agriculture,

in particular producers of fruit, vegetable and wine. We are

part of a very real economy and far from financial games.

Many of your bank’s savers come from our world: maybe they

are inspired by the Veneto countryside origins. Do you think

agriculture will continue to play a primary role in the world

economy?

Agriculture has been, is and always will be a main player in this new

world, and it is enough to consider how much more protectionism

there is in this sector than in any other. Let’s take Japan where it is

not possible to import rice. The production costs of their rice are

high and they could get it cheaper if they opened up the frontiers

but Japan prefers to pay a little more and consume its own rice.

When I can produce the foodstuffs for my population, no matter

what else happens I know that I am able to avoid famine. If instead

I am conditioned by importation, I expose myself to a situation

of weakness. This explains the policies that tend to guarantee

foodstuffs. Therefore I think that agriculture will always play a

fundamental role because the primary need of all people is to feed

themselves.

7.What advice would you give to a young person facing the

world of employment for the first time?

Whatever you find yourself doing, do it as if you had dreamt of

doing it all your life. This is my advice. Always. When we say about

a painter, a writer or a composer that we have seen his soul in his

work we are capturing the essential part of him that he has put

into the work of art, novel or poem. But this is true of all human

endeavour. Every one of us puts something of ourselves in the

work we do. Even in the compilation of a simple register you can

see the humanity that can be made up of neatness or untidiness. It

is characterised by the person who compiled it. In that task there

is the person. If you remember that whatever you do, you are

drawing yourself and therefore if you want to have a good image

you have to aim for perfection. When I was a 6 year old child I used

to feed the cows and clean the barn and even if it wasn’t my dream

job I only stopped when no matter who passed would have had

to say “Great job!”Whatever you are called to do, if you do it in this

spirit the world will meet you half way because your work will have

created you the fame of giving your all, of being reliable. Therefore

before looking for your ideal job do whatever the circumstances

allow you to do and do it with passion. Everything else will come

with time.

Silvia Carraro