Translation Rights TQE / The Digital Economy. From Mith to Reality

It has been the case lately that some processes and phenomena have appeared with the goal of changing the life of humanity, nothing less, in order to conduct it down paths of no return into a supposedly better future.  One of these is the celebrated birth in the United States of a «new economy» or a «digital economy», whose launching urbi et orbi belongs to the type of advertisements meant to announce that something transcendental has occurred, something that will change our destiny.

In effect, the advances in the fields of information and communication technology (TIC) during the past decade have prepared the ground for a spectacular growth period.  But time has shown that the ambitious voices which announced a «new economy» based on TIC, free of cycles and that would grow endlessly were in fact exaggerated.  This is why Roberto Velasco has been especially careful to avoid the economist’s tendency to prophesise, and has not denied the scepticism that, when faced with this type of phenomenon, becomes so necessary.  Actually, there are very few new things under the sun, and the plate of the «new economy», brilliantly cooked up by the financial analysts, the investment banks, and the big international consulters, will not bring down the solid pillars of traditional gastronomy.  On the other hand, it will not merely be, as is demonstrated in this solid and intelligent analysis, another recipe in the fast food catalogue.

Roberto Velasco (Bilbao, 1940) is a professor of Applied Economy at the University of País Vasco.  He has been director of the Society for the Industrial Promotion and Re-conversion of the País Vasco (SPRI), director of the Circle of Basque Businessmen, and board member of various companies, both public and private.  For years he has worked as a regular consulter to the Interamerican Bank of Development (BID), the OCDE, and the European Committee. From the many scientific books and articles that he has published, the most recent are Los economistas en su laberinto (Economists in Their Labyrinth, 1996), La creación de empresas en España (The Creation of Enterprises in Spain, 1998), and Política industrial de las comunidades autónomas (Political Industry of the Autonomous Communities, 2001).  He is a regular contributor to the opinion and economy sections of El País and of the newspapers in El Correo group.