QUANTITATIVE BALANCING - Beyond the Crisis: A New Architecture for Financial Stability

The world we have built is founded on a paradox: trust. We trust that the food we eat is safe, that the bridges we cross are solid, and that the financial system that holds our savings and fuels our economy is stable. Yet, the recurring crises that have shaken the planet, from the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 to the European sovereign debt crisis, have deeply eroded this trust. They have revealed that the foundations of our financial castle are perhaps sandier than we have been led to believe.

The book you hold in your hands, "Quantitative Balancing: Beyond the Crisis," is not yet another lament about what doesn't work. It is a work of rare intellectual ambition and practical courage. Marco Saba does not merely diagnose the illness but proposes a cure. And he does so with the precision of an engineer, the vision of a reformer, and the passion of a citizen who refuses to accept the status quo.

The central idea of Quantitative Balancing is as simple in its enunciation as it is revolutionary in its implications: to make bank balance sheets transparent and to restore to the State the sovereignty over money creation. Saba dismantles, piece by piece, the "black box" of bank accounting, showing how current conventions (IFRS, US GAAP) not only fail to represent the reality of cash flows but actively mask it. The creation of money through credit, the beating heart of the modern economy, occurs in an accounting and legal gray area that generates instability, moral hazard, and an inequitable distribution of profits and losses.

The QB proposal - reclassifying deposits as a liability of banks towards the State Treasury and not towards depositors - is not a mere technical exercise. It is a paradigm shift. It transforms the bank from "owner" of the funds we entrust to it into their "custodian." It recognizes seigniorage for what it is: an income deriving from monetary sovereignty, which belongs to the community and not to a private oligopoly.

What makes this book particularly convincing is its multidisciplinary approach. Saba draws on game theory to demonstrate how QB can create a virtuous "Nash Equilibrium," where banks, the State, and depositors find it convenient to cooperate for stability. He re-examines recent crises through the lens of his model, conducting a rigorous counterfactual analysis that suggests how QB could have acted as a systemic "vaccine." And, most importantly, he doesn't stop at theory: he outlines a concrete and actionable path for legislative reform, with specific proposals for changes to Italian and European law.

"Quantitative Balancing: Beyond the Crisis" is a book destined to spark an intense and necessary debate. It challenges established dogmas, questions powerful interests, and forces us to ask a fundamental question: to whom does money belong? The answer that emerges from these pages is clear: money is a public good, and its management must be transparent, responsible, and aimed at collective well-being.

This is not just a book for economists, bankers, or regulators. It is a book for every citizen who wishes to understand the invisible forces that govern our economy and who believes in the possibility of building a financial system that is fairer, more stable, and, ultimately, more worthy of our trust.