On the night of April 14-15, 1987, Federico Caffè left his flat in the Monte Mario hill of Rome. On his desk he left behind: wallet, passport and glasses. He had been suffering from depression ever since retirement in 1984. His ailing brother Alfonso alerted close friends and associates who later involved the police. A huge search was mounted in which dozens of young and not so young former students and collaborators scoured the Roman countryside, but to no avail. No body or signs of what happened on that fateful night were ever found. Caffè was declared legally dead on August 8, 1998. But who was Federico Caffè?
Born and raised in Pescara, Abruzzo, he graduated in Economics from Rome La Sapienza University. Active in a non-combatant role during the Resistenza, he later participated in the works for the Italian Constitution. He entered academia in the early 1950s and joined the Faculty of Economics at La Sapienza in 1959. In his academic career he specialized in economic policy. A big influence on his approach to policy as well as on wider ethical and philosophical questions was John Maynard Keynes. Physically, Caffè was unforgettable because of his short height and his penetrating eyes. They gave his visitor a feeling of great intelligence combined with humanity and interest in his interlocutor.
I am one of the lucky people who, decades ago, attended his lectures on economic policy on the top floor of an impressive building in Piazza Borghese where the Facoltà di Economia was then located. The lecture room was crowded, an unusual feature for a final year module, though common in first year ones. Silence was established as soon as Caffè entered the room, and then his steady, clear voice absorbed us all. I was fascinated by being presented with so many theoretical and practical policy problems and their potential for improving the lives of ordinary people: workers; families; striving entrepreneurs. For all of them he wanted a system which was efficient as well as humane and socially just.
Caffè published many books and articles in academic journals. He also wrote for newspapers, including the left-wing il manifesto. He had a formidable knowledge of works on economics, both in Italian and English, combined with a great interest in literature, music and the visual arts. His dedication to students was enormous, particularly those with personal or family problems. Many of them were seen in the Roman hills searching for clues after his disappearance.
Caffè supervised a great number of Tesi di Laurea and followed the work of each student very closely, to the point of telephoning them at home to remind them of a deadline for submitting specific chapters. Many among his students had distinguished careers in the private or public sector, or in academia. They included the former Governor of the European Central Bank and later Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Caffè never married or had children, and there are rumours about his secret misogynistic tendencies or homosexuality. Yet, he was a family man taking charge of many members of his family. After the death of his father, he took in with him in Rome: his mother, his old nanny, his brother Alfonso, and Piero, his sister’s disabled son. Vinicio, as Caffè was called within the family, loved and cared for Piero till the boy’s premature death. He then cared, in turn, for his aged mother, the nanny and, lastly, Alfonso.
Federico Caffè’s disappearance generated two mysteries. The first relates to what happened on that fateful night of April 1987. Various suggestions – some quite fancy – are still in circulation: from being spirited away to a Nordic country and, from there, to Russia, to having sought refuge and peace in a monastery. The latter is a hypothesis suggested also for the disappearance in 1938 of a famous young physicist working on nuclear issues. The story of Ettore Majorana is engagingly told by Leonardo Sciascia in a book found among Caffè’s large literary collection.
On first hearing of the “monastery hypothesis,” I was very sceptical and felt that some of Caffè’s former students were in the grips of fiction. Then… I went to the Festival dell’Economia di Trento. This beautiful medieval town up in the Dolomites, far away from my Calabrian roots, has been hosting a festival around my professional subject for almost 20 years. Contrary to what non-economists might expect, the Festival turned out to be not only very interesting but also very enjoyable. Events were held in a variety of venues – including open-air cafès, and the town centre was enlivened by musicians.
The event I was invited to was well attended by a public which included visiting economists and townspeople, and was chaired by Roberto Da Rin, a journalist with Sole 24 Ore. Speakers included another economist, Daniele Archibugi, who knew Caffè as a student and also as a family friend, and who wrote a fascinating and moving book about our former teacher: Maestro delle mie brame. The other two participants were non-economists. Carmen Pellegrino, a writer who had heard about Caffè through her father, inserts Caffè as a character in one of her novels. The fourth speaker was Noemi Scarpa, Mother Abbess of the Benedictine Monastery of Sant’Anna in Bastia Umbra. She was asked whether the hypothesis of Caffè taking refuge in a monastery had any plausibility. In a clear, steady voice the youthful badessa explained the institutional differences between convents and monasteries and how the latter have considerable autonomy from the Church hierarchy and its rules. Lay people seeking peace from the wider world could not change their identity and be lost to the outside world by joining a convent. But …in a monastery? It would be possible in principle. Though, of course, we would not know in specific cases.
The second mystery is one of “presence,” and relates to the extraordinary public reaction to the disappearance of Caffè and the desire to continue honouring his work and life. There was an outpouring of efforts to find him at first and, later, to honour his memory. Each of the last 38-plus years has seen several academic and public events in his honour, including the prestigious Bank of Italy Caffè Lectures given by international economists. Ermanno Rea has written an engaging biography from which a film was developed. Former students have established a LinkedIn group Amici di Caffè and blog. They award a Caffè Prize in the form of a silver coffee bean.
Silver Coffee Bean Award in honour of Federico Caffè
To explain this continuing interest, we should, in my view, look beyond Caffè’s life and dedication to students and consider what has been happening to the economy and society since his death. For some 40 years ordinary people have been told that the neo-liberal system was the best option in town. The 2008 financial crisis crashed not only the system but also confidence in its functioning and in the competence and trustworthiness of the professionals behind it. Society is looking for sources of hope in the economic system and in the economics profession. Federico Caffè’s writings and teaching gave and still give ordinary people the feeling that a more humane and socially just system is possible. This gives many economists the feeling that the trust in their profession can be salvaged. Therefore, the answer to the second mystery – Caffè’s continuing presence almost 40 years after he disappeared – must, in my view, be sought not only in the qualities of Caffè as educator, citizen, and colleague, but also in society at large, in its hopes and expectations.
Grazia Ietto Gillies is Emerita Professor in Economics at London South Bank University. She was born in Calabria and moved to Rome with her family when she was ten. She has lived and worked as an academic economist in London since 1971 and has published extensively in economics. Her memoir on Calabria, By the Olive Groves. A Calabrian Childhood, was published in 2017.
