Western countries over the past few decades have experimented with very different and often negative levels of real interest rates. With the change in monetary policy inaugurated by the United States in the early eighties began a period characterised by high real interest rates. This paper analyses the relationship between public debt and interest rates in Italy based on alternative assumptions. The author shows how the adjustment of the economy to changes in monetary policy has ended up creating a united front in defence of financial income, which includes households, businesses and banks. She concludes that the level of the interest rate that tends to prevail in the market can not be explained with the theoretical model based on the equilibrium of supply and demand of loanable funds determined by the Walrasian equilibrium.

JEL Codes: E43, E44