“We must accept finite disappointment, but must never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
The gold standard was a system where the currency of a country was linked to gold and which could materialize either by defining a certain quantity of metal in exchange for the American dollar, or indirectly through currencies having a fixed parity against the greenback. As early as 1944 with Bretton Woods, only central…
This phenomenon occurs quite rarely, always in the event of liquidity crises, i.e. in times of great financial stress such as in 2008 or at the start of the Covid crisis. It translates into a gluttonous appetite for the US dollar sought after by the entire planet because it is sorely lacking. It is…
“We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world” was an emblematic declaration by Ronald Reagan who shared throughout his Presidency with Margaret Thatcher fundamentally individualistic obsessions where the State represented the absolute threat against freedom and against property. And, in fact, their advent – of Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States – provided these…
The energy crisis is upsetting the balance of power in Europe, as we finally have realised that Germany is indeed quite fallible. The country’s moral authority was constantly being unleashed upon Mario Draghi during his time as president of the ECB because of his active monetary policy. Germany’s arrogance went as far as proposing…
The ghost of Milton Friedman and his oh-so-famous repartee of the 1960s when he said that inflation is “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” still haunts us today. It is true that this assertion may seem plausible. After all, the immediate consequence of inflation is a rise in prices, which are denominated in money,…
The raising of America’s debt ceiling has again been in the headlines these last few weeks. It was in 1917 that this practice began in the US, not to put the brakes on public spending as many believe, but to give flexibility to the executive branch during its participation in the First World War.…
Japan is the world’s laboratory. It’s in this country that in 2001, for the very first time, the famous quantitative easing measures were put in place that tried to break the believed-to-be impenetrable barrier of zero interest rates that had been set in 1999. It was a revolutionary endeavour for the time, led by…
There was once a time when what was good for General Motors was as a matter of course good for the USA. Nowadays, what’s good for Wall Street is good for the USA, a country that now lives under the influence of a financial oligarchy. The powerful myth of the US as a “nation…
There are good reasons to fear the future of Europe – and to fear for the future of Europe – when a moderate and deeply pro-European figure like Clément Beaune launches what is basically a petition in Les Echos, as he did on March 3rd. But let’s be real, because the old timers who…
Nearly all our economies’ problems arise from the concentration of power. Our system of freedoms has gradually been trampled over by monopolies of all kinds and to different extents, that have increased the costs of health, medicine, food, agricultural products, and a whole range of commodities and materials. It’s the tens of millions of…
More jobs will be lost. More businesses will go bust. More people will slip into precariousness. More children will go hungry. Let’s not kid ourselves about the exorbitant economic cost of the crisis to come. Also, the people must know what to prepare themselves for and they deserve clear explanations from their governments. They…
In my book, Le testament d’un économiste désabusé [Testament of a disillusioned economist], that is in fact a glossary of economies in crisis, you will not find under the letter C the term ‘Coronavirus’, nor the economic and social consequences of this health crisis or of its management by our authorities. While this ‘testament’…
You are greatly mistaken if you think Europe’s woes to come will be caused by a liquidity crisis. It is in fact a solvency crisis that poses an imminent threat to many members of the Union who don’t really need their funding costs to decrease, but who are desperately in search of transfers and…
Chile is the only Latin American country that is a member of the OECD, and not long ago it was still being cited as an example to follow because of its success and economic recovery. It is, however, just the latest victim to date of a neoliberalism whose ravages have now become universal. Chile’s fall…
In his time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt dismissed John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential and brilliant economists of the 20th century, who was labelled an “unorthodox mathematician” by this president. In his farewell address, Eisenhower had warned his citizens against the technocrats in power, the same who were recently described by Emmanuel Macron…
How could we not recall the British cult TV series from the ‘60s, The Prisoner, where a giant bubble frantically pursued the hero played by Patrick McGoohan? Our world now finds itself in a similar situation: we are all hostages to the now-plentiful bubbles, and not only the speculative bubbles that infect our markets. It’s…
Milton Friedman maintained the theory that unfettered free trade would generate – in the long term – a wealth that would trickle down over everyone. Contrary to the ideas made out, the liberalisation of trade (which goes hand in hand with the free circulation of capital) is not the only reason for the world’s dramatic…
The German economic miracle has its dark side, demonstrated by a massive budget surplus of 1.2% of GDP – that being 38.2 billion euros in 2017 – that’s causing the country’s infrastructure to tumble, which is now the worst infrastructure of all the rich and industrialised nations. Germany’s disproportionate public saving is causing under-investment within…
Notwithstanding the drastic adjustment to the stock markets in the way of 10%, the world’s biggest economy, the one that’s always ahead of everyone else in growth and also depression, the one that serves as the ultimate example of neoliberalism – America – has made a spectacular recovery since the 2007-08 crisis. With its property…
Deceased in 1996, Hyman Minsky was an economist who was barely known at all during his lifetime. Only certain enlightened minds – unorthodox ones, of course – were interested in his research which focused on the causes of financial crises. He owed his hour of glory to the subprime implosion in 2007 and it’s as…
Over the course of its history, the United States of America has seen six episodes of budget surplus. Five of them were immediately followed by depressions. Let us never forget that the orthodoxy – already powerful at the time – had pushed President Herbert Hoover to maintain a budget surplus in 1930, the year of…
The parallels between the European Union of 2017 and the Soviet Union of 1989 are troubling. Didn’t these two systems pride themselves on being “apolitical”, meaning that they were led by a technocratic elite that was detached from real life and “real people”? Faced with economic stagnation, didn’t these two systems react by calling on…
Globalisation didn’t force States to implement divisive public policies which have exacerbated inequalities and jammed the social ladder. The choice made by our successive governments to enact massive deregulation was deliberate, leaving the market as the sole arbiter of individual liberties and as the only generator of wealth and opportunity, albeit too often a source…
Europe was founded and edified on the famous principle of the four liberties. Capital, goods, services and work are meant to be able to move without any restriction anywhere in this mercantile Europe. Unlimited competition goes hand in hand with minimum control over the private sector, which together are supposed – according to the irrefutable…
Brexit was much more than a British electoral consultation to leave the Union. The issues were actually much more serious – and critical for some – than the relatively anecdotal aspect of a country that had never really integrated into Europe. Despite what had been stigmatised by the partisans of the Remain camp, Brexit was…
Today, the crisis confronts those who delivered Europe to the technocrats, bankers and industrial types who are hardly concerned with a united and social Europe. This crisis is not only financial: it consecrates the failure of the European ultra-liberal model. The Founding Fathers of the ECB will focus all the vital energy of their institution…
“The great struggles of the twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom—and a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise. In the twenty-first century, only nations that share a commitment to protecting basic human rights and guaranteeing political and economic freedom will…
Brexit is not just an electoral consultation that will decide on Britain’s potential departure from the Union. The issues are far more serious – and critical for some – than the relatively by-the-by stance of a country that has never really brought Europe together. Despite what has been stigmatised by the Remain campaign, Brexit is…
What is the deeper, intimate reason for financial crises? How do cracks appear and why do bubbles implode? It is always for a simple and unique reason, which is that irrational and outlandish bets undertaken by the world of finance are done so with borrowed money! In this regard, the last serious crisis – subprimes…
Blinder is no one than he who refuses to see. The main factors responsible for the torments of these last few years are still at large, when they haven’t been magnified despite declarations coming from the financial community and authorities claiming to be reassuring. According to them, systemic reforms would have in fact been made…
France is not just the motherland of human rights. It also played a crucial role in the inception of neoliberal thought which now starves the peoples of Europe. It has had huge responsibility in enforcing the rigorist and moralistic tyranny that today is sterilising the lifeblood of our continent. It is actually France who, in…