Work is an outdated value!
May 14, 2015Humans have always had to work to support themselves. However, in its current form, work is a very recent concept in the course of human history. Until the advent of the tradable joint stock company (Dutch East India Company) towards the end of the Renaissance in 1602, human beings had indeed worked for themselves. Creative…
The pernicious effects of corporate bonuses
May 14, 2015The cash bonuses, stock options, pensions and mega salaries received by corporate executives are clearly a wealth transfer mechanism. In this regard, the Euro 300,000 annual pension to be paid to Philippe Varin, departing CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën, pales in comparison to the remuneration of the great American bosses. Does Nicholas Woodman, GoPro founder,…
To save the rich, relieve the poor!
April 29, 2015A debate rages on, mostly in the United States, regarding the secular stagnation of our economies. This secular stagnation is due, in my opinion, to the extraordinary productivity of capitalism. The very low, zero-boundary or even negative interest rates are simply the consequence of capital’s very efficient productivity. As for unemployment, it is itself a…
What is money in 2015?
April 28, 2015Money is only a means of payment. Moreover, any vehicle generally accepted as payment for goods and services is by definition comparable to money. This broader definition of money allows us to find several other means of payment in circulation and in use in our societies and economies. Indeed, bank notes and electronic transactions passing…
The real estate standard
April 28, 2015At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. government seriously considered nationalizing a large chunk of the American banking system. Instead, what it did was take effective control of the massive U.S. mortgage market. Without Federal guarantees and full government support, the U.S. real estate market (already under critical pressure from the subprime…
Negative rates? No, a revolution in attitudes!
April 24, 2015How should we live in a world where interest rates are negative? It is a genuine paradigm shift that tells us to prepare for global deflation. While the U.S. will be spared, our Europe is sinking into economic stagnation, an ice age likely to be secular in nature. Switzerland and Denmark are leading the way…
There is life outside of work
April 24, 2015The time when Voltaire stated in Candide that “Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need” is over. Today, it is no longer appropriate to work regardless of the cost. In other words, less work could improve our living conditions and could undoubtedly improve the way we do work. The belief that…
Too late to fight against inequality!
April 24, 2015Do not be fooled by deflation. It is the decades-old general decline in wages, which inevitably leads to the lowering of consumer prices. And consumer prices will be made to adjust to the deterioration of our standard of living. Deflation is only the natural result of our shrinking purchasing power. Prices collapse for an obvious…
Innovation will save Switzerland!
April 24, 2015Europe and Switzerland are in full deflation, aggregate demand is at best anemic and only the emergence of a single or multiple asset bubbles is likely to revive their economies. Retail prices decline as consumers, who no longer have the means to maintain their current living standard, refuse to listen to the “credit sirens” and…
Europe faces its old demons
March 23, 2015The European government elites are sinking into denial. Their frightened posture against public deficits and preference for strict financial orthodoxy is a reflection of an age-old tendency for self-destruction. However, the current version of this tendency is about to lead them to a nasty state of affairs. I am referring to the ascension of extreme-right…
There is no German miracle
March 14, 2015German politicians live and evolve in a parallel universe. Their trade surpluses, their fiscal and restrictive fiscal policies and their anemic domestic investment are all compelling evidence of the “economic autism” of their government elites. Those political leaders incessantly affirm in public the validity of these surpluses as if trying to convince themselves that these…
