Category: Politics

  • LE MONDE ÉCONOMIE, e-G8 : the new upcoming world, a spitting image of the old one, June 6th 2011

    “Without the networks, Internet is nothing … Internet is not just a question of liberties, it is a question of money.”

    When Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, one of the main sponsors of the e-G8, held in Paris on 24 and 25 May, uttered these unambiguous words, everybody in France seemed to be relieved:…

  • HISTORY’S LESSONS

    One thing is clear in retrospect: governments under the influence of the powers of money were a huge mistake. In the early days of the United States of America, Jefferson fought for a republic of citizens, Hamilton, for a republic of merchants. Hamilton won, that much is known.

    In the twentieth century, von Mises,…

  • August 4th, 1789

    Cityislander’s imaginative translation of “La nuit du 4 août” at the French end of this blog. Many thanks to him!

    Exactly 220 years ago (the French Revolution), on the night of August 4th, 1789, the question certainly was not about systemic risk. Yet, on that very night, an event of systemic magnitude occurred:…

  • The danger of half-truths in a time of crisis

    Published in Le Monde – Economie, March 2nd 2009 (transl. Danielle Goodman)

    Let’s assume that governments are actively concerned with the interests of the populace at this very moment – an ardent hope of mine. To succeed, their actions have to benefit from a certain surprise effect so as not to be thwarted in advance…