Paul Jorion's Blog

Category: Human complex systems

  • ECUADOR OFFERS POLITICAL ASYLUM TO JULIAN ASSANGE

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell. With Great Britain suddenly threatening to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London, methinks we will be hearing more about this one. Methinks that this might just be the famous single spark that can start a prairie fire. Methinks that we have the potential here of an Ems dispatch,…

  • THE FOUR YEARS NEEDED TO CREATE A SCANDAL

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Over recent years you may have seen me carrying out extremely complex complications such as this: “it needed four years – between 1929 and 1933 – before any genuine measures were taken at the time of the Great Depression!” And it was this kind of calculation which led…

  • THE HEARING OF PAUL TUCKER, DEPUTY-GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND, BEFORE THE BRITISH TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Paul Tucker, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, made a statement this afternoon before a British Treasury Select Committee. The reason for his presence today was that on the 4th July, before this same committee, Bob Diamond (who was the Chief Executive of Barclays until a few…

  • LIBOR: WE AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell From the Financial Services Authority’s Final Notice of their decision, dated the 27th June, to impose an 85 million Pound fine on Barclays Bank (less a reduction of 30% for exemplary co-operation with the enquiry) due to their manipulation of the LIBOR interbank rates, two separate periods need…

  • THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRISIS WHO ARE RARELY TALKED ABOUT

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell The question of whether a debt contract can be considered as money is central to my book L’argent mode d’emploi (2009). I expose the violence exerted by Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950), when he imposed the idea that such was the case, and I demonstrated the inanity of the pseudo-arguments…

  • THE MANIPULATION OF THE LIBOR

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell In my Friday morning video (in French), I said that when a pirate (Rupert Murdoch) does business with a ship wrecker (the City of London), it tends to weaken the entire system, and I went on to add that this is particularly the case when the population, which…

  • HOW CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS WILL HAVE DESTROYED THE EURO

    How credit default swaps will have destroyed the Euro 12 juin 2012 par Paul Jorion And what of the CDS (credit-default swap) speculators who don’t pay taxes? Why don’t we hear anything about them? We hear a lot about the Greeks not paying their taxes, and at the moment, due to the tactlessness of some,…

  • QUESTIONS STILL IN NEED TO BE SOLVED (II) PROFIT, THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR ILLS

    An English translation by Jean-Loup Komarower of the post QUESTIONS À RÉSOUDRE (II) LE PROFIT, SOURCE DE TOUS NOS MAUX Robert Owen (1771-1858) was a Welsh social reformer, one of the founders of the cooperative movement. As a very early socialist who was blamed for being strictly speaking a “communist”, he considered profit as the source…

  • “No Matter What We Do, It Will Still Be The Same”

    An English translation by Bernard Bouvet of my « QUOI QU’ON FASSE, CE SERA LA MÊME CHOSE ! » of March 11.   77% of you, my dear blog readers, not all of you, but a “comfortable majority” of you, happens to be French. Your country is now in full “election showbiz” mode, and the…

  • IT IS TIME TO RESTRUCTURE CAPITALISM

    An English translation which can be read here of my post “Refonder le capitalisme”: Le moment est venu by Frankly. It Is Time to Restructure Capitalism Is there anything more depressing than the spectacle of the short-term remedies that are being applied at present with a view to saving the capitalist system, in the absence…

  • MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: About “The network of global corporate control”, by S. Vitali, J. B. Glattfelder, S. Battiston

    A passionate discussion has started on my French blog about the article The network of global corporate control, by S. Vitali, J. B. Glattfelder, S. Battiston. I’m hoping that a parallel discussion in English starts here. Here an excerpt of the paper to whet your appetite: … nearly 4/10 of the control over the economic…

  • TAVAKOLI vs. JORION. The Subprime Crisis: an orchestrated or spontaneous Ponzi Process?

    A translation by Bénédicte of my post of September 3rd: TAVAKOLI vs. JORION. LA CRISE DES SUBPRIMES : PYRAMIDE ORCHESTRÉE OU SPONTANÉE ? You will find in my “La crise du capitalisme américain” (The Crisis of American Capitalism) (La Découverte 2007; Le Croquant 2009), written between November 2004 and October 2005, a chapter describing the dynamics…

  • FRANCE 24, The F24 Interview

    With Annette Young, about the current developments of the crisis.

  • Human Complex Systems and the Current Mess

    S&P’s downgrading of US’ credit rating The American economy The euro zone crisis The riots in Britain How to get back on complexity ?

  • IGNORING LESSONS LEARNT

    My most recent column in the French daily paper Le Monde : Le risque systémique court toujours. As usual the translation is due to Bénédicte. Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, on September 15, 2008, and its aftermath – more than one trillion dollars being injected into the financial system – have caught people’s attention about financial firms…

  • My lecture at the Zermatt Summit, on the 16th of June 2011

    Now online. I defend my proposal of a prohibition of wagers on the evolution of prices (which was standard in the 19th century) within the framework of a Constitution for the Economy.

  • Healthy / destructive system of capitalism (2d version), by Lambert de Haas

    Guest post. Taking advantage of my interview with Caroline de Gruyter in NRC Handelsblad, Lambert de Haas has put this all together. He’s expecting your remarks to make further improvements. “Healthy” / “destructive” system of capitalism (2nd version) on Prezi … Read more…

  • Capitalism’s highs and lows

    I was asked to make the introductory speech at the Conference “Heurs et malheurs du capitalisme”, which took place at Université Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand on February 4th. Bénédicte has been so kind as to translate the written version of my speech. Capitalism’s highs and lows? When we talk these days of its highs, it…

  • One-Day Conference : Anthropology of the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism, Paris, May 3d 2011

    International Study Day Anthropology of the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism 3 mai 2011, 10h-17h, musée du quai Branly, 37 Quai Branly, 75007 Paris, Cinema Theater Convened by Jonathan Friedman (IRIS/EHESS) & Laurent Berger (LAS/MQB) Programme 10h-10h15 Jonathan Friedman (IRIS-EHESS) & Laurent Berger (LAS-MQB) « Introduction: Towards an anthropology of the crisis in capitalism » 10h15-11h Paul Jorion                                                                                                                       …

  • LE CAPITALISME À L’AGONIE, Fayard 2011

    A couple of weeks ago, my new book Le capitalisme à l’agonie came out, published by Fayard in Paris. Bénédicte has been so kind as to translate the summary I wrote for its backcover. Le capitalisme à l’agonie (Fayard 2011). Summary In 1989, at the fall of the Berlin Wall, capitalism was triumphant. Deprived by…