*** JACQUES ATTALI: Tous ruinés dans des dix ans? Dette publique: la dernière chance. Librairie Arthème Fayard (13 rue de Montparnasse, F-75006 Paris. Internet: http://www.editions-fayard.fr ) / Hachette Livre (43 quai de Grenelle, F-75905 Paris Cedex 15. Tel: (33-1) 43923000 - Fax: 43923030 - Internet: http://www.livredepoche.com ). 'Le Livre de Poche' series. 2011, 243 pp, €6. ISBN 978-2-253-15810-3.
First published by Fayard nearly a year ago, this book has the gift of prophesy or clairvoyance in that all European countries are now haunted by the spectre of sovereign debt. The ideas set out by Jacques Attali, an economist by training and a former close advisor to the erstwhile French President, Francois Mitterrand, will provide little reassurance. It is not merely Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain or Japan that are perched on a volcano of sovereign debt that will soon be greater than the wealth produced by these countries, but it is the whole of the Western world that is now weighed down by massive debt. The crisis currently brewing is of such proportions that the 'ruin of the whole of the West is … a credible scenario, as unexpected by contemporaries as the ruin of Venice, Genoa and Madrid in their day,' because, 'like in the past, the bloated nature of sovereign debt may be both the spark that leads to ruin and, at the same time, the way of becoming aware that it is looming ever closer.' It goes without saying that former sherpa Attali has written this book to raise awareness of the crisis so that the West, and particularly Europe, can manage to get out of the danger it is in, 'the danger it finds itself in where sovereign debt and the market are looking each other in the eye, wondering which one will shoot first.'
The author starts by using his gifts as an lecturer to explain in detail how sovereign debt has grown over time and how it has even been part of history because 'the birth of the United States was based on sovereign debt'. He also explains the impact on public debt of the gradual emergence of the 'sovereign people' in the twentieth century and the 'huge sea-change' in the early tweenies when 'globalisation, that puts all sovereign states in connection with one another without any controls, and in the absence of a world state, makes all the former sovereign debt crisis mechanisms converge explosively.' He draws twelve lessons from this for the history of sovereign debt, explaining that it is debt taken out by the present generation that will have to be paid back by future generations, which will have no choice but to pay it in one form or another. Sovereign debt can be very useful for generating growth. It encourages the state to facilitate the creation of financial instruments that are then used against them by the markets. The more such debt is funded by domestic savings, the more sustainable it is. Debtors have as much power over the creditors as the creditors believe they have over the debtors and the emergence of a sovereign debt crisis is more a matter of a subjective loss of the markets' confidence than the overshooting of any particular debt ratio. Inflation is often used to solve sovereign debt crises and 'virtually all over-indebted countries end up using inflation to this end' (the author claims that the only countries to have resisted the inflation temptation are Denmark, Finland, Norway, Canada, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand).
Against the current backdrop, should one rule out the worst-case scenario? Attali does not, preferring to examine the stages that the worst case scenario might take: first, a heavily indebted country gets into worse debt; then the death knell of the euro sounds, along with world depression; then the dollar goes under and inflation dominates the world; and the catastrophe finally arrives with depression and the collapse of Asia. Should we resign ourselves to this fate? No, says the author, setting out a strategy in the rest of the book for avoiding the worst-case scenario. This is a 'highly ambitious strategy, virtually impossible to implement and difficult to even get the main countries to talk about.' He sets out Europe's duties in this strategy, which he says will require the creation of 'European bonds' as EU-level borrowing instruments, which in turn will require the creation of an 'EU budget borrower of last resort,' like a 'European Treasury Agency' to 'provide new, short-term, financial processes for European countries' budgets to roll over their current sovereign debt and good future debt.' In the same spirit, he recommends strengthening the euro using budget federalism in the form of a European Budget Fund 'fed by budget resources in proportion to the GDP of Member States or calculated in terms of the extent to which they fail to meet the Maastricht Treaty excess deficit rules.' He says the ultimate aim is to arrive at no less than the 'harmonisation of the tax and budget policies of all the Member States.' Genuine prophesy, even though recent months have seen some sovereignty states sticking their fingers in their ears.
Michel Theys
*** MICHELLE EVERSON, FRANK RODRIGUES: What can the Law do for the European System of Central Banks? Good Governance and Comitology 'within' the System. Zentrum für Europäische Rechtspolitik (Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaft, Universität Bremen, Universitätsallee, GW 1, D-28359 Bremen, Germany. Internet: http://www.zerp.eu ). '"ZERP-Diskussionspapiere" series, No. 3. 2010, 34 pp, €8.
This study by two researchers at Bremen University's Centre for European Law and Politics is brief yet very rich in content. The authors, two seasoned lawyers, weigh up governance versus the rule of law in Monetary Union and examine the role played by comitology, asking whether it is under threat in the European Central Bank and the European central bank system. They provide good answers by considering the constitutional legitimacy for comitology, placing it 'between functionality, representation and deliberation,' and looking at the challenges facing the governance of the European Central Bank in terms of the EU treaties when it comes to independence, expertise, governance of the Eurosystem governance within the rule of law and the decision-making in the ECB headed by Jean-Claude Trichet. Only specialist lawyers and political scientists will be able to fully appreciate the value of this work. (PBo)
*** JOSEF JILEK, ROMAN MATOUSEK: Money in the Modern World. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 -Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2010, 286 pp, €40-50. ISBN 978-3-631-59118-5.
In this book for experts, two specialists explain how money, liquidity and monetary policy developed in the eurozone, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. Although it focuses on contemporary banking practices, economist Josef Jílek (working for the Czech national bank) and his fellow author (who lectures at London Metropolitan Business School) examine the historical development of opinion in this domain. The book emerges from their conviction that the best way to assess the financial system as a whole is to examine accountancy tools like balance sheets and results, and all the operations quoted in the book have been assessed in the light of both elements. The authors start by looking at questions like monetary aggregates, the birth and death of currencies, decision-making in banks and their customers when it comes to granting and accepting loans, and cross-border flows of investment money. The second part of the book examines bank capital and liquidity requirements, using two examples of the consequences of these requirements on the financial situation of economic operators like commercial banks, companies, governments, households and central banks. The third section sees Jílek and Matousek examine monetary practice in the light of the policy instruments available, be they operational, intermediate or ultimate targets. Subjects like inflation are naturally covered in this connection because this is a domain where the central banks have decided to play a key role. Likewise, the transmission procedure at the heart of monetary policy is also examined, along with the various means through which it operates (credit, companies, spending, currency conversion and using the dollar to calculate prices, and so on). A direct continuation of the first section, the final part of the book sees the authors describe the various payment systems. (PBo)
*** Gérer & Comprendre. Editions ESKA (12 rue du Quatre-Septembre, F-75002 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 42865665 - Fax: 42604535 - Email: eska@eska.fr - Internet: http: //http://www.eska.fr ). 'Annales des Mines,' series, No. 101. 2010, 106 pp, €23. Annual subscription: €85 (France) or €104 (other countries). ISBN 978-2-7472-1724-8. This issue looks at the book 'Finance servante ou finance trompeuse' by Paul Dembinski.(MT)
*** MICHAEL BODE: Le groupe international de sociétés. Le système de conflit de lois en droit comparé français et allemand. Peter Lang (see above). " Publications Universitaires Européennes / European University Studies / Europäische Hochschulschriften" series, No. 5000. 2010, 695 pp, €74-10. ISBN 978-3-0343-0414-6.
Following on from a doctoral thesis for Panthéon-Assas University (Paris 2) in France and the law faculty at Humboldt University in Berlin, this hefty tome examines international groups of companies and how they are treated in the EU, particularly in France and Germany, where they are treated differently from other companies in the legal system. Comparing and contrasting, the author analyses and explains the regulations in the two countries, before setting out an overall theory of international private law in this domain. He also methodically examines all the French, Germany and EU mechanisms concerning the setting up, operations and winding down of groups of companies in the light of international private law. EU case law on the application of EU Regulation 1346/2000 to groups of companies is the subject of critical, in-depth analysis, leading the author to draw up a new vision of this type of body under international private law and EU law. An impressive work for readers bold enough to enjoy academic theses… (MT)
*** FERGUS RANDOLPH QC, JONATHAN DAVEY (Eds.): The European Law of Commercial Agency. Third Edition. Hart Publishing Ltd (16c Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 - Fax: 510710 - Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk - Internet: http://www.hartpuv.co.uk ). 2010, 337 pp, £95. ISBN 978-1-84113-850-3.
The fact that this important book is already in its third edition bears witness to the fact that it is now more of an authority in the field than ever. Written by two lawyers operating in the United Kingdom and the European Union, it looks at the European law of commercial agency. Back in 1986, the Member States agreed on EU Directive 86/653, which provides similar legal protection throughout the EU to independent commercial agents working in the Single Market. In this edition, the authors pick out current directions in case law to predict how courts in the UK and the EU will decide to deal in the future with issues not yet settled. To this end, the authors use a technique of dealing with delicate issues head on in order to develop practical answers for practitioners. Alongside references to relevant issues, there is an index, a table of legislation and highly complex annexes, and this issue also includes a chapter assessing the companies in question by Dr. Ruth Bender. Dr. Séverine Saintier and Dr Michael Reiling have updated their sections on French and German law. (MT)
*** GERHARD STICKEL (Ed.): Language Use' in Business and Commerce in Europe. Contributions to the Annual Conference 2008 of EFNIL in Lisbon. Peter Lang (see above). "Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach- und kulturwissenschaft / Duisburg Papers on Research in Languages and Culture," No. 78. 2010, 201 pp, €40. ISBN 978-3-631-58803-1.
Published after the sixth AGM of the European Federation of National Institutions for Language, this book examines the use of langue in business in Europe against the backdrop of globalisation, looking at the use of English as a lingua franca and the situation regarding the national language(s) of Portugal, France, Denmark, Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Iceland. At the 2008 annual conference in Lisbon, the EFNIL passed a resolution which has been published in twenty-six European languages, including the twenty-three official EU languages, demonstrating the desire of the EFNIL members (listed in the back of the book) to fight to ensure that multilingualism is a tangible reality in Europe, now and in the future. (PBo)
*** Responsabilité et environnement. Editions ESKA (12 rue du Quatre-Septembre, F-75002 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 42865665 - Fax: 42604535 - Email: eska@eska.fr - Internet: http: //http://www.eska.fr ). "Annales des Mines" series, No. 61. 2011, 162 pp, €23. Annual subscription: €85 (France) or €104 (other countries). ISBN 978-2-7472-1778-1. Virtually all of this issue of this ever excellent review is devoted to green growth with chapters on the passivity of diversified public policies, the role that IT and communication technologies could play, R&D and potential new ways of living.