*** PAUL JORION, BRUNO COLMANT: Penser l’économie autrement. Conversations avec Marc Lambrechts. Arthème F ayard (13 rue de Montparnasse, F-75006 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45498200 – Email: info-fayard@editions-fayard.fr – Internet: http://www.fayard.fr ). « Pluriel » series. 2016, 251 pp. €8. ISBN 978-2-8185-0516-8.
Stiglitz, Varoufakis, Galbraith… : the great names of economic science who unceasingly sound the alarm that Europe and the majority of its citizens are each day being ledd the edge of the precipice due to the inadapted policies imposed in the Union, particularly the Eurozone, set the cat among the pigeons in this issue. The fact that they are not given a hearing by those who decide on the fate of European construction has not prevented Paul Jorion and Bruno Colmant from adding their voices to the closing speeches of the prosecution. Nonetheless, nothing would have ever suggested that these two figures should mee, at least at a level of ideas. Bruno Colmant is a university lecturer in finance and, as well as a former banker and stock exchange director, has the profile of an economist from the right of the political spectrum. Paul Jorion was in fact the “prophet” who announced the sub-prime disaster and who became an economist by accident, by way of his peregrinations in the financial world. He admits to harbouring a number of revolutionary proclivities and highlights a stagist approach and analysis. Nonetheless, in this book of interviews carried out under the aegis of the journalist, Marc Lambrechts, these two Belgian commentators remarkably complement each other in their respective diagnoses, although this is not the case with regard to the ideas they propose. The convergence of views is apparent from the very first chapter entitled, “A thinker from the left versus an economist from the right”. These convergences are provocative in the context of the medication administered to Europe, for example with regard to public debt, which is described as a “a real sword of Damocles held above our heads”. Bruno Colmant used to think that this problem could be resolved by printing money and by increasing inflation. Paul Jorion retorts that “ a generalised payment default would be necessary in order to get the debt meters in the Eurozone back to zero”, whilst his detractor ultimately acknowledges that he is right, even the two men differ on the question of how to eradicate the debt. Our economist “From the right” criticises the European leaders who impose “Deadly austerity policies” and argues, “it is impossible, I say well-nigh impossible, to finance the existing and deferred public debt (pensions, health care) with austerity policies” stemming from a “strong currency”. He subsequently called for a rereading of “Marx the economist” who warned that, “if debt does not adjust to economic realities, social implosion is inevitable”. He also points out the Karl Marx was undoubtedly right on this point, adding the caustic note that “it is perhaps this is that our European agencies are waiting for: the urgency of a social clash, which forces them take action through resignation. A bit like the Russian loans…” On the other hand, he is loathe to follow his fellow “revolutionary” commentator when the latter observes that capitalism, similarly to any other system, is susceptible to break up, which is what Jorion intimates when he argues that, “When some people say that capitalism will always find away of surviving, I don’t understand what they’re trying to say: the fact that this has been the case until now is not a guarantee for the future. I could quite easily claimed that I am immortal because I have never been dead yet”. Quite relentless!
The following chapters are untitled: “what economic model should be chosen?”; “The public debt trap”; “What kind of central bank for Europe?”; “Speculation and the stock exchange, the abuses that need tackling”; “Work and employment: what solutions?”; “The finance of tomorrow”; “What is the role of the economists?”; “When Friedman met Keynes”. The publication contains conclusions that are as radical as they are “responsible” but which are also, nonetheless iconoclastic. The publication also deals with Germany which “which could possibly declare monetary secession”, a “great federalist evening” which could, over the period of a weekend, decide on “a default of the Eurozone as a whole, accompanied by the mutualisation of the debt and fiscal unification of the zone”, which would be able in one fell swoop help solve the problem of the “65 years of the missed opportunity of European unification”, the question of speculation which should purely and simply be prohibited, as was the case “in Switzerland up until 1860, Belgium until 1867 and in France until 1885”. For the connoisseurs, we would also like to point out that Paul Jorion has nothing but contempt for those who demand that the unemployed have to find an inexistent job on their own and opposes this demand with the novel idea, stemming from the 19th century demanding that, “any individual replaced by a machine should receive a lifetime income taken from the wealth that this machine now creates from the place that it has taken from the worker”. Obviously, there are ideas that remain altogether revolutionary many years after they are first mooted… Michel Theys
*** BERNARD MARIS: L’avenir du capitalisme. Editions Les liens qui libèrent (2 impasse de Conti, F-75006 Paris. Internet: http://www.editionslesliensquiliberent.fr ). 2016, 69 pp. €7.80. ISBN 979-10-209-0405-8.
Bernard Maris was “Uncle Bernard” who used to discuss the economy with readers of Charlie Hebdo. He has since become one of their martyrs, killed in the Islamic terrorist attack on 7 January last year. This small publication is the extension of a conference he organised five years earlier at the Institut Diderot – in which he deftly analysed the foundations and spirit of capitalism. In his preface, the philosopher, Dominique Lecourt, points out that this “Free spirit” and critical humanist was interested in tackling the questions involving the “major orientations affecting the place of the economy in society”. In a previous book (Antimanuel d’économie) he addressed all those “who refuse to accept the economy is reduced to simply a series of calculations”. He pursues this reflection in this publication and demonstrates that capitalism is synonymous with the rationalisation of the world, the domination of calculations and techniques, accumulation add infinitum, the substitution of linear time with cyclical time. It also deals with the question of whether we are irredeemably condemned to embody “homoeconomicus” or whether it is possible that “homobenignus” will ever emerge, namely, a humanity of altruism and free giving, which already exists in certain niches of the capitalist world. (MT)
*** STERGIOS BABANATSIS: Comparaison de systèmes sociaux : les sociétés précapitalistes, le capitalisme, le socialisme. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr - Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2016, 564 pp. €33.92. ISBN 978-960-02-3221-9.
In this new book, Stergios Babanasis, a professor at the University of Budapest and visiting Professor at the Athens University of Economics, provides the reader with a comparative analysis of social systems. His introduction consists of a brief comparative presentation of pre-capitalist social systems: primitive society, slave society as part of the Asiatic mode of production and feudal society. He then analyses, in the same way, the basic characteristics of capitalism and socialism as systems of ideas and values. He pays particular attention to the way in which the socialist political social movement and system took shape, as well as what shape this assumed in other former socialist countries, which leads him to examine a number of other subjects including property and class relations, the forms, organisation and management of enterprise, financial systems, the role of the state versus the market, the pure market economy, the mixed economy and the planned economy, the role assigned to the political system and democracy, economic performances, the development of productive forces, the role of innovation, and the distribution and redistribution of income, employment and unemployment, the quality of life, poverty, the place of the social state in capitalist and socialist systems. He also tackles the questions of competition, cooperation, convergence and divergences between the two systems. All these things are analysed critically in a way that is both objective and measured. The author goes beyond purely theoretical approaches in an effort to highlight the positive and negative effects of both systems and it is backed up by statistical data to this end. Stergios Babanatsis highlights countless other books that have delved into these questions but his originality can be located in the direct confrontations and comparisons of a capitalist and socialist system in light of their theoretical interpretations and concrete results stemming from their practical operational functioning . The comparative analysis he provides helps to highlight the main characteristics, differences, similarities, advantages and disadvantages, economic, social and environmental limitations of capitalism and the socialist system. The book contains comprehensive conclusions drawn by someone who has had experience of both systems, given that he has lived in the capitalist world for 45 years and 35 years in the communist system. This contribution to the examination of historic development and functioning of social systems that have dominated the 20th Century provides a valuable contribution to the comparative literature of the economy, political economy and a number of other subjects. (AKa)
*** GIORGOS KARABELIAS: Le dépassement : au-delà de la gauche et de la droite. Editions Enallaktikes ekdoseis (37 rue Themistokleous, GR-10683 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3826319 – fax: 3839930 – Email: ardin@hol.gr – Internet: http://www.enalekdoseis.net ). 2016, 240 pp. €15. ISBN 978-960-427-174-0.
Cultural liberalism is a necessary complement to political and economic liberalism. According to the economist, Giorgos Karabelias, the neoliberal right and multicultural left are in fact twin sisters of the economy developing in the “New World Order”. The latter was ideologically prepared by the left and implemented by the right. In Greece, since the arrival in power of Syriza, the left has been left to assume these two “duties” alone. According to the author, cultural liberalism, which is, he explains, synonymous with migratory multiculturalism, the demolition of national identity and education, etc. completes the cession of the national economy, decomposition of employment rights and the transformation of the country into a colony. This is why historic role of the left has now been exhausted in Greece as well. In order to survive in this period of global transition where the east and west are in conflict and fiercely dig their heels in on their geographic positions, the main objective for country that is a bridge between the two, is to resist and not succumb to the temptations of jihadism flourishing in the east or to give into the overall feeling of loss that threatens the west. According to Giorgos Karabelias, Greece is the herald of a synthetic spiritual tradition that makes it capable of formulating universal proposition that goes beyond the dimensions of left and right and enables it to get to grips with a range of parasites accompanying the process of modernisation. Thanks to Greece, it is possible to avoid the trap of passéistic tradition, whilst conceiving a form of modernisation based on that of our own traditions. (AKa)
*** YANIS VAROUFAKIS: L'enlèvement de l'Europe. Les racines de la gestion désastreuse d'une crise inévitable. Editions Patakis (38 Panayi Tsaldari, GR-10437 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3650000 – fax: 3811940 – Email: bookstore@patakis.gr – Internet: http://www.patakis.gr ). « Sciences sociales et politiques » series. 2016, 480 pp, €17.90. ISBN 978-960-166743-0.
In this new book, Professor Yanis Varoufakis (University of Austin US and the University of Economics in Athens) explains that the systematic denial of the real causes of the crisis in Europe has given birth to a massive battle whose victims are both the integrity and soul of Europe. In this daily battle, the principles of reason and humanity have been defeated, whilst authoritarianism, inequalities and austerity are triumphant and which undermine their very own logic. Consequently, centrifugal forces currently have the wind in their sails within the European Union and Brexit has provided a foretaste of the fiasco that could follow. The final result of this clash of the Titans will determine not just the future of our continent but will also prove crucial for the rest of the world because it is true that the way in which Europe meets these challenges to rationality, freedom, democracy and humanism, will also be the way the rest of the world decides to go. In this publication, the Minister of Finance in the government of Alexis Tsipras over a six-month period, recounts the way in which the Eurozone was created on the ruins of the Bretton Woods system, which was developed as an extension of the new deal by the descendants of President Roosevelt. Contrary to that system, the Eurozone was constructed, in bulk, so that debt rapidly transformed into a Ponzi pyramid in countries like Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, which subsequently became insolvent. Yanis Varoufakis puts forward a number of possible solutions to avoid a post-modern version of the 1930s, which will prove inevitable if the mistake of believing that the only possible options are submitting to the different troikas or to the dissolution of the European Union. The book also contains a huge bibliography. (AKa)