*** ERIC BERR : L’intégrisme économique. Editions Les liens qui libèrent (2 impasse de Conti, F-75006 Paris. Tél. : (33-1) 42011836 – Internet : http://www.editionslesliensquiliberent.fr ). 2017, 176 p., 15,50 €. ISBN 979-10-209-0473-76.
Member of the aware economists collective (collectif des Economistes atterrés) Eric Berr denounces with verve and lightness in these pages the economic fundamentalism that is far less contained than religious fundamentalism, has exploded onto the world and ‘decides on the speed of our lives in the name of the market.’ With an elegant pen stuck like a bayonet on the end of a gun, this senior lecturer in economics at Bordeaux University starts by pointing out that this fundamentalism ‘venerates a god, which happens to be the Market, and defines a tradition, that of the neoliberal economy, resting on dogmas – austerity, competition, liberalisation, etc – and refusing to tolerate any challenge.’. All of the initial part of the book aims to demonstrate where the ‘sectarian slippages’ come from that the servants of this fundamentalism have succumbed to, having ‘become the oracles of modern times, interpreting reality, delivering their prophecies – in the form of economic forecasts –and promising to lead us tp the Promised Land of milk and honey.’ Readers will have understood that the author rejects the register of restraint, which doesn’t men that all anathemas that he states or the accusations that he makes can be swept aside. For example, when he explains that ‘Apostolic Neoliberal Order’ was at first based on the ideology of laisse-faire inspired by Milton Friedman but also on the ordolibealism which in Germany has put ‘social justice at the heart of its concerns,’ which has influenced the European construction and its monetary evolution, he leads the reader more towards reflection and questioning than simple outraged reaction…
After arguing, with evidence, that in terms of the debt problem, it is the Dove who is right, not the Ant, he then presents, before commenting on them one after the other, the ‘ten commandments’ carved into the tablets of the law of neoliberal revelation: ‘(1) Thou shalt recommend budget austerity. (2) Thou shalt reduce public spending. (3) Thou shalt tax the poor rather than the rich. (4) Thou shalt ensure financial liberalisation. (5) Thou shalt cherish an independent central bank. (6) Thou shalt venerate the Market. (7) The shalt promote competitiveness. (8) Thou shalt organise privatisation of the economy. (9) Thou shalt encourage deregulation. (10) Thou shalt proclaim the objective nature of these recommendations.' Some might be tempted to laugh at this list, but doesn’t Eric Berr in fact put into words what more and more European citizens now feel to be the source of the ills they are undergoing? To put in other words, aren’t we actually living in a world – and a European Union – where the welfare state has been on the defensive for a decade? Is the author really mistaken when he points out that countries are more determined to attack ‘fraudsters’ in the social security system than the big fiscal predators? And why is that the case if his resumption of a plot in favour of the moneyed classes and the most powerful is the work of a sickly imagination?
In reality this erudite and incendiary book raises far more questions than it settles problems. The author makes the reader ask questions when moving to a review of the ‘disciples’ who propagate the neoliberal faith, he attacks the ‘European inquisition,’ arising from the fact that ‘in the name of preserving peace in Europe, the economic fundamentalists have imposed economic war among the member states.’ If he is wrong, then why and how did the fiscal and social dumping that is increasingly denounced by citizens these days ever come to pass? The way Éric Berr sees it, European citizens of ‘the middle classes and below,’ too often give way to the temptation of simply rejecting the Europe that has been constructed, of encouraging a return to nationalism and looking in on oneself. He suggests they should ‘fight to become guided back in a more democratic direction.’ He is not wrong. But is it credible when he reviews the ‘upper class’ to see nothing that could challenge its power, the Lisbon Treaty providing proof because it replaced the institutional treaty rejected by a referendum? His demonstration will leave largely unsatisfied European citizens convinced that making the European Union more democratic will require above all its emancipation from national governments... Michel Theys
*** PANOS PANAGIOTOU : Le tango des marchés et la grande astuce. Editions Livanis (98 rue Solonos, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3661200 – Fax: 3617791 – Email: webmaster@livanis.gr – Internet : http://www.livanis.gr ). 2016, 416 pp, €15. ISBN 978-960-14-2496-5.
Three ‘forces’ are mainly responsible for the crisis: the banking elite and credit rating agencies, but also governments and States, particularly in Greece: without the latter’s aid, the ‘Gods of the market’ could have lost a lot of their power. This is what Panos Panagiotou explains in this book. A renowned analyst of the stock market, he relates how the whole world is now living in the shadow of debt, how economies and societies are changing, affected by an economic war which, in just a few years, has sustainably shaped the international and political scene. With the outbreak of the Greek crisis, the message that the main culprit in the economic tragedy are ‘spendthrift peoples’ has never ceased to be propagated. The lesson arising from this is that peoples must categorically suffer the consequences of their actions by suffering severe austerity. The data brought together in this book provide a very different image: they reveal a very different past, analyse the present and give an idea of the future of the crisis by dispelling what is presented as myths, cloud-cuckoo ideas and hallucinations. Hence a triangle of interests reveals itself which, through its bad choices, is darkening the world’s economic destiny. The book is designed as an electric shock, relying on the redemptive power of knowledge. The author does not hesitate to address topics as hot and sensitive as the hidden responsibility of the United States and Switzerland, but also of France and Germany, the global plan to safeguard the banks of the elite to the detriment of citizens, the budget austerity mania, restructurings, bankruptcies, the blackmail of countries, false dilemmas, politicians and financial speculators, the new financial order and more besides. He also describes in a very simple and understandable way in order to permanently reduce the Gordian knot’ of the crisis. (AKa)
*** GEORGIOS CHATZIMARKAKIS : Le journal d'un euro grec. Editions Diametros (11 rue Mavromichali, GR-10679 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3637555 – Internet : http://www.diametrosbooks.com ). 2017, 204 pp, €13. ISBN 978-618-82444-8-1.
Political scientist Georgios Chatzimarkakis was a Member of the European Parliament for a decade, voted in on the German liberal party’s lists (FDP). Since then, he became the founder of a political party in Greece, ‘Greeks as European Citizens.’ It is therefore as a political leader linked to both Germany and Greece that he has endured and faced the torment of the European crisis in recent years. He was president of the association of the Greek-German chamber of commerce for years, and understands better than any the relations between the two nations and their strengths and weaknesses. There is therefore nothing surprising in the fact that he is passionate about the debate around the single currency, a subject on which he has devoted a raft of books, articles and conferences. Having become through the force of things a specialist on how the euro was saved, he provides in this book a highly original vision of the political and economic history of recent months and years. He starts with a euro coin circulating in Greece which, as the pages of the calendar turn, very soon finds itself at the heart of dramatic developments and, more importantly, very quickly falls out with a German euro coin. The Greek euro bears the weight of the drachma of the past and has to go through many hands, those of the oligarchs, politicians, ordinary people, enraged demonstrators, immigrants, the homeless, young girls in love... This little euro coin relates adventures full of unexpected events, tensions and compromises, victories and defeats, hope and disappointment. In a manner that is sometimes serious and sometimes satirical, Georgios Chatzimarkakis also takes the reader through the corridors of the European scene, helping him gain better understanding of the policy of the initiates, the economy, the media, the protagonists and dramatic moments of the Greek European crisis. An unusual read. (AKa)
*** Etudier ou enseigner à l'étranger. Wallonie-Bruxelles International (2 place Sainctelette, B-1080 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 4218205 – Fax: 4218787 – Email: bourses@wbi.be – Internet: http://www.wbi.be ). 2013, 188 pp.
Aimed at young French-speakers in Beligum, this guide to internatoinal exchanges for studying or lecturing in the domains of teaching, training and public research, written by a department at the French-speaking community of Wallonia-Brussels, will give ideas to any young people in Europe about mobility. It can be consulted online (http://www.wbi.be/etudierouenseigner ) and presents various study grants and lecturing jobs available in Europe and further afield. Alongside national programmes, there is useful information about various programmes of the European institutions and facilities offered by other international institutions. (PBo)
*** KATALIN LIGETI, MICHELE SIMONATO (Eds.): Chasing Criminal Money. Challenges and Perspectives on Asset Recovery in the EU. Hart Publishing (Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford, OX2 9PH, UK. Tel: : (44-1865) 517530 – Fax: 510710 – Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk – Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). “Hart Studies in European Criminal Law”, No. 3. 2017, 378 pp, £80. ISBN 978-1-5099-1207-0.
Fighting dirty money is not a new phenomenon, but it has grown greatly due to the growing complexity of criminal skills and networks, the ever more global nature of crime, the 2008 financial crisis and, at the end of the day, the rather mixed results achieved to date. The time had therefore come, said academic specialists, to look at, for example, the validity of the means used to recover the proceedings of crime. This was the mission that the twenty-one experts brought together in these pages after attending an international conference in Luxembourg in June 2015. Managed by Prof. Katalin Ligeti (who lectures in penal and international law at Luxembourg University) and researcher Simonato (Utrecht University), they addressed a vast series of questions on the objectives and scope of national and supranational strategies for targeting dirty money, their aim being also to see in practice which measures could overcome the obstacles observed in this fight so far. Their main aim was to see exactly where the European Union is in terms of recovering criminal assets and which measures could allow it to do so more effectively. This information could naturally be profitable outside the EU too. The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with the fundamental aspects of recovering assets, in other words the powers granted to the authorities responsible for ensure application of the law to recover criminal assets and dilemmas generated by such action. Prof. Ligeti says it is a matter of knowing whether confiscation rulings (of goods owned by the Mafia, for example) need to be extended or whether, in some cases, the traditional guarantees in penal law and procedural practice should be scrapped – which is, in oth4er words, a way of wondering whether the fight against criminal money should be separated off from the fight against criminals. In the second part of the book, the experts look at the characteristics and complexity of recovering criminal assets. They also explain a number of national practices that can claim to serve as a model, along with a wide range of global challenges, such as the role of financial investigation units, the problem of virtual currencies and the social use of recuperated goods. Taken together, this is a reference book. (PBo)