Paul Jorion's Blog

Category: Economy

  • SPAIN: A WEAK LINK, OR A VICTIM OF DEBT TRANSFER AND OUTRAGEOUS CONDUCT ON THE MARKETS?, by Sébastien Bano

    Guest post

    A few days ago, I was contacted by a friend of mine, in New Zealand, who was concerned about the bad news affecting the economy and, particularly, Spain, where I currently work. In answering the two questions he asked me, I have tried to describe what seems to be the main problem of…

  • 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 ?

  • “How should one define a catastrophic scenario in a situation such as this?”

    Frankly has been so kind as to translate my most recent post. The original French version is here.

    “How should one define a catastrophic scenario in a situation such as this?”

    There is no panic yet in the American financial markets, but disquiet is spreading. The Dow Jones industrial index fell by 3.3%…

  • The fall of the Roman Empire, live on the Internet!

    Frankly Francophone has just translated one of my recent French posts into English. Thanks Franky! The original post is here.

    They wanted to extend market logic to absolutely everything. In attempting to do so they disregarded the domain of ethics which had governed human affairs up to that point. The trader –…

  • 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…

  • 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.

  • NRC Handelsblad, “Dit kapitalisme is gedoemd te mislukken”, Saturday June 18th 2011

    For those of you who read Dutch: an interview I had with Caroline de Gruyter, of the renowned financial daily NRC Handelsblad.

  • The financial community has lost all credibility

    Here is my monthly column for May for the Economy supplement of the daily Le Monde. It was translated, courtesy of Bénédicte.

    For every attempt at a financial overhaul, a similar method has been used: consultation of the financial community by the authorities, followed by negotiations towards a compromise between the demands of…

  • The work method needs to be changed, right now!

    In my most recent monthly column in Le Monde – Économie – published on May 9th, I point out the fact that underlying the negotiations held since 2008 in view of a financial overhaul, there is an implicit premise that the representatives of the financial community have the ability of relating with the common good. The period 2007 to 2009 provides us however with sufficient evidence to falsify such an optimistic hypothesis. I suggested in conclusion…

  • 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,…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • The mirage of a pluridisciplinary “science” of economics

    This is a translation (by Bénédicte Kibler) of my most recent monthly column in the Economy supplement of the French daily Le Monde: Le mirage de la pluridisciplinarité.

    Robert J. Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University, has published recently, along with his wife Virginia, a psychologist, an article entitled “Economists as…

  • THIS METHOD IS INADEQUATE

    They were sixteen in the euro zone. With a little help from the International Monetary Fund, they put their strength together to help Greece out. There they were: fifteen blind supporting one lame.

    They were fifteen countries still standing in the euro zone. With a little help from the International Monetary Fund, the UK and…

  • And then Paul Jorion created a Theory of Prices

    Original Post : And then Paul Jorion created a Theory of Prices.

    Translated by Lorna Miskelly. See the original article in French
    Article also translated in: 

    It’s the ‘rentrée…

  • Kerviel’s trial in France: the question no one is asking…

    An English translation of Kerviel: la question que personne ne pose posted on my French blog on June 21st. Many thanks to E-blogs for the translation.

    What have we learnt so far from Jérôme Kerviel’s trial about the big questions? Do his superiors know more they pretend about the transactions he was…

  • Le Monde – Économie, Monday 8 – Tuesday 9 March 2010

    Here an English translation of La machine infernale, my monthly column for March in Le Monde – Économie.

    A DEVILISH DEVICE

    Only five years ago, we were led to believe that the advertised model of the economic and financial apparatus represented a system that was finally mature: stable because thoroughly predisposed to self-regulate…

  • Capitalism (I) – The Veins of the Future

    An English translation of Le capitalisme (I) – Les nervures de l’avenir posted on my French blog on March 2nd.

    In Reason in History (1837), a posthumous work composed from lecture notes, Hegel observes that “ … what experience and history teach is that peoples and governments have never yet learned from history, let…