Paul Jorion's Blog

Category: Finance

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • The House is on Fire!

    An English translation of Feu en la demeure !, posted on my French blog on February 25.

    Ladies and gentlemen of the European regulatory authorities, I am today turning to you: the house is on fire!

    Demands that Greece lowers its civil servants’ wages will not save her. Your prodding Greece to tackle tax…

  • Update on where we stand

    … Read more…

  • August 4th, 1789

    Cityislander’s imaginative translation of “La nuit du 4 août” at the French end of this blog. Many thanks to him!

    Exactly 220 years ago (the French Revolution), on the night of August 4th, 1789, the question certainly was not about systemic risk. Yet, on that very night, an event of systemic magnitude occurred:…

  • Why we need to find something else

    A reader of my French blog has taken the trouble of translating my most recent Friday video in English. Many thanks to him!

    NEWS is conveyed by letter, word or mouth
    and comes to us from North, East, West and South” (Witt’s Recreations)

    . . . but mostly from the Paul Jorion blog…

  • What went wrong. An anthropologist’s point of view.

    Here is the communication I made on March 3rd to the Socialist members of the European Parliament in Brussels as my contribution to the one-day conference entitled “Closing the casino: building a fairer and stronger real economy”

    Modern societies of European origin were historically built according to a tripartite structure composed of warriors-raiders, priests…

  • The danger of half-truths in a time of crisis

    Published in Le Monde – Economie, March 2nd 2009 (transl. Danielle Goodman)

    Let’s assume that governments are actively concerned with the interests of the populace at this very moment – an ardent hope of mine. To succeed, their actions have to benefit from a certain surprise effect so as not to be thwarted in advance…

  • Time for a good laugh: patents on tax evasion

    Did you know that on February 17, 2007, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., introduced comprehensive legislation to stop offshore tax haven and tax shelter abuses, the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, targeting $100 billion in lost tax revenue each year from offshore tax dodges ?

    One of…

  • Report and Recommendations Pursuant to Section 133 of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008: Study on Mark-To-Market Accounting

    The SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) along with the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) have just released their report on the valuation of financial products (Fair Value).

    The subject is what I discussed in « Juste prix » et « juste valeur » and in L’implosion. La finance…

  • The Madoff Affair : Crime and Punishment

    Original French version at rue89.com.

    Does the name “Donald Crowhurst” ring a bell? He was one of the contenders in the Golden Globe Race a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race held in 1968–1969. While he was ahead and therefore a potential victor, his radio signals stopped abruptly. His craft was later located but it…

  • Le Monde, October 12th

    Here an account of my column in Le Monde on the concept of a new Bretton Woods.

    Bretton Woods 2.0 – Paul Jorion on The Financial Crisis

    Paul Jorion wrote a column in Le Monde a few days ago concerning the prospects of a new Bretton Woods (never mind that the original died…

  • Friday Market Monitor (AM 580 CFRA), on October 17 at 2 PM (EST)

    I was Walter Traversy’s guest on CFRA a news only radio station in Toronto, between 2 and 2:30 PM.

    The podcast is here. I’m talking in the second part of the program … just after the weather report. But hear Walter introduce me in the nicest way at the very beginning.

    I’m…