A few hours apart on
Wednesday, January 27, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy said the same thing: global
finance must be reformed. Obama was addressing Congress in the traditional discourse
on the State of the Union. Sarkozy was speaking at Davos in the Swiss Alps at
the opening of the World
Economic Forum. Although their words weren't identical, both messages
expressed the same urgency: that of stabilizing financial capitalism. It is
imperative to better control the only commodity not part of economic
globalization: financial products.
Mr. Obama again denounced the
"bad behavior" on Wall Street. He called Congress to pass "real
reform" of the financial system. He spoke directly of the banking lobby,
which hampers any attempt at reform: "we cannot let them win this fight,"
something that no European Social Democrat would disavow. Before an audience
quite hostile to French
Colbertism [the economy of should serve the state], Mr. Sarkozy assailed
the "excesses of purely financial capitalism," and in the same breath,
criticized, "from the moment we accepted the idea that the market was
always right and the no other competing factor need be taken into account, globalization
skidded out of control." [see video below]
DAVOS ADDRESS BY NICOLAS SARKOZY BEGINS AT 00:24:10
Both men are right. The experts
have denounced their remarks as mere flirtations with populism - and the experts are
wrong. Without turning banks and hedge funds into scapegoats of all the
planet's economic ills, the financial crisis of 2008, which degenerated into an
economic crisis, was partly triggered by an absence of appropriate regulation.
And yet, since there isn't an
appropriate forum, the efforts of Mr. Obama or Europeans to devise new rules
on, for example, prudent banking standards or the size and specialization of
institutions, are uncoordinated. In the United States, such rules must pass through
Congress. The European Union is preparing a directive. Asia remains a land of
adventure.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Current issues are no less
serious. What should one do to confront a historic crisis of public debt, particularly
in the euro zone? How can we address the issue of jobs without adding to the
debt crisis? Neither Obama nor Sarkozy has begun to answer the question. They'll
be accused of rhetorically skirting the real issues, being overly political or speaking
in sweeping generalities. But the fact remains, they pointed out an issue that
cannot be ignored: the reform of global finance. We await action.
