NOTe love to tell stories. It’s even what defines us best: in his best-seller Sapiens. A brief history of humanity (Albin Michel, 2015), historian Yuval Noah Harari explains thatHomo sapiens has become the dominant species on the planet thanks to its propensity to collaborate, but also thanks to its ability to develop stories and to firmly believe in creations of its mind guiding its action, such as gods, nations, money or brands.
Imagination is a marvelous power, but terrible too, because its corollary is credulity – on which fake news thrives – and, above all, illusion. In note published on December 11 by the French Institute of International Relations, Sylvie Goulard, former deputy governor of the Banque de France, recalls that in the 20e century, man has nourished a “triple illusion”, “he believed he could master finance, tame nature and prevent war.”
We could add many others, but for these three, the awakening is particularly brutal. The 2007 crisis, born because financial products made from loans granted to uncreditworthy American households sowed panic throughout the global financial system, was a first warning shot. The little financial geniuses were convinced that they had eliminated risk. In truth, they had it scattered everywhere.
” The engineerscontinues the former MoDem MEP, thought of infinitely multiplying agricultural and industrial yields, companies increasing their profits in particular by relocating production, consumers accumulating objects in their cupboards without worrying about the exhaustion of natural resources. » We have ravaged our planet by imagining that a miracle or a fabulous technological invention would save us from paying the bill. We were wrong.
The role of Europe
In addition, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war in the Middle East, and growing tensions between China and the United States are shaking the world order built by the West at the end of the Second World War. And finance also plays a role. Because the dollar is the money of trade, the United States uses it to impose its sanctions on Russia or Iran. Because it does not want to fall into this trap in the event that tensions around Taiwan degenerate, China continues to push for the internationalization of its currency, the yuan, and the establishment of a financial order other than that of the dollar. .
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