It is the time for some perspective on this blog project.
Let me explain what is the evolution of its focus and meaning.
At the beginning, I had no precise idea of what it would contain, but gradually it has become a blog focused on Finance, Economics and some Politics.
In particular I have specialized myself in the area of investments and how to interpret the evolution of markets.
I started to learn about investing and speculating in the mid nineties, while I was still a student. Before that, I was interested by it, but it was a somehow remote subject because my family background did not predispose me for such an activity. My parents were middleclass leftist and/or catholic and did not encourage this interest(at the same time, they were interested in getting some returns on their hard earned cash).
But then i studied in a business school, and i grew more and more interested in economics and how this "science" however "dismal" could influence people's lives to a great extent. For me it was very important to manage it carefully for
Later after flirting with "ultra-liberal" ideas and their intellectual attraction, I nuanced them by discovering that ultimately, everything was political. There could not be a "pure" market economy, if only because the "big" players would always abuse their power. Economics was also a question of the balance of power. It was also about political institutions and geopolitics.
This was confirmed by reading Fernand Braudel's work "Civilisation Matérielle, Economie et Capitalisme, XVe-XVIIIe ".
But what really convinced me was the US decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
I was living in the US in 2002-2003, and everything became clear. It was a period when the stockmarket was crashing in the wake of scandals such as Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, and so on. At the same time, I could observe this massive manipulation of the opinion for the preparation of the War in Iraq.
The Bush administration was ostensibly pro-market, and at the same time was favoring manipulators and the crazy interventionists.
That is why I think that there cannot be a pure market-based economy. Anybody with power is bound to abuse it. This is how the world works, and this is why economics is not a science like any other one.
Also all the economic miracles in the developing countries only happenened through state intervention and protectionism, and thanks to their size (example : China, India, Thailand or South Korea)
In the rest of the developing countries , the "opening" of the economy has only led to a new style of colonialism (example : Argentina, Brazil, and all the african countries).
This is why economics is so fascinating to me. It explains a lot of things, but ultimately, it is only a tool in the hands of people.