French capitalism - Biting the hand that feeds it
“THE Che Guevara of finance”; the “James Bond of SocGen”. It did not take long for French pundits to elevate the Société Générale trader to the status of anti-capitalist folk hero. By humiliating a leading bank, as Nouvel Observateur magazine put it, Jérôme Kerviel “has over the course of one weekend become a modern hero”. In many ways, the SocGen drama encapsulates the contradictions of France's attitude to capitalism: on the one hand, there is widespread suspicion of the markets; on the other, world-class financial skills. The French seem peculiarly hostile to the forces of capitalism that have made their economy the world's sixth biggest and their companies global leaders. In a 2006 poll, only 36% agreed that the free market was the best system available, compared with 71% of Americans and 66% of the British. Suspicions about wealth creation have a long history. Honoré de Balzac once wrote: “Behind every great fortune lies a forgotten crime.”
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