89

With crises which no-one seems to understand constantly repeating themselves, people prophesising doom shouting out the truth which falls on deaf ears, a frenzy for financial gain seizing both traders and small shareholders alike, and smooth-talking crooks slyly convincing academics and business magnets, the world seems more like Jerome Bosch’s painting ‘Ship of Fools’ than the muted serenity upon which the financial world once prided itself. But can tall trees grow to the sky like investors once said? As far as François Valérian is concerned, the roots of evil can be found in the beliefs which grad hold of us but which also reassure us in the face of a world which has become too complex. In the absence of efficient regulations, and faced with governments entangled in debt, can the infernal machine of global finance escape even the people who created it?