Archives April 2015

"Where there is a will, there is a way," said the sage Lao Tzu. What does China want today and where does it go? Most of the commentators focus nowadays on the growth slowdown and the impact of the debt accumulated by real estate promoters and local governments on the financial and social stability of the country, which could threaten the global economy. This is not what is at stake.

First, comparing the growth rates over a long period of time is not relevant. In 2005, China had a GDP equivalent to that of France or the UK. Ten years ...

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In less than a year, three key companies of the French industry found themselves in a critical situation. The first, Alcatel, has been bought by a competitor, the second, Areva, has announced considerable losses and asked for the support of its shareholders, and the third, Alstom, had to sold two-thirds of its businesses. Telephone networks, nuclear power plants and turbines are not low-cost jobs destined for relocation. They have always been considered the strengths of French economy. So what happened? As surprising as it may seem, the same scenario happened in all three cases.

The combination of strategic mistakes of ...

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Let us remember! In 2005, oil prices began to rebound, after fluctuating for twenty years between 15 and 40 dollars per barrel. When it reached 50 dollars, people started to worry and to talk about expensive oil. Theorists of "peak oil" voiced their concerns and announced the imminent exhaustion of resources. Patrick Artus in La Tribune predicted a barrel around $ 300 in 2015! Jean Marie Chevallier replied wisely that it was very difficult to forecast. A few weeks earlier, Alain Terzian, still in La Tribune, came to the obvious conclusion: the world had never had much oil. Ten years have ...

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