Your Money or Your Life!

FINANCIAL GLOBALISATION/57

planet every day. Less than 10 per cent of this amount was linked

to actual trade in goods and services. More than 90 per cent

concerned purely speculative currency trades and money

laundering (for drugs, for example).

Newspapers reported on a regular basis that Wall Street had

reacted favourably to the increase in unemployment and slow­

downs in economic growth. It is difficult to underestimate how

much this period in history contributed to the spread of a kind of

ideology of death.

So much for the humorous interlude. Let us return to today's
unpleasant truths, as portrayed in two examples from the French
daily Le Monde.
The 9 October 1996 edition ran the following headline on page 17:
'The Dow Jones index momentarily crossed the 6,000-point mark.'
The author of the article goes on to say, 'The announcement on
Friday that 40,000 jobs had been lost in the US in the month of
September-in contrast to analysts' expectations that 160,000 would
be created—was greeted with relief by traders.' Further on, 'Since the
beginning of President Clinton's term in office, the Dow Jones has
nearly doubled, directly contributing to the feeling of wealth and
economic well-being currently prevailing in the US' (emphasis mine).
In the 8 December 1996 edition, Eric Leser writes, 'December 6
was almost a Black Friday on financial markets. In the end, resistance
[sic!] on Wall Street and the release of US November unemployment
figures - judged to be satisfactory by analysts - limited the damage'
(emphasis mine). What exactly were these 'satisfactory' figures?
Further down in the article, Leser tells all: 'The US unemployment
rate went up five per cent in November, the number of jobs created
(118,000) was less than expected (175,000).'

The Bank for International Settlements and Submission to
the Markets

Even institutions with a reputation for being very serious have
become steeped in the new religious fervour. The Bank for
International Settlements (BIS), for example.
The 1995 BIS report is imbued with market devotion (BIS, 1995).
And I quote: 'If there were any remaining doubts concerning the
omnipresent influence of international capital markets, events over