Literature that aptly encounters History and brilliantly reflects on Economics. From 1927 to 1933, Paul Claudel, the future Academician, became the French Ambassador to Washington after having represented France with distinction in China and Japan. During the Great Depression, which he detailed in his “flamboyant” telegrams to “Your Excellency,” his supervising Minister Aristide Briand, the playwright traversed the country with both curiosity and a critical spirit. He criticized its “excesses” passionately, far from the protective neutrality now adopted by modern dispatches, where arrogant detachment gives the signatory the illusion of achieving a certain level of insight.
Beyond literary enjoyment, with a genius sense of expression and the ever-present underlying religious commitment that already led him to write in 1893, during his first stays in New York, that “creed has been replaced by credit,” his reflections on the 1929 crisis strangely illuminate the one from the fall of 2008. Preceded by a thoughtfully crafted introduction filled with expert debates on whether the pre-war collapse is similar or opposed to the one we experience, this review of the diplomatic telegrams from the archives of the Ministry of Economy, recently published by Editions Métailié, offers readers an unmatched tool for understanding and reflecting on recent financial events.
As if setting the scene, the eminent Head of Mission reminds in his message of May 30, 1928, on “the causes, conditions, and dangers threatening American prosperity,” a “fact that must never be overlooked”: the “intrinsic wealth of the United States.” But he also quickly lists its disadvantages and risks, based on what he sees as “vanity and a spirit of emulation” prevailing “everywhere in excess” and, particularly, in financial circles: having become “a chest where many people are looking for a place to invest their savings,” the United States offers so “countless opportunities to make money” that “engaging in politics is a waste of time.”
Among the “troubling symptoms” noted by the Ambassador in his numerous reports, foreshadowing the terrible crisis of the following year, Paul Claudel highlights for 1928 “an unprecedented stock market speculation in the history of Wall Street” and points to “the abuse of credit,” described elsewhere as a “magical institution,” as the source of all forthcoming evils. While sometimes of varying interest, the telegrams will nonetheless delight specialists in American history, providing valuable insights into its industrial sector and the mechanisms linking Congress’s policy with that of the White House. A few of these texts, albeit less frequently, address foreign policy themes. A booklet many of our stock market adventurers would be well advised to keep as bedside reading.
Paul Claudel, “The Crisis,” America, 1927-1933,” Editions Métailié, 2009.
