The facts are stubborn. Despite the world’s leaders increasing the frequency of emergency meetings, holding consecutive summits, and fine-tuning the organization of international gatherings on the financial crisis, nothing seems to have stopped the dizzying descent into hell of the global stock markets. Painful birth of the Paulson Plan, impromptu meeting of the G4 in Paris, George Bush’s special television intervention, highly publicized G7 meeting of Finance Ministers in Washington, the highly symbolic display of the Franco-German partnership in Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises, the Sunday summoning of the Eurogroup at the Elysée, extraordinary Council of Ministers, and the upcoming European Council—so many commendable initiatives that we must hope will have a positive influence not only on the markets but also on people’s minds. For the prevailing sentiment, as reflected in the words of the IMF’s Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is that after all the measures taken, “everything is now a matter of psychology.” This is a dimension that several simple observations suffice to substantiate.
Firstly, political and financial leaders have made—albeit belatedly and not without apparent difficulty—important decisions whose announcement, contrary to expectations, has so far had no effect other than to amplify the downward movements and reinforce fears of the “system’s” collapse. The example of George Bush’s speech followed by another Wall Street crash illustrates this phenomenon, without his end-of-term being a sufficient argument on its own. The world’s leading financiers can be credited with the best intentions, but it is undeniable that they give more the impression of chasing events rather than preceding them. This misalignment, in the form of a “head start” for them, fuels the spiraling fantasy of the markets’ negative anticipations.
Then, the astronomical amounts, the almost unreality of these hundreds of billions of euros or dollars mentioned here and there, make it difficult for most of the population to grasp clearly the seriousness of the situation. While small and medium-sized enterprises are beginning to encounter initial difficulties in terms of liquidity and cash flow, the mass of individuals generally experiences a diffuse anxiety, a fear whose object is not fully identified, a more or less distant and uncertain worry about the concrete effects of this crisis on the everyday economy. Such could indeed be the reading of an October 8–9 survey conducted by OpinionWay for Le Figaro and LCI, according to which 79% of the French “believe” in the solidity of their banks, while in the same week, stocks listed on the CAC 40, including those of banking institutions, lost 22% of their value. Nothing better describes, between the impossibility of the “real” and the morbid virtuality of “all-powerfulness,” the mental chasm that separates these two worlds.
In this context, one cannot feign surprise at the concerns expressed by the WHO’s Director-General, Margaret Chan: “It should not be surprising to see more people stressed, more suicides, and more mental disorders.” The principal benchmark for Western populations has become hyperconsumption: where the object is valued less for its intrinsic, material qualities than for the subjective impressions it provides in terms of image, relational benefits, or even pure aesthetics. Yet the effects of the financial crisis on the real crisis will indeed impact the capacities to consume, now correlated to the fact of living. As the UN invites us to “celebrate” on October 17 the “International Day for the Eradication of Poverty,” will Westerners be able to bear these new constraints if necessary?
