These are excerpts from a speech delivered this past Tuesday. As I listened to the speech broadcast on C-SPAN radio, the message seemed one of honesty and reason. I have heard speeches by this man before, and thought the same thing, including once during the Bush presidency when he spoke to a joint session of the U.S. Congress. More eloquent and moving words about freedom spoken that day by this man I had not heard by anyone else in recent memory. On this occasion, on Tuesday, his topic was the current financial crisis, capitalism, regulation, and the upcoming G20 meeting in London.
"In this crisis, we have to have our reference points. This is what I am trying to provide this evening. Freedom as an absence of discipline, freedom as an absence of rules is the false idea that is the main reason why we are in the situation we are in. The same people who supported financial deregulation are now saying that regulations thwart liberty, but it is the contrary. It's rules that allow for freedom.... What freedom is there for an employee who is laid off because financial speculation has destroyed his company?....
[We] must lead the fight to have more moralistic financial capitalism, and to rebuild a capitalism that is better regulated. We cannot change everything all of the sudden, but we have to have results. Because you expect results. And that's why I will say in advance that I will not associate myself with an international summit that decides not to decide anything.... We have to restore confidence, and it will not come about without new rules that will bring an end to the deviations of the last 25 years. If we don't want to play the anti-capitalist game, capitalism must stop being a caricature of itself. The London summit, cannot be a technical summit, but it has to be a political summit where we talk about the issue of whether we are going to reform capitalism or leave the field open to those who want to destroy it, and at the same time destroy freedom....
But the ethic of capitalism has to be an ethic that is responsible, an ethic of effort, an ethic of honesty.... I think that having a large salary in a case where your company is failing is not responsible and it is not honest. Distributing bonuses in a company that has received money from the government as part of a bailout plan is not responsible and it is not honest. For a company manager who has brought his company into a situation of difficulty, to be able to get out with a golden parachute is not responsible, and it is not honest. I want everybody to understand me. There cannot be an economy without morals. When you're a boss, when you're a manager, you have a duty to set the example. And this duty of setting the example is even greater in a time of crises. So we can no longer have golden parachutes. We can no longer have bonuses, the distribution of free shares or stock options in a company that is receiving government bailouts, or that is implementing a recovery plan, and has had to have massive layoffs. Because when we implement a social plan, or when we have partial unemployment, or we take government funds to bailout the company, it is not honest to use these for any other purpose other than for fixing the company. And it is not honest to use this money in the least way whatsoever to pay people who do not deserve it.
...we can't have a system where everybody wins at every turn. If I am successful at my company, then I will have a big salary. Very good. If I fail my company and I have a big salary, not so good. Because that means you're not responsible. And how do you expect people to accept this? And I accuse those who behave in this manner not only of behaving in a dishonest way, but of destroying the values that underlie the principles of our country.
When a company has losses, nobody can force this company to distribute money that it hasn't earned. But when a company makes hundreds of millions of Euros in profits, billions in profits, it is not acceptable that we do not raise the issue clearly, and in public debate, of sharing the assets of this company, because the employees, including the very least among them, have all contributed to creating the wealth of this company....
Ladies and gentlemen, this crisis brings us back to the value of work. It signals the end of an economy of speculation. This crisis brings us back to morals...."
They are the words of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France.
"In this crisis, we have to have our reference points. This is what I am trying to provide this evening. Freedom as an absence of discipline, freedom as an absence of rules is the false idea that is the main reason why we are in the situation we are in. The same people who supported financial deregulation are now saying that regulations thwart liberty, but it is the contrary. It's rules that allow for freedom.... What freedom is there for an employee who is laid off because financial speculation has destroyed his company?....
[We] must lead the fight to have more moralistic financial capitalism, and to rebuild a capitalism that is better regulated. We cannot change everything all of the sudden, but we have to have results. Because you expect results. And that's why I will say in advance that I will not associate myself with an international summit that decides not to decide anything.... We have to restore confidence, and it will not come about without new rules that will bring an end to the deviations of the last 25 years. If we don't want to play the anti-capitalist game, capitalism must stop being a caricature of itself. The London summit, cannot be a technical summit, but it has to be a political summit where we talk about the issue of whether we are going to reform capitalism or leave the field open to those who want to destroy it, and at the same time destroy freedom....
But the ethic of capitalism has to be an ethic that is responsible, an ethic of effort, an ethic of honesty.... I think that having a large salary in a case where your company is failing is not responsible and it is not honest. Distributing bonuses in a company that has received money from the government as part of a bailout plan is not responsible and it is not honest. For a company manager who has brought his company into a situation of difficulty, to be able to get out with a golden parachute is not responsible, and it is not honest. I want everybody to understand me. There cannot be an economy without morals. When you're a boss, when you're a manager, you have a duty to set the example. And this duty of setting the example is even greater in a time of crises. So we can no longer have golden parachutes. We can no longer have bonuses, the distribution of free shares or stock options in a company that is receiving government bailouts, or that is implementing a recovery plan, and has had to have massive layoffs. Because when we implement a social plan, or when we have partial unemployment, or we take government funds to bailout the company, it is not honest to use these for any other purpose other than for fixing the company. And it is not honest to use this money in the least way whatsoever to pay people who do not deserve it.
...we can't have a system where everybody wins at every turn. If I am successful at my company, then I will have a big salary. Very good. If I fail my company and I have a big salary, not so good. Because that means you're not responsible. And how do you expect people to accept this? And I accuse those who behave in this manner not only of behaving in a dishonest way, but of destroying the values that underlie the principles of our country.
When a company has losses, nobody can force this company to distribute money that it hasn't earned. But when a company makes hundreds of millions of Euros in profits, billions in profits, it is not acceptable that we do not raise the issue clearly, and in public debate, of sharing the assets of this company, because the employees, including the very least among them, have all contributed to creating the wealth of this company....
Ladies and gentlemen, this crisis brings us back to the value of work. It signals the end of an economy of speculation. This crisis brings us back to morals...."
They are the words of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France.
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