Preamble

I wrote this article fifty years ago. The root of the argument stemmed from Halbwachs, but the data, the narrative, and the analysis of the functioning of the different markets are now bygone; at most they provide historical value. At that time, my research program focused on the various influences and the slim power that the Planning Commission had over public policies in several sectors, including that of construction and housing. Several senior civil servants whom I interviewed did not agree with the “burning obligation to think about the future” (which was the— widely diffused— official line), but all of them were convinced that the stock market and financiers were of little concern. General de Gaulle had said it, loud and clear: “France's politics are not developed ‘à la corbeille’ “ (La ‘corbeille’ at the Palais Brongniart, the headquarters of the Stock Exchange, included a circle surrounded by a barrier in the middle of the immense hall, accessible only to stockbrokers for the daily listing of government securities). France's politics are not based on the stock exchange. Looking further into Maurice Halbwachs, I came across his book, Les expropriations et le prix des terrains à Paris. Being in contact with some finance experts, I decided to investigate whether this same definition of speculation could be applied to securities, land, and buildings. I guessed that it would be conclusive, subject, of course, to local specificities and social images of zones. I thus concluded that, in a democratic country, and a capitalist regime, such as France, speculation contributed more to creating a predominantly positive movement than to disrupting the natural order of things.

Today I would no longer stick to that conclusion. The rationale behind the stock exchange's functioning completely changed between 1971 and 1980 due to the very rapid expansion of finance-based capitalism. After the United States abandoned the idea of the fixed value dollar, and following the creation of the market for hedging and other derivatives in 1975. To explain it roughly, several layers are superimposed and combined.