In the definition formulated by César-Pierre Richelet, author in 1680 of the first French dictionary, agriculture means “the art of cultivating the land”. But the word agriculture is a kind of linguistic laziness and “suffers from the use of the third person singular” as the author points out because agriculture is a composite emanation of social complexities.Meat drying techniques, seed conservation, and the rise of storage contributed to the sedentarization of hunter-gatherers. This sedentarization freed the hands and minds, favoring other forms of production of goods, especially with the birth of crafts. Agriculture has gone from a relationship with the animist world, part of the continuity of life, to a world in which nature and humans have separated. Agriculture and nature become shaped by man. This is the first major transition, the Neolithic mutation.The second transition will appear with the eighteenth century and will take a decisive turn with the discovery of the great oil fields in Texas. The industrial revolution and extractive productivism provided agriculture with new, extremely powerful means of production, agrochemicals, and motorization.This new era, the Anthropocene, with agricultural intensification, indebtedness, soil de-fertilization, atmospheric pollution, and pesticide pollution has led to a collapse of biodiversity. Certainly, this collapse is multifactorial and its constituents are very difficult to isolate from each other. Nevertheless, it is clear that a reduction in pesticide consumption is possible without affecting yield. This reduction in pesticides can only be done with an intensification of the agricultural workforce and plant association rather than monoculture.We must revive symbiosis, this is the author’s proposal: agroecology.Since the recent discovery of the holobiont, we know that the massive use of inputs weakens the microbiota of the earth. This will not only involve new agricultural practices but also a change in our eating habits, first and foremost, our meat consumption. It will also be necessary to restore coherence and networking between territories, rebalance decision-making powers towards more local scales, and finally, reinstate the sharing of water resources.The indispensable restoration of the agricultural community will pass through its politicization. Ecology, initially based on this restoration, has gone astray. It has become a forum for discourse overlooking realities, highly publicized, which contributes to the radicalization of positions. Agroecology must not follow the same path of protest and demand. It must be accompanied by the public authorities. It must convince of this humanistic and ecological transformation, to influence the course of the world but without shaking it.Jacques Tassin is an agronomist and ecologist at CIRAD (Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development) and a corresponding member of the French Academy of Agriculture. Ph Alezard

 This collective work deals with a subject currently much debated among researchers and practitioners, focusing on the adaptation of finance to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles. It presents a scholarly and original construction in four parts and 16 chapters, in which the authors alternate interviews with recognized experts, answers to questions, and avenues for progress. It skillfully combines theoretical developments and practical considerations. The first part recalls the fundamental concepts of finance – the notions of time and interest, yield and profitability, risk, extra-financial value – and it shows how to adapt them to the constraints imposed by the protection of the environment, social protection, and better governance. The second part is devoted to microfinance. It covers the analysis of margins (“the scissor effect”), the break-even point, the internal rates of return and profitability required by shareholders, the valuation of the company and its buyback. The third part deals with macro-finance and deals with market law, portfolio management, arbitrage, options and derivatives, crypto-assets and blockchain. The last part presents CARE environmental accounting. The answers to the questions are both nuanced and documented. They show the extent of the adaptations already made by the scientific community and by professional circles, as well as the progress still to be made in order to find a relative consensus on these practices and on these concepts. Reflections on the profitability of projects and companies, discount rates, valuation methods, portfolio management and arbitration, as well as the contributions of crypto-assets, are particularly illuminating. The author-coordinator (telecom engineer) is a financial analyst in the telecommunications sector. Jean-Jacques Pluchart

After a very catchy title and a preface by the President of the Republic, the authors want to demonstrate that France can play a leading role in the development of energy solutions, allowing it to play its part in its future development. In the first part, the authors study the energy sources that can enable an energy transition: solar, wind, and hydrogen. The issues of storage and digital technology to streamline their production and use are also studied. In the second part, the authors make a documented inventory of the main sources of energy worldwide and their recent dynamics, largely dominated by oil, gas and coal. They deplore the scluding shale gas in the United States. The part on rare earths is particularly interesting and less known. The distribution of control and processing, as well as the recycling of the 17 elements, is fascinating. It also includes an analysis of the sovereignty associated with these rare earths. The third part focuses on France. The authors emphasize in particular the strong part of virtuous nuclear power in terms of ecological transition but also independence. They return in particular to the recent French turnaround towards nuclear power after a period of strong ecological trends. Nuclear power is also an area in which France probably has technological advantages. The authors consider that a change in the relationship to the energy of citizens can combine growth and sobriety. Many companies voluntarily participate in this change. Politicians and citizens must also do more and with consistency in change. Generally in the fourth part, the authors insist on the need to accelerate the change of uses in the face of climate emergency. They note that France is lagging behind on investments in this area, whether by the public or too many individual initiatives of companies, but also by an insufficient tax incentive for the use of French savings. In the last part, the authors present 8 ways to succeed in this energy transformation, relatively generic and political, which probably deserve a precise action plan for each stakeholder (politicians, companies, citizens) and probably on a European scale to fight against the two world leaders, the United States and China. Philippe RODRIGUEZ has experience as an Entrepreneur and François de RUGY was, in particular, Minister of Energy Transition. Olivier Stephan

Capitalism, through entrepreneurial innovation, has played a crucial role in social progress for two centuries. Mass-produced goods and services have contributed to the constant improvement of our living conditions. Societies have used the productive efficiency of capitalism to impose the direction in which they wanted to move forward. The law has strengthened the bargaining power of employees so that the relationship with the employer is no longer solely in the commercial framework. Democracies have forced capitalism to be a driving force of progress. The development of a non-market sphere was made possible by capitalism. The increase in the productivity of those it employs has made it possible to meet the needs of those it does not employ: teachers, judges, police, nurses, etc. It is up to society to decide how its state is organized and it is up to democracy to be concerned with the effectiveness of this state. The forces implemented have acted differently from one country to another. In the United States, where capitalism is largely left to itself, the state strives to stabilize full employment, to maintain and increase wages, through its monetary policy. Europe, for its part, favors social transfers and employment aid, even if it means supporting unemployment, for the maintenance and increase of wages.  Russia and China, while relying on capitalism, have abandoned the democratic model such as ours and have begun a return to imperialism. At the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, the merchant exchange and its corollary, the circulation of money, will create two waves of globalization. The first will result in an unprecedented migration from the least industrialized countries, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Ireland to the most industrialized countries, France, England, Germany, Belgium, and the United States. The second will see a migration, not of people, but of factories and capital to “low-wage” countries. The contrast between these two globalizations is total. In the first wave, capitalism remained national, whereas in the second wave, it became globalized, through the emergence of low-cost countries, creating waves of layoffs in the relocating countries, as well as interdependencies that could become sources of threat. The rise of inequalities of all kinds, climate change, threats to civil peace, compromise the functioning of democracies. The sustainability of Western social models is at stake. These models are based on the majority support of the population, unlike China and Russia, which can use repression to ensure their stability. The challenge of democracies to regain social cohesion is colossal. The State must become a strategist again, consolidate its integration capacities, and for this, redefine its educational system, its health, police, and justice systems, but also rethink development aid to curb migratory pressure. Democracy and capitalism are not two sides of the same coin. China has shown us this. Capitalism has generated a tremendous amount of savings. Governments must now use it to “rebuild the base of solidarity that is the foundation of democratic societies”. Anton Brender is an economist at Candriam and an honorary associate professor at Paris Dauphine. He was Director of CEPII (Center for Prospective Studies and International Information). Ph Alezard

The author signs with  Ainsi va la France: Manifeste libéral an incisive diagnosis of the ills that paralyze France. Carried by a lively pen, with sometimes pamphleteering accents, tempered by the clinical and concrete analysis of a local practitioner, he traces a clear path to avert this decline. Beginning his demonstration by focusing on “seeing what we see”, as Péguy wrote, the author draws a twilight observation. France, once a beacon of the Enlightenment, is withering under a centralized, hypertrophied state, captive to an out-of-control debt. Its republican universalism is buckling under the blows of a separatist communitarianism, fueled by mass immigration. The nation fails to guarantee the absolute rights of the social pact: public order, the sister of freedom, is undermined by a criminal policy deemed complacent; public education is lost in wokism, to the detriment of basic learning; entrepreneurship is asphyxiated by hypernormativity and crushing production taxes; the competitiveness of agriculture and industries is hampered by punitive technocratic environmentalism, erratic energy policy and Kafkaesque administration. Having made this observation, the author sets out to draw up a recovery plan for the country. He calls for the modernization of the state through bold decentralization, based on subsidiarity, where mayors, artisans of reality, become levers of innovation. An implacable fight against delinquency and Islamism with a return to assimilationism is advocated. He calls for the revitalization of culture and education to reconnect with universal values, an antidote to identity tensions. He pleads for a civic leap, which requires reforms to save the social pact weakened by a health system in crisis, a declining demography and a school collapse: partial capitalization of pensions, overhaul of unemployment insurance, natalist policy, and a school refocused on fundamental knowledge, in opposition to wokism and racialism, scourges of a “decivilization” that the author fights with obstinacy. He encourages an ecological market economy, with nuclear power, an essentially carbon-free energy, as a strategic pivot, and sustainable and competitive agriculture, freed from absurd regulatory rigidities. He advocates an industrial reconquest in the automotive, space and AI sectors, made possible by a reduction in public spending and a massive reduction in production taxes. His manifesto continues with a partisan analysis of the 2024 European elections, marked by the rise of the National Rally and the resilience of the Republican right led by François-Xavier Bellamy, which led the President of the Republic to dissolve the National Assembly. However, in a France often resistant to change, if his observation is shared by the majority of commentators and public opinion, his vision, radical in the etymological sense, could come up against the administrative technostructure and intermediary bodies, with unions at the forefront. We are then entitled to question the improbable adherence to this ambitious project by a high administration whose ethics of conviction risks crumbling in the face of the demands of the ethics of responsibility dear to Max Weber. David Lisnard, born in 1969 in Limoges and a graduate of Sciences Po Bordeaux, is a French politician and member of the Republicans. Founder of the Nouvelle Énergie movement and mayor of Cannes since 2014, he has been president of the Association of Mayors of France since 2021. Yoann  Lopez

The author answers questions shared by the French in need of investment of their savings in an uncertain financial market, but also by their banking or independent advisers, faced with the development of Artificial Intelligence. His latest book focuses on behavioral finance, which introduces the psychology of actors in financial decisions, and wealth management, which has become difficult due to the diversification of types of transactions and financial products.  He recalls the fundamentals of classical finance, based on the rationality of investors, on the notion of fundamental value, and on the principle of market efficiency (defended by Fama), then he poses the hypotheses of behavioral finance, based on the (relative) irrationality of the actors, the notion of market value, and the sub-efficiency of the market (supported by Minsky and Thaler). After explaining the main models of classical and behavioral finance, Yannick Coulon analyzes at length, after Tversky and Kahneman, the multiple psychological biases – perceptual, cognitive, and emotional – as well as collective, which affect the arbitrations of investors and their advisers. He demonstrates the value of active and passive portfolio management. He shows the limits of AI management and graphical analysis. He recalls the regulatory framework for financial investments (MIFID 1 and 2) and real estate.  The book is accompanied by quotes, diagrams, tests, and illuminating examples. The reader will regret that it does not sufficiently explore the issues related to structured products and crypto-assets. The author has a long experience as a banker and is currently a professor in a management school. Jean-Jacques Pluchart

The authors have maintained their editorial commitment to presenting facts, studies and commentary without “complacency”! “Pessimism is mood; optimism is will”; here, pessimism is intelligence and unfortunately convincing, optimism is necessity, otherwise the sustainability of our economic and social models is not assured! Faced with the threat of downgrading, will France and Europe be able to keep up with the American, Chinese or Indian economies? Without divulging the conclusion, the book offers a few keys to ensure that we don’t fall too far behind on the Kantian theme: what are we allowed to hope for? For the French, it’s a question of taking up six major challenges: demographic ageing, the fragmentation of the world, the energy transition (and not the ecological transition…), the battle of savings, not forgetting the upheavals associated with the transition from an economy of abundance to one of scarcity. Ageing is on the rise, and is associated with a decline in productivity gains, a structural increase in inflation, and a lasting imbalance in public finances. The challenge is therefore to prevent ageing from weighing too heavily on long-term growth, and hence on people’s standard of living. The fragmentation of the world is leading to a more expensive and less efficient economy, which will primarily affect emerging countries; France and other developed countries should adapt to this new situation by maintaining sufficient interdependence. To maintain its industrial base in 2050, Europe, and France in particular, will have to complete its cultural transformation and mobilize national and mutualized financial resources, and above all private savings, either voluntarily or “forced” (compulsory borrowing and/or taxation). To mobilize long-term savings, it will be necessary to avoid public deficits aimed at stimulating consumption, to avoid shortening the average maturity of financial assets, to avoid reducing the degree of risk on these assets, to avoid encouraging the use of savings for consumption, and to favor, through economic policy, any measure favorable to increasing incomes and therefore available savings. These recommendations should lead to a different sharing of value from that experienced since the 1980s. Similarly, for the energy transition to take place as smoothly as possible, “we need to move away from the neo-liberal model, and get companies and their shareholders to accept a relative reduction in the return on their equity”. “All economic agents are going to have to adjust their priorities and behavior”, as “the transition promises to be difficult for everyone”. Decision-makers must make an effort to convince the public that inaction will have an economic and, above all, a social cost that justifies efforts now and massive investment to found a new, solid and fairer growth model; thus rejecting any growth model that leads to the mortal attrition of the most fragile economic agents. The last two chapters of the book are devoted to the future of France and the eurozone: how to escape the trap of weak growth, and how to devise an economic, monetary (the ECB) and budgetary policy capable of changing the situation? In terms of growth, we need to increase the number of hours worked by the entire population (122 hours less than the European average), by increasing the working week (but only one hour behind Germany) and reducing the number of work stoppages (twice as high in France as in Germany). Then, we need to increase the employment rate through training and incentives; since we’re dealing with poorly trained people, the economy’s productivity gains will be delayed. Finally, technological innovation will require substantial investment, which can be financed by the zone’s savings, provided these do not go to the United States and can circulate smoothly between the countries in the zone. Last but not least: the Commission’s economic policy and the ECB’s monetary policy. The solutions put forward are “disruptive”, to borrow a term from the authors. Better “a disruptive policy than a dead one”! The “classic” criteria are obsolete, as they still fail to differentiate between operating and capital expenditure, and do not sufficiently take into account the notion of cycles, contrary to the decisions taken during the COVID crisis. The authors even consider that such tightening would lead to Europe’s definitive stalling. What is needed, therefore, is flexibility guided by clear industrial strategies, and a renewal of Community loans. As for monetary policy, “it is ineffective”. At the time of writing, the authors considered that the fall in inflation was the result of a drop in energy and raw material prices, but that inflation remained at around 3.5%, a level that would be reached again in 2025. This summer, it has to be said that this forecast has not been borne out. But see…. In any case, the authors question the 2% “dogma”, considering that the target should be closer to the “natural rate” and vary according to economic cycles (Friedman versus Hayek!). Certainly, to get out of the current and future slump, we need to recreate a negative real interest curve, enabling us, among other things, to maintain or even increase deficits without increasing debt; to “rewrite a few articles of the Maastricht Treaty”; to pursue an “expansionary monetary policy” and, finally, to promote the establishment of a complete “Banking Union” and “Savings and Investment Union”. It’s interesting to note that the economic proposals on wealth creation, mobilizing savings and financing investment in France are to be found in the “Bayrou plan” of summer 2025 (which lacks an element on pensions for well-known political reasons), and that the monetary guidelines are being taken by the government to Brussels and Frankfurt. But, as we can see, the priorities needed in France are not necessarily acceptable in Germany, the Netherlands or Italy. Like its predecessors, this well-documented book is a useful contribution to the debate; it is even “in tune with the times”, which is not often the case in a complicated subject. All that remains is for politicians to identify the possible paths. “Somebody would have said: ”What a task! Column written by Dominique Chesneau

The book, written by French-speaking university lecturers and researchers, traces the multiple aspects of the profound transformation of French universities and private institutions, observed over the past two decades, particularly in the field of management sciences, which make up nearly 10% of higher education students. These changes have made it possible to align French institutions and procedures with European directives and certain international practices. They intervened in particular under the effect of the new LMD (Bachelor’s, Master’s, Doctorate) curriculum in 2002, the law relating to the freedoms and responsibilities of universities (LRU) in 2007, the future investment programs in 2010, the 2013 law promoting groupings and cooperation between universities within the framework of COMUE or EPE, and more recently, measures favorable to MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and the research programming law (LPR) in 2020. The Old Public Administration (OPA) analyzed by Bourdieu more than a century ago has given way to New Public Management (NPM), then to New Public Governance (NPG), Public Value Management (PVM), Austerity Public Management (APM), and Sustainability Management (SM) respectful of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) principles. This transformation was marked by debates between all stakeholders, in the spirit of Critical Management Studies. The authors strive to answer the main questions raised by the application of this uninterrupted wave of reforms, and in particular, by the rapid growth of the student population. They are particularly concerned about the rise in enrollment – now the majority in the management discipline – in the 200 or so private institutions, whose level they consider to be increasingly unequal. While some of them have obtained international labels, only 65 universities and schools benefit from targeted training and diplomas recognized by the State. The authors criticize the current procedures for evaluating these schools and make recommendations to avoid the disappointment of their students and their future employers. The authors also question the conditions of good governance of academic research. They recall that the latter requires the freedom and expertise of the researcher, but also favorable political and financial conditions. It should not be exclusively “governed by numbers” (quantitative research and bibliometrics), by “academic bureaucracy”, by English as the “language of science”, by American journals, and/or by the search for corporate performance. Jean-Jacques PLUCHART