CONCLUSION

The Choice Is Ours

Humanity is at a crossroads. Either we let ourselves be carried away by the forces of disintegration, or we take control and stand united. Either we let the “globalization of indifference” and blind finance win, or we tame globalization and domesticate finance so that it benefits everyone. It depends on us all, individually and collectively.

Either we let finance run on its own again, or we regain control of this extraordinary force to serve the common good. Finance is a tool that can make a difference for humanity in the choice we are facing.

Clearly, we cannot rely solely on the will of the people and their representatives—even if, personally, this is my predilection. Realistically, people always have and always will be guided by their own interests.

Despite tensions that have arisen in the past few years, our individual interests have never been in such close alignment. The vital issues of climate, public health, economic inequality and demographic imbalances, access to energy, and big data have come into sharp focus. No country on earth could resolve them alone—certainly not by erecting walls with their neighbors and strengthening borders. Our planet has never been so flat and interconnected,¹ so small and so fragile at the same time. This unprecedented situation induces vertigo, erodes confidence, and exacerbates fears, as the United Kingdom’s referendum vote for Brexit demonstrated.

Yet I also see an extraordinary opportunity here.

Humanity has never had so many financial and human resources at its disposal, or so many courses of action. We have at our disposal so much intelligence, energy, money, and so many tools to mobilize them. Humanity, to use an image favored by Michel Camdessus, has the multiple arms of the Hindu god Shiva: his hand is the invisible hand of the market that acts based on incentives; his hand is the hand wielding the justice of the state, the political power that exists to govern and instruct, to prepare for the long term and to correct inequalities; his hand is also, when it wants to be, the outstretched hand of solidarity and charity. Let us serve as all of these hands! We can use them to act together and intelligently, instead of tearing ourselves apart.

Many of us have lost confidence in finance, with ample justification. Finance led us to the brink of ruin—while promising peace and prosperity. But let us not be too quick to banish it. Let us take one more chance to show that, when controlled and used intelligently with benevolence and inventiveness, finance can accomplish great things. It can take us so much further than we ever could have imagined. The silent revolution already in motion in the climate finance sphere is proof that a change of heart is possible; humanity can influence globalization. It is not some blind force that we are powerless to resist. Once harnessed, finance can be an inexhaustible and renewable energy resource, a far cry from the explosions and chain reactions that we have pictured in our minds. We must follow this path and stay the course. We cannot let Shiva lower his arms!

This book is a cry from the heart, a wake-up call.

We cannot fail to act out of weakness and denial. Or even worse, out of a fatalism that thinks that “one of the privileges of the great is to witness catastrophes from a terrace.”² When the disaster materializes, the balcony collapses, and down with it go the great who thought it was a refuge.

Those who preside over international regulatory bodies within the government, serve at the head of international investment funds, and act as leaders of any stripe have the duty to serve as examples. But we—consumers, investors, citizens, entrepreneurs, association members, all of us—also have the power to press them on this. All of us, wherever we are, hold a piece of the puzzle. What are we waiting for to finally put it together?

This is our world. This is our money. The cement we need to preserve and nurture it is the common good.

We can create this forced solidarity, this “solid reality of the human condition,” this “mutual dependence on people obliged to cooperate with one another for the health of all”³—a solidarity that is assured, desired, and demanded. Have courage! It will mean regular attendance at shareholders’ meetings—we did choose a collective global life, after all. But it is in this effort to form agreements—and it will be an effort—that finance is our best ally. It is without doubt a poor master, but what a wonderful servant!

A lyric from the Broadway musical Cabaret says that “Money makes the world go round. . . . That clanking sound . . . of money, money, money . . .” May the world now make money go straight.

If finance could nearly sink the world, it can also save it, provided we regain control and keep control, provided we decide to join forces, provided we invent the new tools to combine financial capacities of all kinds, and provided we accept our differences.