French novel principally about the Paris Bourse (stock exchange) and a bank (Banque Universelle)
“for the rottenness of our financial world has become such a crying scandal, and the inefficiency of our company laws has been so fully demonstrated, that the absolute urgency of reform can no longer be denied. . . . A work, therefore, which exposes the evils of “speculation,” which shows the company promoter on the war-path, and the “guinea-pig” basking at his ease, which demonstrates how the public is fooled and ruined by the brigands of Finance, is evidently a work for the times, even though it deal with the Paris Bourse instead of with the London market.”
-French writer Émile Zola, 1891, from the novel was L’Argent (Money)
It seems somethings never change . . .
Source:
Historical Echoes: Zola’s L’Argent: A Portrait of a Corrupt Financial World
Amy Farber
August 10, 2012, New York Fed Research Library
http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2012/08/historical-echoes-zolas-largent-a-portrait-of-a-corrupt-financial-world.html
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