Nicolas Véron

Darwinian Crisis

In this morning's column in La Tribune, I reflect on how much the current credit crisis is differentiating among banks and creating losers and winners - just like a war does among nations. It is becoming impossible to view all financial institutions as roughly similar.

And then, there was this quote from Paul Valéry which I had wanted to use for a long time.

Download Tribune_071127.pdf to read the piece in French, and Download Tribune_071127_en.pdf in English.

London's Moment for regulatory reform

In this piece published in the November issue of Financial World, I argue that recent developments may lead to a shift of strategy for the City of London vis-à-vis EU financial regulation.

Cross-border market integration has become very significant, and the need for efficient regulation may lead to develop EU-level solutions to specific policy challenges without opening the door to the dreaded, all-encompassing 'single European regulator'.

This debate will not be addressed by the December 2007 review of the Lamfalussy process, but it may gain prominence in 2008.

Download FinancialWorld_Nov07.pdf to read the piece.

Superfund Blues

In today's column, I analyze the shortcomings of the 'Master liquidity enhancement conduit' or 'Superfund' which the US Treasury has informally sponsored as a response to the credit crisis. Although news from the weekend indicate that the initiative is in less of a terminal state than I thought last week, many observers remain sceptical it can have a material positive impact.

Download Tribune_071112.pdf to read the piece in French, and Download Tribune_071112_en.pdf to read it in English.

Another piece on the Audit Market

I realize I forgot to publish this in July: it is my second contribution to the UK Financial Reporting Council's project on Choice in the UK Audit Market.

Download FRC_Response_July07.pdf to read the piece, which was published by Bruegel in its Policy Contributions series. It refines the points of my 2006 contribution and focuses more clearly on the large audit networks' financial transparency.

Articles on Urban Design (1995-97)

I wrote these articles and conducted interviews for Commentaire, the respected French journal, following the publication of L'Architecture des villes in the spring of 1995. This series stopped when I started a new job in mid-1997.

- Download Commentaire_71.pdf: a reflexion of the state of French cities (fall 1995);

- Download Commentaire_72.pdf: a continuation of the previous piece, with recommendations for public action (winter 1995-96);

- Download Commentaire_73_SMLXL.pdf: a review of S,M,L,XL by Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau (spring 1996);

- Download Commentaire_75_Loyer.pdf: an interview of François Loyer, the architecture historian and specialist of the French 19th century (fall 1996);

- Download Commentaire_76_Portzamparc.pdf: an interview of architect Christian de Portzamparc (winter 1996-97);

- Download Commentaire_77.pdf: a response to an earlier article by Alexandre Gady, on Eugene Haussmann, a key actor of the transformation of Paris in the third quarter of the 19th century (spring 1997);

- Download Commentaire_77_Duthilleul.pdf: an interview of Jean-Marie Duthilleul, architect of most of France's recent railways stations (spring 1997);

- Download Commentaire_79_Platzer.pdf: an interview of Michel Platzer, a prominent public-sector real estate developer (fall 1997).

Articles for La Vie des Idées (2003-07)

These four articles were published in La Vie des Idées, the journal on international debates published by Paris-based think tank La République des Idées in paper form from early 2003 to September 2007. Since that date, La Vie des Idées is published online.

- Download RdI_Saving_Capitalism.pdf: a review of Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists, by Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales (September 2003);

- Download RdI_QuiInfluenceQui_1105.pdf: a discussion of lobbying and politics in the United States, published shortly before the outbreak of the Jack Abramoff scandal in Washington DC (November 2005);

- Download RdI_GlobalFinance_0906.pdf: a review of three books: Financial Statecraft, by Benn Steil and Robert Litan; Global Governance of Financial Systems, by Kern Alexander, Rahul Dhumale and John Eatwell; and America at the Crossroads, by Francis Fukuyama (October 2006);

- Download RdI_Abdelal_Sep07.pdf: a review of Capital Rules, by Rawi Abdelal (September 2007).

Three pieces on international accounting (2003-04)

Here are three additional pieces I wrote in 2003-04 on the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Europe:

- Download CAE_NormesComptables.pdf: a chapter on the governance of the International Accounting Standards Board, in a report of the French Prime Minister's Council of Economic Analysis (CAE) by Christian de Boissieu, Jean-Hervé Lorenzi and Jacques Mistral, titled "Les Normes Comptables et le monde post-Enron (July 2003);

- Download IEF_FairValue.pdf: a note on avenues for academic research on fair value accounting, for the Institut Europlace de Finance (IEF) at the occasion of their first international conference in Paris (July 2003);

- Download AFG_FFSA_RecueilOpinions.pdf: a collection of essays jointly published by the French asset management association (AFG) and the French insurance association (FFSA) on investors' viewpoints about IFRS adoption, with contributions from a wide range of investors and market participants (December 2004).

Articles in the French press (2002-05)

I am publishing additional material on this blog. Here are a few past articles on accounting and finance in the French press, dating from before I became involved with Bruegel on a full-time basis:

- Download Echos_020704_Compta.pdf in Les Echos (July '02), on accounting scandals;

- Download Echos_021108_Krach.pdf in Les Echos (November '02), on Europe's reaction to turmoil in equity markets;

- Download Commentaire_99.pdf in Commentaire (fall 2002), on the role of financial reporting;

- Download Tribune_030128_EB.pdf in La Tribune (January '03, with Etienne Boris) on accounting standard-setting;

- Download Echos_030313_Ahold.pdf in Les Echos (March '03), on Ahold's financial reporting difficulties;

- Download Commentaire_101.pdf in Commentaire (spring 2003), on securities regulation in Europe;

- Download CadresPlus_Interview.pdf, an interview in Cadres Plus (october 2003) on corporate governance in France;

- Download Commentaire_104.pdf in Commentaire (winter 2003-04), on the trend towards better-functioning French capital markets;

- Download Risques_GouvernementEntreprise.pdf in Risques (December 2003), on corporate governance codes;

- Download Echos_040120_Elec.pdf in Les Echos (January '04), on competition in France's electricity market;

- Download OptionFinance_Goodwills.pdf in Option Finance (March '04, with Bruno Husson), on goodwill and earnings of French companies;

- Download OptionFinance_SEC.pdf in Option Finance (June '04), on securities regulation;

- Download Echos_050203_IFRS.pdf in Les Echos (February '05), on the opening of a new phase of IFRS adoption in Europe;

- Download Risques_Notation.pdf in Risques (March 2005), on rating agencies;

- Download financebiencommun_2005.pdf in Finance & Bien Commun (March 2005), on IFRS governance.

L'Information financière en crise (2004)

L'Information financière en crise: Comptabilité et capitalisme was published in May 2004 by Odile Jacob. I co-authored it with two students I helped work on their thesis at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris, Matthieu Autret and Alfred Galichon. It was later published in English by Cornell University Press.

L'Architecture des Villes (1995)

I am completing this blog with mentions of some old writings. This post is about L'Architecture des Villes, a book I wrote in 1992-95 together with the recognized architect Ricardo Bofill, in whose Barcelona firm I had been a trainee in the spring of 1992 (yes, just before the Olympics).

L'Architecture des Villes, which was published in French by Odile Jacob in 1995, looks at how urban design has evolved across history, ending with a dialogue with Bofill on the situation of the French banlieues. It was a great experience for me to write that book - at the time I had also started to study architecture, in parallel with my more traditional French engineer's training - and I'm very gratefull to Ricardo Bofill for having generously given me the opportunity to co-sign it with him.

The book is still available on Amazon.