State Hunters of Benjamin Lemoine
Vulture funds and New York law in the attack on sovereignty
384 pages
format : 13.5 * 22.0 cm
ISBN : 9782348083006
Prix : 24€
Éditions La Découverte
A plane belonging to the President of the Republic of Congo grounded at a French airport. An Argentine army frigate immobilized in Ghana. Bank accounts of the Argentine embassy in Paris frozen. The Federal Reserve of New York disrupted in its activities… These judicial stunts, deliberately humiliating for the sovereign States, respond to a strategy orchestrated by financiers seeking to recover their debts. Each time, it involves confronting these sovereigns using legal means in order to force them to pay their debts. But where does this power of private financiers come from to bring States to justice and seize their property?
This book is the result of an exceptional investigation into the professionals in the pursuit of sovereignty – judges, lawyers, investigators and asset hunters, but also senior civil servants – whose focus of action is located in the courts of New York. The author describes how it became possible to initiate legal proceedings against states which, emancipated from the colonial yoke, nationalized their productive apparatus and expropriated American investors. The economic diplomacy of the United States, hand in hand with the capital markets, took care to defeat the alternatives promoted by the countries of the Global South and to construct New York law as the global standard for financial deals and disputes.
This alliance between aggressive law and radical finance has forced countries to fall into line with globalized capitalism. Today, while global warming imposes major political changes, state hunters, if they are not disarmed, could hinder the economic, social, health or environmental regulation capacities of States.
An idea in my head of Stanislas Dehaene
40 delightful nuggets about the brain and learning
240 pages
format : 140 x 205 mm
EAN13 : 9782415010416
Prix : 17€
Odile Jacob Editions
“Learning is the greatest talent of the human species. Even more than Homo sapiens, we are Homo docens: we learn from each other, in society, with a speed and efficiency that even the most advanced artificial intelligence algorithms cannot approach.
But actually, how do we learn? What changes in our brains when we learn to walk, talk, read or play the violin?
At any age, our brains continue to evolve – but is it as easy for an adult as it is for a baby? What do we gain in wisdom, what do we lose in fluidity as we progress through the stages of life?
To all these questions, I will try to shed a simple and playful light. Together, we will learn how the brain learns and discover how to use this knowledge to learn better, to better take advantage of the fantastic capabilities of our brain. » SD
Thanks to the wonders of our brain, we can learn anything!
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