Un libéral nommé Jésus

by Charles Gave

" La seule forme de pensée économique qui soit conforme aux Évangiles, c'est le libéralisme ! " Sur cette conviction forte et politiquement incorrecte, Charles Gave nous livre un pamphlet où il analyse le texte des Évangiles en économiste qui a fait du libéralisme son credo. " Venons-en à l'essentiel, c'est-à-dire à la question que nous posons, et qui est la suivante : si les Évangiles sont le fondement même de notre civilisation, si vraiment ils sont de tous temps et de tous les lieux, alors ils doivent avoir quelque chose à nous dire aujourd'hui sur ce qui est moral en économie ! Ils ont peut-être été trop lus et commentés par des religieux, des moralistes, des philosophes et pas assez parties économistes, et des financiers ", affirme Charles Gave. Écrit avec fougue et mordant, Un libéral nommé Jésus n'est ni un livre de théologie ni même un livre religieux. C'est l'essai d'un économiste qui croit que l'honneur du libéralisme a toujours été de protéger les libertés civiques et économiques contre l'empiètement constant du pouvoir politique.

Genres: Economics

188 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2005

About the author

Charles undertook his graduate studies in Toulouse in economics and then received an MBA from SUNY Binghamton. He started his financial market career at the Banque de Suez in 1970. In 1974, he left to create Cecogest, an independent research firm providing institutional investors advice on tactical asset allocation. In 1981, he moved to London where he established Cursitor-Eaton Asset Management, a money management firm where he was CIO. In 1995, when Cursitor-Eaton had reached US$10bn in assets under management, Charles and his partners sold the firm to Alliance Capital, where he remained until 1999. In 2000, Charles launched Gavekal in Hong Kong with his son Louis-Vincent and friend Anatole Kaletsky. The key driver behind Gavekal was the idea that China was set to be an ever-bigger part of the global economy and financial markets. Charles moved to Hong Kong in 2003 and remained there until 2015, when he moved back to France.
In his spare time, Charles reads and sometimes writes books. His first book, Des Lions Menes Par des Anes, written in 2001 at the time of the euro’s launch, was a best seller in France and has gone through several re-prints. His first book written in English, Our Brave New World (co-authored with Louis), published in 2005, was a top-100 seller on Amazon that year. His latest book, Clash of Empires: Currencies and Power in a Multipolar World, also written with Louis, reviews the investment consequences of the breakdown in the US-China relationship.
When he is not reading or writing Charles can be found on the side of the pitch of the Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque, the professional rugby team he owns with his son Louis, and which he hopes will soon return to its glorious recent past.
Charles has been married to Chantal since 1966. Together they have 4 children and 11 grandchildren.

Reviews

[Julien COLLOT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instructif et reflexion interessante!

[Walter Cavinaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Charles Gave, knowing him only through his investment research and the odd interview I could find of him online. This book is a follow up to another book he wrote in which he argues that western ideology is held up by Greek logical reasoning and Christian morality. In the first book he focuses on the first pillar of reason, and in this one he focuses on christian morality. I haven't read the first book.

Charles Gave's key argument is that Christ was a capitalist, and strongly opposed to socialist ideology. He uses Christ's own words from the gospel to back up his assertions. Christian values encompassed Jewish values but is distinct from them in that it adds individual freedom and love/respect for others. The addition of these two values is important because they are key to the capitalist perspective.

He builds this argument over a few short chapters by interpreting Jesus' words to focus on the importance of:
- the value of entrepreneurs
- market determined value
- respect for property rights
- honoring your word and respect for agreements and contracts

Gave was not only making a point about Christ being a capitalist (and a libertarian) but also describing the failings of the French state. He is concerned with the direction France is taking since it is violating all the most important aspects of capitalism.

To be clear he is not pro-church, which has had its share of totalitarian regimes especially during the dark ages. He strongly opposes any institution which tries to subvert individual freedom and respect for others. It just so happens that the Catholic church has now been replaced by what he calls "the church of laicity". He uses that term to refer to secularism which enforces a certain way to think about the world.

I agree with Charles Gave on the importance of these issues and their origin in Christianity. The tie in with the gospels was also very interesting. What bothers me is that I felt he wasn't being intellectual honest at times. For example, he claims that socialists don't care about entrepreneurs and therefore they are wrong. Now, that may have been the case when he wrote the book but not so much anymore. In my opinion he is setting up a straw man. I think everybody now agrees that entrepreneurs are important the issue is that they don't the distribution of outcomes behind risk-taking and how it can be encouraged or discouraged.

There were a few instances like this that made me felt he was taking the easy way out of the discussion. Although I agree with many (most?) of his conclusions it really bothers me when people take the easy way out of these discussions because I really want to understand and discover the truth, or at least the best way to think about this issues.

[Nicola De Filippo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ritengo che alcuni passaggi siano un po' una forzatura.