Finance: a political and social challenge.

Summary 1st lines: Every project needs financing. Whether we are talking about the State, companies or households, their financing can be done by equity or by borrowing. If in the past, loans were in the hands of private creditors or large banks, today it is the financial markets that provide a large part of it. Bringing together a multitude of players in a globally connected system, financial markets have become the nervous system of our economies. Like a network of information on the viability of projects, it transmits data from one end of the planet to the other, without worrying about the impact of financial flows on daily life. Moreover, the system can seize up and become subject to irrational and speculative behavior, while bringing considerable profits to the actors at the heart of the financial sector. In the eyes of the public, finance has an unflattering image, as revealed by the 2008 financial crisis. Building on this image, François Hollande declared during his presidential campaign in his speech at Le Bourget on January 22, 2012 that his "real adversary [...] is the world of finance." Does the financial sector escape political control? What do we know about the dynamics and balance of power between the financial industry and politics? Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis and the 2010 eurozone sovereign debt crisis, how can we assess the governance of the financial sector and its impact on our societies?