WOID XVIII-36. L’Affaire Sarkosky.
reprinted from WOID: a journal of visual language
In the end it may not really matter who the real villains are. In January 1934 the arch-swindler Alexandre Stavisky was found suicided in a chalet in the French Alps. As one French newspaper commented, Stavisky "shot himself dead from a distance of ten feet - that's what's called having a long reach."
I imagine a number of French people breathed a sigh of relief when Jerome Kerviel, the young rogue trader who managed to blow some 5 billion euros for the French financial institution, turned up alive and well for questioning by the French police before he could be suicided. L’Affaire Stavisky was bad enough in itself, but Stavisky’s swindles reached far and wide into the world of French politics and finance, and the affair was promptly exploited by the French nationalist right wing. Since Stavisky was a Jewish immigrant l’Affaire was made to point towards a secret cabal of international finance led by the Jews and the freemasons. On February 6, 1934 a series of riots led by French fascists left seven dead and several thousand wounded, and almost overthrew the French Government.
Here comes your worst nightmare. The SEC and the US Justice Department have opened an investigation (or maybe two investigations) on Robert A. Day, a member of the board of directors of Société Générale, who happened to sell off close to 100,000 euros just before Kerviel blew the works.
Now, the fact that Robert A. Day is an Amerloque is, if you’re reasonable, no more relevant to the case than Stavisky’s being Jewish. The fact that Day’s a big contributor of George Bush is probably irrelevant, too. On the other hand the Bush connection has already been pointed out by a French center-right politician on his web site, and truth is, the close connections among American business elites and the present members of the French ruling party have been very, very close for a long, long time. As far as I know there’s no secret influence from American freemasons: the implications of a plump American dentist undermining the French financial system while wearing a fez with a crescent symbol are too much to consider.
And then there’s the general sensation among French people that their country is being sold out to the forces of International Free-Trade: today, the French Parliament voted to override the French people’s rejection of a treaty that would integrate France further into the European Union. All in all, this may not be a good time to visit Paris. Or, if you do, do as I do and stay away from the well-to-do areas. Can’t wait till the French middle-class investors find out a major American financial institution is named Dreyfus...
- Hoipolloi Cassidy