February 7, 2008 (LPAC)--At the Quai d'Orsay's Paris Foreign Press Center today, a representative of Jacques Cheminade and Lyndon LaRouche briefed the Paris press corps on the need for a "firewall" policy to protect bankrupt banks and the economy from the exploding global debt securities bubble, as graphically shown in the huge losses of Societe Generale, France's second-largest bank. The Press Center event had Thami Kabbaj, a French economics teacher and former City of London trader, presenting his new book on the Psychology of Major Traders. Kabbaj tried to sell the threadbare "lone trader" hoax about Jerome Kerviel--who didn't have a prestigious diploma, and supposedly envied those traders who did--having single-handedly driven Societe Generale toward insolvency.

Karel Vereycken, of Cheminade's Solidarite et Progress movement, was able to intervene, and bluntly asked, "Did you read Martin Baker's latest thriller Meltdown?" and then briefed the assembly how this story probably set the scenario for the cover-up of Societe's losses, which may have helped push the U.S. Federal Reserve into panicked rate cuts on Jan. 22. A journalist from Les Echos followed up, debunking the "lone-trader" hoax: "Look, I calculated that Kerviel, for his bets on the Eurex alone, had to deposit, through official Société Générale accounts, more then 2.3 billion euros. It is impossible that no one at the bank realized that." Other journalists opened fire on Kabbaj.

Vereycken then discussed the policy solution. He gave a briefing on why debt securitization should be outlawed right away, and a Roosevelt-style "new Glass Steagall Act" should be used to create firewalls to protect the economy from the financial collapse. Afterwards, even the usually hostile Press Center officials were all beaming.