Identity in Time of Crisis : 28th October National Legacies

Hardships Past Haunt Europe’s Search for Financial Safety. Katrin Bennhold, The NYT (en)
" ... In America, wealth and retirement savings are much more tied up in the stock market, with a majority of people owning at least a modest stake. By contrast, only 13 percent of German households and 24 percent of French ones own shares, according to 2006 figures compiled by the European Savings Institute ...
... history teaches Europeans that situations can go from bad to perilous in no time, and there is a long tradition of burying the family’s treasures in troubled times ... History matters. In times of crisis you really get to know a country and its people,” said Toni Pierenkemper, a professor of economic history at the University of Cologne. “Traumatic events are seared into the collective consciousness and often survive into the next generations.” ...
... In France, gold sales have also increased, but people are more trusting of the government.The entire French banking system was state-owned as recently as 1987, and the state has played a prominent role in the economy since the days of Louis XIV. In contrast to the unease and suspicion among most Americans about the government’s taking stakes in distressed financial institutions, many people in France feel comforted — even vindicated — in their belief that the state has a responsibility to look after the economy ...
... “We nationalize, we denationalize and we re-nationalize. That’s the way it goes in France,” quipped Bernard Candiard, director-general of Crédit Municipal de Paris, a 231-year-old pawnshop that is doing brisk business these days and is a state monopoly ... "