Les enjeux éthiques de la « nouvelle économie » : quels apports de Lacan et Žižek ?

Karl Marx is largely inactual with his theories of the merchandise and labour value inherited from Ricardo and more generally from the classical economists of the 19th century. It is rather Leon Walras and his vision of market equilibrium that seems to be relevant for understanding the 'new economy' by emphasising exchange value rather than the use value. In this respect, Žižek is wrong to find the analogy between Marx's theory of the merchandise and Lacan's theory of the development of the signifying chain 'obvious'. There is a blind spot in Žižek's otherwise brilliant Marxo-Lacanian analysis that this work has attempted to highlight. On the other hand, Marx, Lacan and Žižek help us to understand the ethical cul-de-sac in which financial capitalism of the 21st century has trapped itself, whereas industrial capitalism of the 20th century had been able to develop the Fordist compromise and efficient forms of social regulation. The financial crisis of 2008, and more recently the Covid 19 pandemic, have led to a level of valuation of the financial markets that is largely disconnected from what John Maynard Keynes called the real economy. It has become urgent to reconsider the question of the new economy. Lacan and Žižek can help us to construct an ethical reflection on the so-called New Economy.