[...] When he became president in 1933, Roosevelt knew precisely nothing about the policies he would adopt. But he did know that the Depression and austerity were bringing America to its knees, that the state had to assert control over a financial capitalism gone mad. Today, in 2012, four years after the onset of the 2008 world financial crisis, Hollande finds himself in exactly the same situation. When he started his campaign he didn’t know he would end up proposing a 75 percent tax on incomes higher than €1 million. But he quickly came to the same conclusion as Roosevelt: taxes are the only weapon that can put a stop to the insane explosion of very high pay.