We all want to be slim and have an expensive handbag.

The phrase at the top of these lines isn't a joke . It's the conclusion one draws from reading the financial press. Look how much the stock markets say about us. For months, the luxury giant LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Loewe...) threatened the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk 's crown as the most valuable European company. Good results from one or a failing study from the other would shake up the money rankings .

Novo Nordisk is the manufacturer of Ozempic , the most famous of the new family of drugs that has revolutionized the fight against obesity . In just a few years, it has achieved what it took decades of public health campaigns against tobacco. We're not talking about vanity, but about health. Actually, we're also talking about vanity (although they tire of telling us it wasn't for that): this week we saw expensive Ozempic shots again on the MET red carpet. Journalist Johann Hari—who has tried the shots and now talks about them in Adelgazar a cualquier precio (Ed. Península)—says that these will be "the most iconic and defining drugs of our time , on par with the contraceptive pill or Prozac ." According to a Barclays Bank analyst quoted by Hari, "their impact on society would be comparable to the invention of smartphones."

Just a month ago, Novo Nordisk was dethroned by a German software company (SAP) as the company with the largest market capitalization in Europe (we're already looking a bit more like America and its Magnificent Seven. You know: Apple, Microsoft...). Now the movement we're reading about in the financial press is the battle between Hermès and LVMH for third place. Luxury has long ceased to be a handmade product reserved for kings, the rich, or aristocrats, becoming a multi-billion-dollar business in which most of us spend our euros.

Journalist Dana Thomas dissects this metamorphosis in Deluxe (Ed. Superflua): "The moguls saw the potential. They bought luxury companies run by their aging founders (...). Then they set their sights on a new target audience : the mid-range market, that broad socioeconomic sector that included everyone. (...) And to carry out this democratization , they promoted their brands relentlessly." Then came the extravagant fashion shows, the global network of thousands of stores, the outlets , online sales. They began to list on the stock market, to sell more affordable products, to dress celebrities. "The message was clear: buy our brand and you too will live a life of luxury ." And it worked. Surely you also have a cologne or a pair of sunglasses from those brands that make us dream.