Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Our cookies policy has changed. Review our cookies information for more details. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

France's future

A country in denial

By ignoring their country’s economic problems, France’s politicians are making it far harder to tackle them

See article

Readers' comments

Reader comments are listed below. Comments are currently closed and new comments are no longer being accepted.

Sort:

Plazidus in reply to Marie_Claude

Is it possible to spend any longer than 5 minutes in a room with your preferred candidate without wanting to kick him... hard. Isn't he nearing the end of his shelf-life, from Carla Bruni's point of view? But then they say that men wielding political power have a certain - ahem! - animal magnetism. Not that I can detect much va-va-voom in the chap myself. A bit of an uncouth chancer.

MikeRS

Ironic that the biggest proponent of the euro could cause its potential demise, as the markets have proven they will punish governments for not pursuing structural reforms.

Flabbergasted in reply to Thomas1234

It seems the book published in 2009 by economist Patrick Artus "Pourquoi l'Angleterre a perdu : la faillite d'un modèle économique et social" (= "Why the United Kingdom has lost : the bankrupcy of an economic and social model") has not been translated in english ... (documented by statistics charts and tables)

The table of content of this economic and social apparaisal is :
1- The flexibility requirement. 2- The Thatcher era : the inexorable decline of the support politics of demand, the primacy of global supply. 3- Thatcher model : a winning formula ? specializing a country as a private-equity fund, abandoning industry. 4- The risks of the UK productive specialization. 5- Inequalities, a consequence of this model. 6- The lessons from the financial crisis. 7- A telling failure : healthcare. 8- The death of the british model : a fragile monetary policy, facing deflation risk. Conclusion : the drawbacks stay, advantages fly away. A dangerous model. ... Arguments are subject to debate in face of the complexity of economic jackstraws/mikado, especially on the too short chapter 7 and the short term track record of 2009-2012 ... but this enlightening synthetic appraisal cannot be easily dismissed.

Marie_Claude in reply to mashed potatoes

no, Mitterrand didn't has to connect the franc to the DM in 1981, this year, Giscard left France with a balanced budget, our debt was at its lowest level, like Luxemburg's

Mitterrand, and Germany's Kohl, were implementing the political EU planning !

Plazidus in reply to Marie_Claude

A horse-breeder would have to be a statesman with 'bottom' don't you think?

Coverage of the French election is not extensive; but then neither the system nor the candidates are particularly worth it.

This is a pity since it's all so wonderfully odd.

TassinTDC in reply to guest-ilsanow

French journalists are socialists? What a joke!
Go ask Yves Calvi, JP Elkabbach, Jean-Michel Apathie, Laurence Ferrari, David Pujadas, Jean-Jacques Bourdin...
Come back to reality : they always promote for conservative reforms. These past months it was "why greece accepts necessary efforts that could not be applied in France?".

Orenv in reply to rewt66

Indeed. Benevolence can sometimes be called sheltering from reality. The problem to much of the developed world is that reality grinds on and inevitably will win.

Malopolanin in reply to happyfish18

Expensive? I've once bought a 0,75 l bottle of French wine for about 1 pound 60 pence in Poland. I drank it all one evening and wrote about 10 posts here of which the majority were erased. Is 1.60 pound really that expensive?

Tebelio in reply to tocharian

I don't know what France you talk, but what I know by my stay in Paris 2 years ago, this country seemed me quite islamophobic. You can't see women wearing burka in the streets of France, at difference of Britain where is very normal.....and all cause he islamophoby of the current governing french right who banned wearing burka in public places
By other side, I perceived cirtain degree of homophobia at the french society as it's very unusual to see couples of the same sex in the streets, at diference of other countries like Netherlands or Spain, where is quite normal. In France there isn't gay marriage and seems this is going to continue so in the future.
All this kind of things where big minorities remain discriminated do of this country some backward respect to others in the vicinity and I think it has much to improve in many aspects.

Advertisement

Explore trending topics

Comments and tweets on popular topics

Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
Press freedom: Fox News and Julian Assange
Democracy in America 49 mins ago
Daily chart: Game on
Graphic detail 3 hrs 18 mins ago
Share buy-backs: Cui bono?
Buttonwood's notebook 3 hrs 51 mins ago
Côte d’Ivoire: Appy birthdays
Baobab May 21st, 12:29

Advertisement

Products & events

Advertisement