It is
reported that this week “The Economist” came up with a big one to the effect
that while the media were looking at some countries in the Euro area as being
in deep trouble, it could be France
The
President of France and other political leaders there have taken exception to
this decrying “The Economist” and muttering dire threats about it destablising
what is an essentially sound economy for reasons of copy.
This would
be convincing if France
Perhaps it
was the picture in “The Economist” of some baguettes being wrapped in a
tricolour apparently about to be exploded as a bomb that may have been a little
tactless. They are nothing if not proud
of their symbols.
If you
would like to read the leader in question it is linked below and beyond this is
a fuller Special Report linked in the article:
The French
Revolution at the end of the 18th Century is usually characterized
as essentially a political matter. But it also arose out of what was
essentially an economic breakdown in a society where hunger and poverty were
extreme.
It was also
a Kingdom where the elite paid few taxes but the ordinary people were subject
to the whims and predatory conduct of tax farmers who then bought themselves
into the aristocracy.
I could go
on down the years to one revolution and breakdown of government after another
but it is too long for a weekend post when there are other things to do. There is plenty out there on the web if you
want to seek it.
Personally,
I think “The Economist” could be right, the laxity and self centred attitude to
public finances in France has
often led Europe into trouble in the
past. It would be nothing new.
So, off
with their heads of expenditure.
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