As riots grow across France, the media is quick to blame the French government for not spending enough money on edumucation. However, the Wall Street Journal nailed France's real problem in an editorial last week: the country is past being flat broke. Check out what it had to say:
France has been especially hard hit by the recent global rise in bond yields. The rate on the benchmark 10-year government bond last week exceeded 5% for the first time since 2002. The spread between French OATs and German bunds (the eurozone’s safest asset) is now wider than 140 basis points, the most since the eurozone crisis of 2010-12.
Politicians in Paris are in denial. The government last ran a fiscal surplus in 1974, and an annual deficit above 5% of GDP is normal. Debt stands at 120% of GDP. Revenue is inadequate to Paris’s spending urges, despite or rather because of high tax rates that extract 51% of French GDP each year. Revenue from taxes on personal and corporate incomes and consumption is flat. Special levies such as a windfall-profits tax on energy companies generate less revenue than predicted.
All of this taxation alongside endemic overregulation is suffocating economic growth. GDP grew 0.8% last year, is expected to do the same this year, and if they’re lucky it’ll hit 1.1% in 2027. Perhaps this explains why French yields remain below the rates on U.S. Treasurys. In America, investors are betting on growth in addition to Washington’s fiscal dysfunctions.
Paris formed these spending habits in an era when the European Central Bank was aggressively buying bonds under its quantitative-easing program. In some years central-bank purchases of French debt exceeded net issuance. No longer. Current quantitative tightening leaves it to private investors to absorb French bonds and many of those investors, especially insurers and pension funds, are less willing.
If Paris won’t grow, can’t tax its way out of the fiscal hole, and can’t borrow, spending will have to be cut. This is turning French politics into a violent game of musical chairs in which no one wants to be the last special-interest group caught without a seat. The riots are the latest example. Previous instances include nation-wide strikes against increasing the retirement age, and the 2018 yellow-vest protests about taxes on diesel fuel.
Yet you’d never know this is the most pressing challenge facing France to judge by the incipient presidential campaign. Mr. Mélenchon says the central bank should simply forgive the French bonds it currently owns. He also accused the head of the French central bank of treason on Tuesday for suggesting spending cuts. “Off with their heads” has a long, if not glorious, history in France.
The riots are probably helping the chances of Marine Le Pen of the insurgent-right National Rally. But she offers no more than token reform. One of her signature issues is a pledge to reduce the retirement age to 60—after President Emmanuel Macron’s effort to raise it to 64 from 62 has hit political obstacles.
France’s main problem isn’t math. It’s slow growth. The right fiscal reforms, such as tax cuts and welfare and pension reforms that encourage work and investment, would create new opportunities for prosperity. Young people would be the biggest beneficiaries. The alternative is what’s happening in the streets.
Maybe the country needs to implode so it can finally face reality. More taxes tank the economy. Spending cuts generate riots. The country is becoming incapable of making any tough decisions.
53 comments:
Tough decisions? Sounds like us.
50% tax rate???? Seriously I would stop working
How soon before this arrives on our shores?
Couldn’t be happier for them !!!
Couldn’t be happier for them
"White flag raising" in 3, 2, 1...
USA debt as a % of GDP is 122%. Worse than France. Thanks Trump.
The citizens and politicians of the United States should pay close attention to this because this country is going in the same direction. Cut taxes, increase spending, more and more entitlements. Talk of raising the retirement age to help Social Security’s ability to pay benefits gets push back. Paying interest on the debt is now the largest expense.
If our government did the things necessary to get the country on good financial footing. ( raising taxes, cutting spending, etc) we too might have riots in the streets.
Sounds exactly like how the legislature handles PERS
Unchecked immigration has undermined the cultural stability that France had for many centuries. Even World War II, and being conquered for a time by Nazi Germany, did not damage France the way the past four decades of floodgate immigration has. The people who now occupy France are wholly incompatible with French culture, so the result is chaos and violence.
The COLA is the reason Social Security is facing future reductions
Can't blame decades of poor fiscal policy on Trump, though he is trying hard to buy the election any way he can.
Republicans and democrats will both spend the same amount (all they can get their hands on), the republicans won't implement any policy to generate the necessary revenue to support their spending level.
No, thanks Biden, Nobama...
Corporate welfare in the U.S. over the last 10 years is what’s putting us in the hole.
Who’s paying Paul Ryan’s salary these days?
But…France has Good Food ? 🤔
Our debt is 110% to GDP!
If only the US Congress would take notice and heed the obvious warnings…
RMQ
An American woman named Barbara Lerner Spectre was quoted 25 years ago….
"I think there is a resurgence of [anti-Americanism] because at this point in time Europe has not yet learned how to be multicultural. And I think we are going to be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Europe is not going to be the monolithic societies they once were in the last century. [Americans] are going to be at the centre of that. It’s a huge transformation for Europe to make. They are now going into a multicultural mode and [Americans] will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role and without that transformation, Europe will not survive."
“Americans” have destroyed Europe.
You can look at a countries elementary public schools to see the future of a nation. By the way take a look at the French national team (soccer) that’s the new demographic in France. Not very European looking. Immigration has killed the culture in France. Looks like the French will elect Le Pen to help protect what is left of it
That's how you get to Communism. All planned.
We would not be here without the help of France. Lighten up.
This probably won’t get posted because of still lingering WWII propaganda. But we all know who is behind this. It’s the same group that has been responsible for similar actions for thousands of years. WWII propaganda has convinced the older generation that said group is our friend. But they are the enemy of the West. Always have been. The boomers can’t die off fast enough.
This happened in 2008. The countries were called PIIGS. Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. They survived just like a France will. No need to get excited. Countries are always being bailed out. It is based on global needs and effects.
Why would anyone "riot in the streets" over a political issue? Perhaps I am missing something, but if you have an issue with policies, why would you try and whip your neighbors ass? You should take it up with the people who made the decisions that got you there in the first place, not john q taxpayer across the street. Again, I am no expert in global politics, but I have no beef with some conservative or democrat standing beside me who did nothing to contribute to the issue.
We need to tend to our own business and not continue to alienate our allies or start wars!
Because intelligence sources report that communists and other radicals are instigating these riots. You know, like the "mostly peaceful" riots in the U.S.
The US is broke too, but we are building and Arch and a Ballroom that will make us all feel better.
I love watching the high and mighty eurotrash fail constantly, but they’ll still be online talking about their rail system and horrible free healthcare. But yes pay attention this is what the Democrats want for the U.S. and their bootlicking voters will gladly support this type of dumpster fire.
@8:20 AM
Because that is what disarmed populations do when they collectively realize their politicians are 100% the enemy of the people. It has been common in the UK, EU, and Eastern Europe to riot in opposition to tyrannical globalization. In the USA it is the opposite. The armed boomers pot bellied white males stay home clutching their Academy Sports AR15s and ammo stockpiles while ANTIFA riot. The exception was Kyle Rittenhouse and you saw how bad the left and media treated him.
@7:06am Yeah right! The French wouldn’t knutt up and help until it was obvious we were winning. They should be glad we handed their country back to them after they folded to the Germans in only a few days. We would have still won against Britain, might would have taken a few extra months but they would still be goose stepping if it weren’t for us. “Ugh! The French”(Mel Gibson-The Patriot)
Muslims have no interest in a multi-cultural society. When they take over the only two cultures allowed are Islamic or death.
the 90s were the last time people in DC had a spine and we actually had a surplus in the federal budget. One of the biggest drivers? Cutting our outrageously high defense spending. 9/11 threw that out the window and now here we are, back to spending 3x the next highest country on defense. If we cut our defense budget in HALF we'd still be the top spender globally but over $100 billion.
Shouldering 60+% of the NATO defense bill will certainly skew the numbers.
Can 9:43am enjoy Mullah Jihad Nuke fallout with their gourmet crab stuffed croissant? Filling their Porsche with cheaper gas under a Muslim mushroom cloud? I believe Trump and his appointees have acted reasonably to increase both NATO members contributions and our military preparedness. Further, he has acted to limit threats from Iran. This stuff costs but continues to benefit America going forward. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have borrowed money (from France in their time) to get this done.
"Muslims have no interest in a multi-cultural society. When they take over the only two cultures allowed are Islamic or death."
Exactly. But we aren't supposed to call them out because they have brown skin.
To the far-left, brown skin represents "historically-oppressed," so they must be innocent victims in every situation.
Because, you know, slavery . . .
You're not going to get the actual, real truth, from the WSJ. It's always been a disinformation rag, for deluding the rubes.
The economy is only a SYMPTOM of the problem(s). The French People (the real ones: not the Franks, not the Bourbons, and certainly not the recent migrants) are extremely productive and inventive. The French People ARE prosperity. It is arguable that the Industrial Revolution began in France (not in England, as is usually alleged), and one could go all the way back to 'Les Grottes de Lascaux', where their ancestors left for us, the only record of now-extinct Cave Lions.
But the French People are being - ahem - don't wanna use any forbidden words - made to not be there, anymore, while others are being brought in. The others aren't good for much. They aren't boosting the economy. They aren't improving the quality of life in France. They aren't rolling up their sleeves, and volunteering to do what needs doing within their schools. Mostly, the new people just make problems, and the problems soak-up money. The problems and incompetence brought by the new people, slows the wheels of commerce, to the point where those wheels are barely turning.
And, as Jeff Childers of Coffee & Covid reminded us, the other day, Covid is not over: not even just a little bit. People are still extremely angry, and the costs of shutting down the world, and maiming/murdering countless productive people, have not been absorbed (and won't be absorbed, for generations, considering how many victims linger - unable to work - unable to THINK clearly, anymore, thanks to all those micro-clots in their brains).
But the WSJ, having historically sided with the entities doing the replacing and the vaxxing, is not going to tell us the real reasons why the French are rioting (if, indeed, it is the actual, real French People who're in the streets - rather than just the usual mixture of professional agitators/crisis actors/imports).
Well, why don't you try reading the WSJ instead of reading about it in The New American. The editorial page was against the lockdowns and covid hysteria. They were against the vaccine mandates, saying it should be a matter of choice. Funny how you don't refute any of the numbers but launch into a covid screed.
Nobody has forgotten your bitch-ass censorship during the Scamdemic. Kingfish? More like a WINDSOCK!
Can't respond to what I said so you change to something else. How did I censor on covid?
@12:32 AM, I know what you mean. I know *exactly* what you mean.
Never heard of 'The New American'. Sounds kinda holyrolly, and probably wants to sell me mail-order gold (like that nice horse rancher lady is buying, and I can tell she's a good person who's financially astute, because she loves horses and has Crosses hanging on her walls and on her neck). But I was aware who was resisting, and who was shilling, since the first Covid numbers came out of South Korea. And the WSJ, I observed, was routinely shilling.
Anyway, upon your urging, to be sure I'm not totally farblunjet (lost), I just did a search, and came up with a WSJ headline: "We Really Need to Cure Booster Fatigue to Move On From Covid". This, beside a big picture of a masked granny, getting her shot.
'Booster Fatigue', another search revealed, is a recent term, specifically addressing the perceived crisis of not enough people getting enough Covid vax boosters.
So, to get the WSJ's TRUE stance on issues, one has to read its editorials - rather than the rest of the publication?
Be still, my heart! 12:27, how DARE you get me so titillated - on a day when us cougars are already having heart palpitations, thinking about Bo Luckey. And here you come along, with that windsock comment, causing me to envision mountain-of-muscle Kingfish, clad in one strategically-placed sock.
How DARE you! (imagine Greta, at her angriest)
As to censorship, however, one would wisely remember that Blogspot, like most Internet venues, was under severe pressure, during the darkest days of the recent unpleasantness, to limit what was being said.
Blogspot had no choice but to pass-along those constraints.
Kingfish did what he could, as soon as he could. And the constraints have not totally disappeared. So, he's doing extremely well, at allowing free speech, as the censorship ratchets are cranked inexorably tighter ( wait'll all Internet-capable devices require our 'personal identifiers', just to become operational).
Too, assuming you are at least somewhat simpatico, you might find compelling, Dr Meryl Nass' comments linked to the phrase 'Turnkey Totalitarianism'.
Someone on here REALLY loves the sound of his own voice.
France wouldn’t be there without us, so Lighten up Francis!!!!
In 2008 Obama hammered outgoing President George Bush for allowing the national debt to reach $6 Billion. Joe Biden had a $6 Billion debt in one year.
Nominee for the dumbest post of the month. SS/medicare, and interest on the national debt is 72% of the budget. 9:01 needs to hug Donner Kay.
How was I able to predict that the comments on this article, which isn't about immigration, would quickly turn into pearl clutching that France dare have a muslim community?
If you don't like being called an illiterate racist who peaked in 8th grade, then stop acting like one.
This is a hoot. A guy defending Muslims by using the race card. Irony on display.
Islam is a political movement masked as a religious one. Their dogma is to dominate and obliterate the infidel by conquering weak nations, and then to subjugate their women and children.
@October 16, 2026 at 9:00 AM - I know it doesn't support your narrative, but the ballroom is completely funded by donors, and the arch is at least partially funded by donors along with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
9:27, I get it. We aren't allowed to call out Muslim groups because they have brown skin, so doing so makes us racists. Understood.
Park your TDS. The ballroom is being built with private funds. I dunno about the arch. Obama's basketball court was paid by Joe Taxpayer.
Great foreign policy outlook. You don’t really consider the whole picture do ya?
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