Category: France
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Saturday, April 05, 2014
Party Time Over For French Political Ecology / Politics / France
The Once-Was Natural Party of Government
When President Hollande swept to power a long time ago on the political timescale - nearly 24 months ago – sweeping out the eccentric and ever more-corrupt Sarkozy with his non-performing economy and ever-rising jobless numbers, budget deficits and national debt, Hollande also swept in the ecologists. To do just the same thing as Sarko! French ecology politicians banded together in a shifting coalition called Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV, and were handed key roles in Hollande's first government, of course receiving the Energy-Ecology ministry, and also the Housing ministry.
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Wednesday, April 02, 2014
French President Dismisses Government, Calls In The 'Blairites' / Politics / France
Tony Blair To The Rescue
French president François Hollande dismissed his Prime Minister and cabinet on Monday following his Parti Socialiste's massive loss of power, symbolized by PS mayors and councillors being voted out in 155 large cities, following the 23 and 30 March local elections. Key PS “bastions”, where in some cases Hollande's party has held uninterrupted power for 100 years, such as Limoges, fell with other bastions such as “red” Toulouse and Angers. The supposed xenophobic and unconstitutional, racist and Nazi-leaning Front National of Marine Le Pen made huge gains.
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Monday, March 31, 2014
French Local Elections Prove France Is Ungovernable / Politics / France
Turnout Low - Interest in Democracy Even Lower
French media made a brave attempt following the second and final round of local elections, 30 March, to paint a picture of a “moderate recovery” in voter interest. In fact the countrywide turnout to vote was around 53% on 30 March compared with 52% on 23 March, according to the French Interior Ministry. Many large cities were plagued by turnouts in some districts of as low as 16% of registered voters bothering to vote. In other words, 84% of voters did not vote.
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Sunday, March 23, 2014
France Advanced Tech And Retarded Diplomacy / Politics / France
Sell Russia Weapons – Then Apply Sanctions
France's sale to Russia of two high tech Mistral-class military ships, described as helicopter assault, electronic warfare support, and local area missile capable “invasion platform” fighting ships, for a total of about 1.4 billion euros enabling more than one thousand jobs at French shipyards in a region of high unemployment, has become collateral damage in Europe's sanctions war against Putin. Russian military and diplomatic officials are openly mocking European sanctions imposed on them over Crimea. They point out that the Mistral-class ship sales were officially hailed, previously by the French, as a signal for the complete and final end to the Cold War.
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Thursday, January 16, 2014
Hollande Versus Obama In The Race To The Bottom / Politics / France
Le Fait du Prince
Different countries have different styles. In France, power has always been concentrated in Paris, from the last days of the monarchy, and then even more so under Napoleon. When the prince, king, president, or Emperor as Napoleon liked to call himself exceeded his powers, and then gave himself more of them, the cry rang out that this was “Le fait du Prince”.
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Tuesday, January 07, 2014
France's Iranian Nuclear Obsession / Politics / France
The Obama Administration Just Might Think
Writing for Wall Street Journal January 7, the former International Herald Tribune editor and Bilderberg Club member John Vinocour said that it looks awfully evident that France's hardline on Iranian nuclear proliferation has been outsmarted by the Iranians – and has even been used by the Obama administration to do what it can to increase the President's tattered public approval ratings at home. Vinocour wrote that if the US “takes over the show” in negotiating with Tehran, “In this case, the Obama administration just might think that France, with its irritating vision of itself as the world's guardian of nuclear non-proliferation, could be dismissed as a strategic nag, increasingly alone, and no longer Washington's co-equal in dealing with Tehran”.
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Friday, January 03, 2014
Eurozone Economy Expands but Hollande Concedes France Crippled by High Taxes / Economics / France
Eurozone manufacturing is at a 31-month high according to Markit. Every country but France and Greece are expanding. French manufacturing is at a seven-month low in an intensified downturn.
Read full article... Read full article...The seasonally adjusted Markit Eurozone Manufacturing PMI® rose for the third month running to post 52.7 in December, up from 51.6 in November (and unchanged from the earlier flash estimate).
Sunday, December 29, 2013
France Economic Stupidity Taxing Facebook, Google And YouTube, to Finance French Films No One Watches / Politics / France
The economic stupidity in France is astounding. It's hard keeping up with all the inane ideas of President Francois Hollande's socialist administration. Here's another one of Hollande's ideas for your amusement.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
France's Culture Tax And The Cult Of Exception / Politics / France
TAX INTERNET AND SMARTPHONES
Although he makes a point of not living in France and denies he does that to avoid taxes, Depardieu is an ikon for French films and the business needs money. Why it needs money is already political – since many in France say the film industry should not be subsidized – and is already complicated because film theaters and some movie and TV producers pay taxes to the government, while they and others can also receive huge grants, aid and tax rebates from the same government.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
France Suspends Its New Muppet Tax / Politics / France
THEY CALL IT THE ECOTAX
Reuters reported, October 29, that French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is suspending the application of a planned environmental tax, called the “ecological” tax on vehicles above 3.5 tons weight after mounting protests in the western Britanny region, dealing another setback for President Hollande's Parti Socialiste government tax policies.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
French Colonial Dreams Linger On In Syria / Politics / France
GREAT POWER PIPEDREAM
The simple question with a lot of answers is why did France boycott the 2003 Iraq war of the US and Britain, but remains heavily committed to a “punitive attack” with the US on Syria, following the shock of Cameron's defeat for his war plan in the British parliament, August 29 ? Syria was a French colony. Why have the British decided to take French leave from Obama's punishment mission? Syria was not a British colony but was the meat and bones of imperial dogfights between the British and French, during the interwar Mandate years. French political leaders, including President Hollande and major figures in his Parti Socialiste, August 30, despite massive public opinion opposition have multiplied their dogged and trenchant support for this “limited military action not designed to topple al Assad”, without the Brits and whether or not (we mean not) the attacks gets UN Security Council approval.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Bankrupting France, On the Edge of Euro-zone Periphery / Economics / France
"The emotional side of me tends to imagine France, like the princess in the fairy stories or the Madonna in the frescoes, as dedicated to an exalted and exceptional destiny. Instinctively I have the feeling that Providence has created her either for complete successes or for exemplary misfortunes. Our country, as it is, surrounded by the others as they are, must aim high and hold itself straight, on pain of mortal danger. In short, to my mind, France cannot be France without greatness. – Charles de Gaulle, from his memoirs
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
French Politics – More Hypocrite Than Us “Tu Meurs” (You Die) / Politics / France
OOH LA LA!
Anybody viewing the litany of scandals and scams marking French politics, the economy and business, and social issues from a suitable distance away from ground zero can only say “Ooh la la!”.
Rumors that President Francois Hollande has threatened his government with his own personal resignation – and the likely return of Nicholas Sarkozy – if they go on refusing to keep a “tight ship in adverse times” are treated seriously by several reputed political commentators reporting in French media, including 'Le Monde'. The latest proof of that came with the instant sacking of Ecology minister Delphine Batho, this week. She had criticized the budget cuts hitting her ministry more than others. She had not retracted. So she was sacked on the spot.
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Monday, July 01, 2013
France Being Wrecked by Socialism, Nationalism and Germanophobia / Politics / France
Eric Margolis writes: Nice, France – I’m just down to sea level from the 2,600 meter high mountain forts on France’s wild, vertiginous Alpine border with Italy.
The Cote d’Azur, or Riviera, is buzzing with summer activity: packed beaches, traffic jams, crowded restaurants, outrageously priced hotels and an armada of yachts jostling for scarce marina space.
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
France On its Way to Becoming the New Greece / Economics / France
The France that I see as I look out from the bullet train today is far different from the France I see when I survey the economic data. Going from Marseilles to Paris, the countryside is magnificent. The farms are laid out as if by a landscape artist – this is not the hurly-burly no-nonsense look of the Texas landscape. The mountains and forests that we glide through are glorious. It is a weekend of special music all over France, and last night in Marseilles the stages were alive and the crowds out in force. The French people smile and graciously correct my pidgin attempts at speaking French. I have found it diplomatic not to mention that I think France is in for a very difficult future. Why spoil the party?
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Friday, June 14, 2013
France’s Economic Cul-De-Sac / Economics / France
Over a year ago, in the midst of an ongoing economic crisis, François Hollande celebrated his victory over Nicolas Sarkozy in France’s presidential elections. Hollande became the leader of a country in economic turmoil. In the past year, he has had relatively free rein to carry out his economic agenda, since the Socialist Party he leads has a majority in the French Parliament.
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
France's Youth Wants To Quit / Stock-Markets / France
MAY 1968 WAS 45 YEARS AGO
Widely published in the French press but barely reported on government-friendly audiovisual media, the "generation of '68" which includes President Francois Hollande and ex-president Sarkozy, and their policymakers and spin doctors, got a whiff of what the next generation thinks of the "libertarian and socialist society" that came out of the so-called revolution of 1968.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
France Stumbles Towards Political Meltdown / Politics / France
THE CAHUZAC CRISIS
France woke up Wednesday 3 April to the image of the country’s former budget minister and tax czar Jerome Cahuzac looking haggard and shaken on the front pages of all the leading dailies, and all TV news stations following his final and forced admission that he had repeatedly lied about secret accounts in Switzerland and Singapore, and his medical sector business dealings also using tax havens, as well as potential grave charges such as imported beyond-date medical products that may have been re-labelled and sold in France.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Illusion of Euro-zone Stability as France Sinks Further Into the Economic Gutter / Economics / France
While laughing at the amusing exchange of letters between the CEO of Titan and Arnaud Montebourg, Minister of Industrial Renewal of France, I awaited the latest PMI report on France, expecting findings to be horrific.
The PMI reports are out today, and inquiring minds will note the Markit Flash France PMI shows the decline in French private sector output accelerates further to reach near four-year record.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
France Is Dead Broke, But At Least Its GDP Came In Positive / Economics / France
US GDP came out today and it was a stinker: -0.1%. Enter a choir of 10,000 pundits who all figured out that all that bad smell was the result of one thing only: cuts in military spending. That's the sort of thing that tells me - or more correctly: confirms - that the optimism bias has become so strong and infectious it's no longer worth even discussing. And that's before I notice - caveat: I haven't read all the eerily similar comments - that nobody I read bothers to explain by how much military spending has raised US GDP lately. Or to what degree they hope it'll go up again. Soon.
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