"France struggling to find strategy to revive economy" by Sarah DiLorenzo | Associated Press, May 26, 2013
PARIS — The man charged with reviving France’s shrinking economy and attracting businesses to invest here is gaining a reputation for doing the opposite.
As the country’s first-ever minister for industrial renewal, Arnaud Montebourg has told the world’s largest steelmaker it is not welcome in France; exchanged angry letters with the head of an US tire company he was supposedly wooing; scuttled Yahoo’s offer to buy the majority of a video-sharing site.
Montebourg, a 50-year-old lawyer from Burgundy, is the public face of President François Hollande’s plan to revitalize Europe’s second-largest economy, which is in recession and grappling with 11 percent unemployment. The plan is to make the French economy more competitive globally — especially for manufacturers — by making it easier to fire workers, offering a payroll tax credit, and investing in small businesses.
Economists have praised the labor reforms as a step in the right direction. But mostly they say France’s economic plan is all wrong: It is too complicated; it favors a top-down approach to innovation; and it ignores some of the most serious problems plaguing France’s economy, such as high labor costs.
Related: The French Pentagon
Marseille Museum Brings Back Memories
Ever notice the problem is always labor coasts?
And then there is Montebourg, whose public spats with international companies and efforts to block layoffs are making France look like an unappealing place to do business.
Blocking layoffs as he makes it easier to fire workers?
Unappealing as the pu$hes tax credits?
As they say in France, WTF?
In fairness to Montebourg, he is not so much the problem as he is the symbol of it, analysts say. Even if Hollande were to replace him — and that is looking increasingly likely — it is unclear whether the substance of the industrial renewal strategy would change.
The sheer size of France’s economy has cushioned it from some of Europe’s debt crisis.
It is home to huge industrial firms, like EADS, parent company to plane-maker Airbus; Total, the world’s fifth-largest investor-owned oil company; and Sanofi, the world’s fourth-largest pharmaceutical firm
But make no mistake, analysts warn: The French economy, which had no growth in 2012 and shrank at an annualized rate of 0.8 percent in the first three months of 2013, is in slow-motion free fall.
Look for the squibs.
In the past decade, one in six industrial jobs has been lost. And economists say unemployment will rise to 11.6 percent.
--more--"
Not even the famous French charm can get Francois out of this mess:
"French leader’s charm not enough in dismal economy" by Sylvie Corbet | Associated Press, March 14, 2013
DIJON, France — President Francois Hollande of France dived into the heart of Burgundy and turned on his self-effacing charm in an effort to win back support from voters deeply disappointed in him.
It did not really work.
I'm glad the French don't fall for illusion and imagery.
Sending troops this year to the West African nation of Mali gave Hollande a temporary boost in popularity — but record-high and still-growing unemployment matters more, as he found this week on a trip to reconnect with the electorate.
Yeah, the boost lasted for about three minutes. The French people never were up for occupying the desert so they could steal gold for the criminal central banking klans and cartels.
I'm glad the French don't fall for illusion and imagery.
Sending troops this year to the West African nation of Mali gave Hollande a temporary boost in popularity — but record-high and still-growing unemployment matters more, as he found this week on a trip to reconnect with the electorate.
Yeah, the boost lasted for about three minutes. The French people never were up for occupying the desert so they could steal gold for the criminal central banking klans and cartels.
Some polls indicate Hollande has the worst approval ratings of any French president since 1981, with less than a third saying they trust him to solve the country’s problems. France’s unemployment rate reached 10.6 percent in the latest quarter of 2012, highest in 13 years, and youth unemployment is more than 25 percent.
In Dijon, a bastion of his Socialist Party, Hollande spent hours saying hello to residents and Socialist sympathizers, as if a smile and kind gaze was the best answer he could give.
That is all he has. He gave the rest to bankers, and that is why the French are so upset with him. They thought they elected a Socialist -- with a capital S. Oh, they got a $ocialist, all right, one that feels that way about banks (same as what Greece got when they elected their own $ocialist).
When he arrived in a poor neighborhood, suffering from 30 percent unemployment, Hollande could not ignore the disappointment of a part of the population. ‘‘And the promises? Where [are the] promises, where are they?’’ shouted a man in the crowd, referring to Hollande’s campaign pledges last year to stimulate the economy.
Vanished into thin air just like the jobs.
That is all he has. He gave the rest to bankers, and that is why the French are so upset with him. They thought they elected a Socialist -- with a capital S. Oh, they got a $ocialist, all right, one that feels that way about banks (same as what Greece got when they elected their own $ocialist).
When he arrived in a poor neighborhood, suffering from 30 percent unemployment, Hollande could not ignore the disappointment of a part of the population. ‘‘And the promises? Where [are the] promises, where are they?’’ shouted a man in the crowd, referring to Hollande’s campaign pledges last year to stimulate the economy.
Vanished into thin air just like the jobs.
--more--"
Related:
"Council rejects 75 percent tax rate
"Council rejects 75 percent tax rate
PARIS — France’s Constitutional Council on Saturday struck down the Socialist government’s plan to impose a 75 percent marginal income tax rate on the wealthy, a measure that figured prominently among the campaign promises of President Francois Hollande and that had become a divisive emblem of his approach to cutting the budget deficit. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government would reintroduce a revised version of the tax for next year to address the criticisms of the council, which ruled that the measure did not tax affected households equally (New York Times)."
Related: French politician wants party revote
Too late now.
Related: French politician wants party revote
Too late now.
