French Styled Economics

Fire of Liberty

During the past few weeks, I've been writing pretty heavily on how our politicians in Washington D.C. are playing a dangerous game with our economy and allies with their continued talks and threats of nationalistic/protectionist legislation on TV and their respective wells on Capitol Hill. The reason why I do so is for the sake of the American people to have stable and well paying jobs so they can help themselves and stay away from the outstretched arms of government thus keeping this nation on a path to economic growth which makes the US economy second to none.

Now we could go down the path of economic isolationism much like we did in the late twenties (Anyone recall Smoot-Hawley tariff and the Great Depression)if you want but I'm guessing that when push comes to shove folks will prefer the current policies of the White House and Congress(At least for now) that promotes economic growth and job creation(Domestic and Foreign based)thus resulting in record low levels of unemployment which beats the current problems of high unemployment (10% nationally, 23% for 18-26 year olds and 50% in poor minority suburbs) and low economic growth that seems to be a common under France's "economic patriotism." What's so troubling about France's economic slumber is that its leaders refuse to see that these nationalistic policies are keeping their economy deflated.

In fact, French President Jacques Chirac had the nerve to announce in Germany yesterday that it was "absolutely absurd" if not crazy to suggest that France has made an even greater turn towards economic protectionism of late. Here's what Hugh Williamson and Tom Braithwaite had to report in the Financial Times on Chirac:

In comments set to raise the political temperature in Europe over moves by Spain, Poland and France to shield parts of their economies from foreign investors, Mr Chirac attacked critics in Germany and elsewhere of his government's industrial policy in recent months.

France received "twice as much foreign direct investment [FDI] as Germany", he said following a meeting in Berlin with Angela Merkel, German chancellor, adding that "something is wrong when France is accused of behaving in a protectionist way".

There has been widespread international criticism of intervention by the French government, notably in its attempts to block a potential takeover bid for Suez, the Franco-Belgian power group, by Enel, its Italian rival.

Michael Glos, German economics minister, last week condemned the "protectionist drift" in some European Union countries, while Thomas de Maizere, Ms Merkel's chief of staff, accused Paris of undermining EU rules and of trying unsuccessfully to "build walls" around its economy.

Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development suggested that on FDI Mr Chirac's point was correct. But economists said FDI could not be used to measure the openness of markets, pointing out that, for instance, China's protected market enjoyed a high level of inward investment.

I'm thinking that the folks out of a job in France are glad that Chirac is on his way out the door, I wish I could say the same about PM Dominique de Villepin and his "economic patriotism." Let's hope that the folks in the US promoting their own arcane version of such protectionist measures will take note of France's troubles and shy away from such rhetoric.