The publication by INSEE of the mediocre results of the French economy in the 1st quarter with a 0.1% drop in GDP (against 0% in the first estimate) only confirms previous analyses. But past economic policy mistakes such as a family policy penalising those with above-average incomes or the desire to raise the retirement age while companies hardly recruit anyone over the age of 55 or the concentration of tax reductions on low wages which discourages the use of highly qualified jobs,  are not enough to explain the structural weakening that the country is facing.

Bureaucratic inflation, which manifests ...

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The succession of bad figures concerning the French economy since the beginning of the year, zero growth, inflation above 2%, unemployment on the rise with a rate back above 8%, trade deficit that is not being reduced and finally public deficits and debt at worrying levels, has not given rise to sufficient reflection to identify the causes and suggest solutions. This is all the more disappointing given that major elections will now be less than a year away.

The discourse boils down to transferring the reasons for these obvious failures to others, those that preceded it (everything began to go ...

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Since the liberalization of trade and the internationalization of financial markets, central banks have become major players in the choice and implementation of economic policy. They have different missions and statuses depending on the country or continent. Of all, it is the European Central Bank (ECB) that has the greatest freedom of action, thanks to its independence enshrined in its founding treaty and the definition of its mission in its statute, to reduce and maintain inflation in the euro zone to a level below but close to 2%. It can then act to support growth and employment.

The US Federal ...

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