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 ...