International media made large reports about the political crisis which shakes Brazil and which goes through developments for, now, six months. Next Sunday, a first vote by deputies will, probably, initiate the process which may lead to the impeachment of the president, Dilma Rousseff. She is blamed on account of a deceptive presentation of the country public accounts. This target has been chosen by her adversaries because it permits to start the procedure without any judiciary decision. But the real purpose is its role as president of Petrobras when severe corruption acts have been committed by managers which have already ...

Continue reading

The publications of indicators showing an improvement of French public accounts and  a stabilization of its debt, has been immediately followed by alarming comments on its still excessive level and on the risks it weighs on the country.

First, this rhetoric has no influence on international investors. Since the beginning of the year, The Treasury has issued short term paper carrying negative interest rates, close to –0.5% recently. So, subscribers have agreed to pay an interest to the State to acquire its securities. Switzerland, Japan and Germany are in the same situation. The result is also favorable when France ...

Continue reading

Rarely an Act will have been the theater, even before being formalized, of so many theoretical controversies and passionate reactions. Two groups of economists have confronted their point of view in the press, each one putting on the front line the prestige of one of their contributors, a Nobel Prize, Jean Tirole, who supports the government project, and the author of a best-seller, Thomas Piketty, who is hostile to it.

For the first group, employee protections are considered as excessive. They are counterproductive and directly at the origin of unemployment. Modernity is not anymore going along with social progress. For ...

Continue reading