We know the famous metaphor: soccer is a game played by two teams where at the end Germany wins. It was following the French team defeat in 1982 at Seville during the World Cup semi-final. It has been used after to compare respective economic achievements of the two countries but it is much less adapted to the current situation. During the last edition, Germany suffered a humiliating elimination after having been defeated by South Korea at the end of the preliminary phase and France won the title. Regarding economic issues, if France is not shining thanks to its successes, its ...

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Economists and their commentators have been shocked by the 2007crisis. None of them saw it coming, as the Queen of England one day noticed it. In order to regain their credibility, it was necessary that each of them finds a good reason to forecast the worse. If it was coming, they would be genius. And if nothing happened, everybody would have forgotten their pessimistic comments. Some went even further through numerology to find reasons to worry. Figure nine would carry misfortune. It occurred, of course, with the 1929 crisis. But after that, it is more disputable. The recession occurred from ...

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The French economy is doing a little better for two years. It was not very difficult after the near stagnation it has known between 2012 and 2016. But this improvement is not enough to cope with the several disequilibrium which affect it. Unemployment stays at a high level and growth prospects are not strong enough to siognificantly reduce it. High trade deficit is an exception in the eurozone where Germany, Nederland and Italy are accumulating surplus. This situation affects France image and so its influence in Europe. At last, the coming back under 3% of the public finance deficit these ...

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