On April 18^th, the market interest rate for the French debt with a ten year maturity was 0.30%. Since the beginning of the month, it has fluctuated between 0.24% and 0.34% when the yearly inflation rate was above 1%. This exceptionally low level is the consequence, in presence of the slowing of European conjuncture and especially in Germany, of the European Central Bank decision to keep negative short-term interest rates at least until the end of the year and of the favorable appreciation by investors of the France solvability. The spread with the German bond for ...

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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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