During the Seventies, we were convinced that prices control was necessary to cope with inflation. It is, to the contrary, their freeing which allowed France to getting rid of that structural weakness. On the same, it was believed during a long time that the consumption rebound was generating a trade deficit as in 1982. We know today that it is wrong and it was the consequences of the huge increase of the dollar on the oil bill which were at the origin, during that period, of the French trade balance degradation. The recent history is not getting itself always from ...

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The very strong passed and announced price increases of the fossil energies and of power remind us a time we thought it was bygone, with the oil prices shocks of the Seventies. The Middle-East and African countries oil producers did gather in 1960 to create OPEC in order to counterbalance oil majors full power. In 1973 the organization decided to limit its production and ordered an embargo against the United States and the Low Countries as the consequence of the Kippur war. The barrel price jumped from 3 to 12 dollars. A new disequilibrium occurred on the market four years ...

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Regulated electricity tariffs have increased by 0.5% on August 1st after a 1.6% rise on February 1st. In two years, the French people annual bill increased by 5%. We could legitimately be worried about that. But it would forget that, as an average, in Europe, the rise has been much superior, when prices paid by household were already much higher than in France. In 2019, the cost by consumption unit in Germany, for instance was superior by 68%. Natural gas regulated tariffs, them, have increased by 8.7% September 1st, after rises by 5.3% and 9.9 ...

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