Thursday 30 August 2012

Cameron’s English lesson for the French president


Excellent analysis of Britain's problems, is Mr Cameron going to rise to the challenge?  Probably not.  He should have shown boldness long ago.  Too little too late steps taken so far brought a general exasperation with his ineptitude.

I am more optimistic about Mr Hollande and France.  In spite of all the sustained criticism over the past decade about the acute need for structural reforms in France, it appears that the country consistently does not perform worse than Britain (unless the statisticians are cooking the books).   France defied all free market advocates' doom predictions and has so far demonstrated that the "French way" is not all nonsense.  Of course it is far from being perfect and productivity-enhancing reforms are needed, but its social net and labour market are not anachronic.

I guess the main point is Britain needs a stronger shake-up of its economic and social models than France, so Mr Hollande's job is easier to a certain extent.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e721933a-f212-11e1-8973-00144feabdc0.html#axzz253MZ73VK

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