In June, the left-leaning Spiegel took a look at what ails France:

…throughout the country, unemployment reaches new highs each month, factories are shut down daily, hundreds of thousands take to the streets to protest gay marriage, and the French are increasingly outraged over a barrage of new political scandals as the country hovers on the cusp of waning global relevance…

France’s plight was initially apparent in the economy, which has been stagnating for five years, because French state capitalism no longer works. But the crisis reaches deeper than that. At issue is a political class that more than three quarters of the population considers corrupt…

…The economy hasn’t grown in five years…

…the government is…57 percent of [French GDP]…government debt has risen to more than 90 percent of [GDP]…for decades, French administrations have failed to make the country’s business environment more competitive…a fifth of all workers in France [are directly] employed by the government…

…The obstructionism and inflexibility that prevail throughout the entire country can only be eliminated through deep-seated renewal. But so far Hollande, who promised “change” in his campaign, has been more conspicuous for his hesitation than his courage.

Gay marriage is declining as a flashpoint in American politics, but that aside – Why does most of it sound familiar?

(Sidebar: I would argue that the U.S. economy has also not grown in five years. U.S. inflation is probably higher than what the government reports and, since the government calculates real growth by seeing what growth remains after inflation, then real growth has probably been lower than they report.)

Anyway, French decline leads to French nationalism – and to interventions abroad: [Read more…]