I'VE made the point before - I have a fraught relationship with France. What's not to love about boeuf bourguignon, the Riviera and Sancerre white wine? And how good are tarte tatin, the Musee D'Orsay and Carcasonne? (OK, Carcasonne is a bit tacky these days.)
But when it comes to running an economy, let's face it, the French have no bleedin' idea.
Let me pose this question: when did the French government last run a budget surplus? Here's a hint: Wyatt Roy's parents were still at school and probably didn't know each other. The answer is 1974-75.
But, boy, do they know how to run budget deficits, as the chart shows. Deficits in excess of 3 per cent of GDP are common. More recently, we have seen budget deficits above 7 per cent of GDP. The government sector in France accounts for more than half of total output and government debt is running at 90 per cent of GDP.
If you are a fully-signed up member of the Keynesian school of thought, the expectation is that, with all that continuous pump-priming, the French economy should be going gang busters. But, alas, the opposite is the case.
Unemployment in France is 10.6 per cent and rising. Youth unemployment is just over 25 per cent. The French economy is flat-lining, having been in and out of recession for the past four years.
So how did it come to this and what are the solutions to France's economic woes?
One of the strange features of the French economy is that the country has produced world-class companies, including L'Oreal, Michelin, LVMH, Total, AXA and Alcatel-Lucent. Once upon a time, French banks were admired - they were specialists in the provision of trade credit, for instance - but their reputation and fortunes have taken quite a battering in recent times.
But the short explanation for France's dreadful overall economic performance is the combination of an excessively large government sector, ill-directed spending, badly designed taxes and stifling regulations, particularly affecting the labour market. The current Labour Code runs to more than 3000 pages!
