Thread: Obama: We Should Be More Like Socialist France - the Detroit of Europe

French government dissolved amid internal feud

Reuters: Charles Platiau
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, centre, delivers a general policy speech at the National Assembly in Paris, April 8, 2014.

4 hr ago By LORI HINNANT of Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande dissolved the government on Monday after an open feud in his Cabinet over the country's stagnant economy.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls offered up his Socialist government's resignation after accusing the economy minister of crossing a line with his blunt criticism of the government's policies. Hollande accepted the resignation and ordered Valls to form a new government by Tuesday.
France has had effectively no economic growth this year and Hollande's approval ratings are in the teens. The country is under pressure from the European Union to get its finances in order, but Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg has questioned whether the austerity pressed by the EU will kick start French growth.
"A major change in our economy policy," was what Montebourg had said was needed from the president and prime minister.
With those words, Montebourg drew the anger of the Socialist leadership, which said Montebourg's job was to support the government, not criticize it from within.
"He's not there to start a debate but to put France back on the path of growth," Carlos Da Silva, the Socialist Party spokesman, told Le Figaro newspaper.

http://news.msn.com/world/french-gov...-internal-feud

http://www.alipac.us/f19/socialist-o...-state-254687/

http://www.alipac.us/f9/conservatism...3/#post1433761

http://www.alipac.us/f19/germany-ope...7/#post1434978

Far-Right Nationalist Le Pen Takes Lead In French Presidental Poll

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/11/2014 14:34 -0400

It's not just Scotland... or Catalan. As The Guardian reports, polls out in the past few days in France have shown far-right Front National (FN) leader Marine Le Pen topping a presidential poll for the first time. Alongside this surge in support for FN is the utter collapse in the French people's faith in Hollande. Less than 20% of voters now approve of the French president and stunningly more than half the nation's card-holding-socialists have given up on him. An unprecedented 85% of French voters don't think Hollande should seek a second term.

As The Guardian reports,
An Ifop poll released by Le Figaro on Friday placed far-right Front National (FN) leader Marine Le Pen ahead of President François Hollande in a hypothetical second round runoff. It is the first time the FN tops a presidential poll against one of France’s two main parties, the Socialist Party (PS) and the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).



This is important because, as The Guardian explains,

There has long been an unwritten rule in French politics: the supporters of the two main parties have historically coalesced against FN candidates in second round votes. The clearest example in 2002’s presidential election when Jacques Chirac defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen 82-18%.

But with such widespread support (as was evident in the recent local elections), it will be hard for the main parties to turn their back in 2017.
In parallel to the FN’s growing support, the popularity of President Hollande has reached a new record low. Less than 20% of voters now approve of the president.


Even more worryingly for the Hollande camp is the loss of support among socialist voters. According to recent polls, nearly one-in-two no longer approve of the president.
* * *
“No poll, no political turmoil will kick me out,” Hollande said after his approval rating fell as low as 13 percent this month.
One word - guillotine?
* * *
Of course, as we noted here, France is not the only nation unimpressed by its leaders...


* * *
The uprising against the status quo is coming, and as IceCap's Keith Dicker warned, the bond market (which has seen notable weakness in the last few days) will be the first to show it. The massive signal failure between markets and reality is about to be exposed.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...esidental-poll

Citi Warns Moody's May Put France On Downgrade Review This Friday

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/16/2014 17:04 -0400

One of the more impressive moves in recent months among the universe of European bonds, has undoubtedly been that by French OATs, which have actually outperformed Bunds in recent years, with the OAT-Bund spread the tightest it has ever been...




... even as the French economy has cratered in the past year under its socialist regime, and far from being one of the "core" European economies, is now increasingly considered B-grade at best.
Whether this miraculous performance, in which the market is doing the opposite of what the fundamentals suggest, is due to the ECB-intervention or simply because asset managers have stuck their collective head in the sand of willful ignorance is irrelevant, but according to Citi this latest period of complete disconnect between reality and market may be coming to an end as soon as the Friday when none other than Moody's may put France, and its Aa1 rating, once again on review for a downgrade.
From Citi's Peter Goves:

Downgrade risks have increased for France this week

France has been rated Aa1 with a negative outlook by Moody’s since November 2012. France appears increasingly isolated with its negative outlook given that Moody’s has upgraded several sovereigns this year, revised various outlooks back to stable (Figure 1) and notably, did not revise the outlook back to stable when France last appeared in its calendar on 23rd May. France next appears on Moody’s calendar this Friday (19th Sept). In their latest Credit Opinion (5th August), Moody’s indicated that they would likely downgrade France’s rating if:

• Moody’s confidence in the likelihood of the implementation of the proposed reforms or their effectiveness were to decline,
• Moody’s views on the country's medium- to long-term growth prospects were to deteriorate further,
• Moody’s expectation with respect to the medium-term path of the general government's debt/GDP ratio were to drift towards 100%.

Why we think downgrade risks have increased: Over the course of the last year, economic performance has been disappointing, with zero QoQ GDP growth both in Q1 and Q2. In light of this, Moody’s stated on 18th August that they have “cut 2014 real GDP forecast to 0.5% from 0.6% and our 2015 growth forecast to 0.9% from 1.3%” signalling a further deterioration in their growth outlook. Furthermore, finance minister Sapin recently lowered growth forecasts (2014 to 0.5% from 1%) and raised deficit forecasts (now expecting 4.4% in 2014 and 4.3% in 2015, Figure 2).

Moody’s stated the fact that France will miss its 2014 deficit target was credit negative on 18th August.

Outlook therefore unlikely to be revised back to stable: We believe it is now less likely that Moody’s revises its outlook to stable on Friday. Instead, we believe it is more likely that Moody’s puts France formally on a “review for possible downgrade” with a conclusion probably coming after the budget (due on 1st October).

Of course, all of the above assumes that rating agencies are still relevant in a world where central-planning has made all non-central banker opinion irrelevant; furthermore with the ECB now openly buying up ABS, will even a one notch downgrade in France matter.
At the end of the day, even if Citi is right, it will be all about nationalist pride, one of the few things France has left. And judging by France's hysterical reaction to its first rating agency fall from grAAAce, anything Moody's does, as irrelevant as it may be, will be worth the price of subprime, CCC-rated, and securitized popcorn.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...-review-friday

http://www.alipac.us/f19/argentina-g...2/#post1436587

http://www.alipac.us/f19/decline-fal...ialism-311400/

French Farmers Spray Government Buildings With Feces to Protest Regulation & Taxes

Farmers revolt against enforcement of draconian EU directive

by Paul Joseph Watson | November 7, 2014

French farmers sprayed government buildings in Paris and Toulouse with feces today in protest against environmental regulations and high taxes.

“In a show of protest against expressing their anger at collapsing prices (due in part to sanctions against Russia), increased environmental regulations, cheap imports, and high costs, thousands took to the streets, dumping pumpkins, potatoes, and carrots, burning cars, flinging apples, and spraying shit all over a government building in Toulouse,” reports Zero Hedge. “The French are not amused.”Demonstrations also took place in Chartres, Tours and western Nantes as farmers protested against the French government’s enforcement of a 1991 EU directive which forces farmers to make costly upgrades to infrastructure in order to comply with a regulation aimed at curbing nitrate pollution.

Farmers protested under the slogan, “Manure, we can’t spread it any more. You can have it, help yourselves.”
In Dijon, farmers burned an effigy of French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal while others complained that the government’s stringent regulations didn’t apply to foreign competition, a factor that is forcing many farmers out of business.
“Markets need to be regulated. The borders are open, that’s Europe, and we import 80 percent of vegetables and 80 percent of meat. While this happens our farmers quit the profession every week and every day because they can’t sell their produce. We produce high quality goods, but can’t sell them,” said Cyrille Milard.
The unpopularity of President Francois Hollande was exemplified by polls released this week that show the socialist leader has a paltry approval rating of just 12 per cent, “the worst score for a president in modern-day polling,” reports Reuters. A whopping 96 per cent of respondents also said that Hollande had broken his election promises.
France’s soaring unemployment rate – which hit a new record high last month – and its zombie economy are perfect illustrations of how Hollande’s socialist mercantilism has been an abject failure, with draconian regulations only harming small and medium sized businesses while large corporations like Google have avoided billions in taxes by parking money offshore.
Watch a video below of farmers spraying feces over government buildings in Paris.

2nd video at the page link:

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http://www.infowars.com/french-farme...ulation-taxes/