MR. FRANCE: POUTOUX, POUTOUX, POUTOUX, YANKEES ! BAISE-MOI !
ÉCOLIER: NOTRE HEINIES SONT À VOTRE DISPOSITION ...
Spend Your Nice American Dollars On Stuff From France
FRENCH TRADE DEFICIT HITS RECORD 29 BILLION EUROS
PARIS February 9, 2007 (AFP) - France's trade deficit hit a record of more than 29 billion euros (37 billion dollars) in 2006 despite exports that also hit a new high, Foreign Trade Minister Christine Lagarde said Friday. ▼... According to the minister, [excluding oil imports] France's exports were "historically the biggest ever recorded." ▲
And here we were thinking that France was running a record deficit when in fact she is enjoying record exports. Back to sleep everyone.
FRENCH PAYMENTS DEFICIT SURGES IN 2006
PARIS February 16, 2007 (AFP) - The French balance of payments showed a sharply increased deficit in 2006 mainly because the balance of trade in services deteriorated, the finance ministry reported on Friday. ▼
PFFT (What is this?): Poutoux, poutoux, poutoux 3 | Rayonnement français 0
This whole brouhaha about "trade deficits" is a red herring. What does it matter if country A buys more stuff from country B than B does from A? For example, I suspect that California buys more stuff from Kansas than Kansas buys from CA. So what? I currently have a "trade deficit" with the power company. I buy lots of their electricity but they have yet to buy any of my software. Whoopee. The USA has a large "trade deficit" with China. How can we expect China, a third world country pretending to be first world, to buy enough stuff from us to balance what we buy? In fact to do so would be to further impoverish them.
Paul,
And right you are in what you have exampled.
Our point regarding France is that prosperity drives credit and France is not prosperous. Or more to the point she is an underperformer, which is why deficits in France are viewed with horror. Unlike a heartless Anglo-American free market economy that self-adjusts to economic vagaries, a huge part of the French economy is rigid (e.g., 1/5-1/4 of the labor force is unionized state workers, large sectors of economy are state-owned). So having less going out than coming in means less tax candy for the socialist candy store to redistribute without a concomitant reduction in its candy distribution obligations.
In America deficits of this or that sort come and go as the economy adjusts to the attendant opportunities and risks. In France any stubborn economic dynamic risks becoming structural.
Also consider what we are about here. We mock France. And we are loath to let an opportunity pass ripe in mock.
Regards,
DGB
Good point about the structural differences and how those affect how "trade deficits" are viewed. I agree that they are less (or not) important in a dynamic economy such as ours but you would not think so to hear the politicos and MSM rant on and on about them.
