Sound The Trumpet : France is Heading for the Biggest Economic Train Wreck in Europe

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“France is Heading for the Biggest Economic Train Wreck in Europe”
by BusinessInsider
August 26th, 2013

steel-worker-arcelormittal-france-protest-2

“The emotional side of me tends to imagine France, like the princess in the fairy stories or the Madonna in the frescoes, as dedicated to an exalted and exceptional destiny. Instinctively I have the feeling that Providence has created her either for complete successes or for exemplary misfortunes. Our country, as it is, surrounded by the others as they are, must aim high and hold itself straight, on pain of mortal danger. In short, to my mind, France cannot be France without greatness.

– Charles de Gaulle, from his memoirs

Recently there have been a spate of horrific train wrecks in the news. Almost inevitably we find out there was human error involved. Almost four years ago I began writing about the coming train wreck that was Europe and specifically Greece. It was clear from the numbers that Greece would have to default, and I thought at the time that Portugal would not be too far behind. Spain and Italy clearly needed massive restructuring. Part of the problem I highlighted was the significant imbalance between exports and imports in all of the above countries.

In the Eurozone there was no mechanism by which exchange rates could be used to balance the labor-cost differentials between the peripheral countries and those of the northern tier. And then there’s France. I’ve been writing in this space for some time that France has the potential to become the next Greece. I’ve spent a good deal of time this past month reviewing the European situation, and I’m more convinced than ever that France is on its way to becoming the most significant economic train wreck in Europe within the next few years.

We shifted focus at the beginning of the year to Japan because of the real crisis that is brewing there. Over the next few months I will begin to refocus on Europe as that train threatens to go off the track again. And true to form, this wreck will be entirely due to human error, coupled with a large dollop of hubris. This week we will take a brief look at the problems developing in Europe and then do a series of in-depth dives between now and the beginning of winter. The coming European crisis will not show up next week but will start playing in a movie theater near you sometime next year. Today’s letter will close with a little speculation on how the developing conflict between France and Germany and the rest of its euro neighbors will play out.

France: On the Edge of the Periphery

I think I need first to acknowledge that the market clearly doesn’t agree with me. The market for French OATS (Obligations Assimilables du Trésor), their longer-term bonds, sees no risk. The following chart is a comparison of interest rates for much of the developed world, which I reproduce for those who are interested in comparative details. Notice that French rates are lower than those of the US, Canada, and the UK. Now I understand that interest rates are a function of monetary policy, inflation expectations, and the demand for money, which are all related to economic growth, but still….

France’s neighbors, Italy and Spain, have rates that are roughly double France’s. But as we will see, the underlying economics are not that much different for the three countries, and you can make a good case that France’s trajectory may be the worst.

“No: France Is Not Bankrupt” – Really?

We will start with a remarkable example of both hubris and economic ignorance published earlier this year in Le Monde. Under the headline ”No: France Is Not Bankrupt,” Bruno Moschetto, a professor of economics at the University of Paris I and HEC, made the following case. He apparently wrote this with a straight face. If you are not alone, please try not to giggle out loud and annoy people around you. (Hat tip to my good friend Mike Shedlock.)

No, France is not bankrupt …. The claim is untrue economically and financially. France is not and will not bankrupt because it would then be in a state of insolvency.

A state cannot be bankrupt, in its own currency, to foreigners and residents, since the latter would be invited to meet its debt by an immediate increase in taxation.

In abstract, the state is its citizens, and the citizens are the guarantors of obligations of the state. In the final analysis, “The state is us.” To be in a state of suspension of payments, a state would have to be indebted in a foreign currency, unable to deal with foreign currency liabilities in that currency….

Ultimately our leaders have all the financial and political means, through the levying of taxes, to be facing our deadlines in euros. And besides, our lenders regularly renew their confidence, and rates have never been lower.

Four things leap to mind as I read this. First, Professor, saying a country is not bankrupt because it would then be insolvent is kind of like saying your daughter cannot be pregnant because she would then have a baby. Just because something is unthinkable doesn’t mean it can’t happen.

Second, contrary to your apparent understanding and the understanding of your partners in the Eurozone, especially Germany, France does not have its own currency. The Greeks, Portuguese, Italians, and Spanish have all found out that they cannot print their own currencies, no matter how much they wish they could. You are all bound up in a misguided economic experiment called the euro. Deal with it. For all intents and purposes you are in fact indebted in a foreign currency. On your current path you will soon have to go to Germany and the rest of Europe asking for a special dispensation simply because you are France. If this development weren’t so potentially tragic, with horrific economic implications for the entire world, it would be especially amusing theater.

Third, I find the use of the term invited in the phrase “invited to meet its debt by an immediate increase in taxation” to be quite a wonderful French expression. Your tax rates are already among the highest in Europe. At a 75% top tax rate, your entrepreneurs and businesspeople are leaving the country in droves. That icon of economic enlightenment, tennis star Serena Williams, recently commented in Rolling Stone magazine that “75% doesn’t seem legal.” Gerard Depardieu and many others not quite so famous agree and have already left. You are going to collect less, not more, taxes from the rich with your remarkably ill-considered increase in the top tax rate. Just look across the channel to England and see how their raising their top rate merely to 50% worked out for them.

Fourth and finally, you clearly haven’t done your homework on economic crises. The fact that your interest rates are low and that your loans routinely get rolled over simply says that you have not yet come to your own Bang! moment. Every country that falls into crisis is able to get financing at low rates right up until the moment it can’t. It is all about investor confidence, and I readily admit that right now you have it. But through its policies the current government is doing everything it possibly can to destroy the confidence of the bond market as rapidly as it can. And France is particularly dependent upon non-French sources for the financing of its debt.

Let’s look at few facts, Prof. Moschetto:

1. Your country is in recession and has been for almost two years. Even the government is beginning to acknowledge that growth is and will be flat. Standard & Poor’s thinks your growth rate may be as low as -1.5%. Jean-Michel Six of Standard & Poor’s recently noted, “The current account deficit is growing month after month, and this means it is depending more and more on the rest of the world to finance its growth. In my view, France has got just one more year to sort itself out.”

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13