For corporate welfare queens that know how to leverage worldwide tax systems, France offers a free ride. But as the French government tries in a vain and desperate effort to make ends meet, it’s not only going after multinationals and their tax optimization schemes but also smaller companies that are gasping for air. Revenues from aggressive collections—“not far from blackmail,” an insider says—have jumped, one of the rare areas of growth in France.
Europe – France
Potential Cost Of A Nuclear Accident? So High It’s A Secret!
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Potential Cost Of A Nuclear Accident? So High It’s A Secret!
Catastrophic nuclear accidents, like Chernobyl or Fukushima, are very rare, we’re told incessantly. But when they occur, they’re costly. So costly that the French government, when it came up with estimates, kept them secret. But the report was leaked: an accident at a single reactor in a thinly populated part of France could cost over three times France’s GDP.
By Midyear, Europe ‘Can No Longer Live With This Euro’
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on By Midyear, Europe ‘Can No Longer Live With This Euro’
“I’m sitting on cash,” Felix Zulauf said when he was asked in an interview where he was putting his money. With decades of asset management experience under his belt, he’d founded Zulauf Asset Management in Switzerland in 1990. But now he was worried—and has turned negative on just about everything.
‘They Tell The French Illusions and Lies.’
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on ‘They Tell The French Illusions and Lies.’
France is in upheaval. Arguments erupt live on TV, demonstrations block the streets, strikes shut down plants, and threats of mayhem are part of the show. The problem: an economy where businesses are suffocating under an obese public sector. Ever larger budgets have been the only source of economic growth. But now that model has run aground.
Self-Medicating With Watered-Down Bourbon: An Insidious Inflation
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Self-Medicating With Watered-Down Bourbon: An Insidious Inflation
We’ve had an endless series of products whose ingredients have been cheapened in order to maintain the price. Consumers won’t be able to taste the difference, the theory goes. So, as the horse-meat lasagna scandal in Europe is spiraling beautifully out of control, we’re now getting hit where it hurts: Maker’s Mark is watering down its bourbon.
Draconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Draconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France
Prime Minister Ayrault himself presided over Monday’s meeting of the National Anti-Fraud Committee. “A first for a head of government,” he said at the press conference, to hammer home just how important this was. But he wasn’t worried about run-of-the-mill fraud that might fleece an old lady of her life savings. He was worried about people not paying their taxes. And he had a remedy.
French Socialist Nightmare: ‘The State Cannot Do Everything’
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on French Socialist Nightmare: ‘The State Cannot Do Everything’
French Workers Threaten To Blow Up Their Factory
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on French Workers Threaten To Blow Up Their Factory
Tuesday morning, the 168 remaining employees of DMI in Vaux, a tiny town near Montluçon in the Department of Allier, smack-dab in the middle of France, rigged about ten gas cylinders throughout the factory they’d been occupying and threatened to blow it up—unless their demands were met. Another day in the decline of the private sector à la Française.
French Government Fears ‘Social Implosions Or Explosions’
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on French Government Fears ‘Social Implosions Or Explosions’
The drumbeat of layoffs and plant closures has been riling up desperate workers who have little hope of finding a job elsewhere, with unemployment at 10.5%. But now the Socialist government, worried about a “radicalization” of these angry workers, has instructed police intelligence services to keep an eye on them. Not exactly one of the campaign promises.