Greece! And Where Next? France?
With the occupation of the Athens Polytechnic taking a breath over the winter holiday, we can take a minute and ask, as the rulers of Europe have publicly fretted over the possibly of 1000euro/600euro/internship/precarious/sacrificed generation coming armed to a street corner near you. Or as Sarkozy put it so succinctly, “The French love it when I’m in a carriage with Carla, but at the same time they’ve guillotined a king.”
But when everything starts breaking really bad next year, the French aren’t comparatively that bad of a position:
- Their economy is geared for internal consumption, they’re not going to see the same sort of the drop off they we’re going to see in Germany.
- There was no housing bubble, like Spain, the UK, Ireland…
- Because there was no housing bubble, there was no financial sleight of hand with accompanying level of rising household debt, and the packaging of said debt to be resold all over the world.
- Public Debt is only 66%+, nowhere no near the ~100% of Italy and Greece.
- And while France is the most touristed place on visit, it only clocks in at ~7% of the GDP.
All of which leaves France with a little more carrot and just as much stick.