France: cut government spending, seriously?

The last time that France's budget came close to being balanced was in 1979. Emmanuel Macron was two years old. Balanced budgets – the "Schwarze Null" sometimes fetishised by our German neighbours – is not an end in itself, independent of business conditions, but nonetheless, throughout these decades, recessions, energy shocks, financial crises and pandemics have not been the only experiences of France’s economy. The rise in interest rates increases the cost of debt. In preparati...