Unpleasant truths about France’s tax system

Is this a paradox? Companies report a stabilisation of the business climate at a level associated with trend growth, but households are increasingly depressed. It might seem that their gloom exaggerates the real deterioration of economic conditions, but the tax protest of the “gilets jaunes” (“yellow vests”) movement illustrates the stalemate in which France finds itself, reduced to making trade-offs between categories of taxpayers or between generations (thanks to debt), without...