Simple as a phone call

It was THE most anticipated phone call of the week. (…) Did Joe Biden find the right words and lay the groundwork for these "concrete measures" demanded by Paris? Did he even want to, he who clearly made the choice assumed, throughout negotiations conducted in recent months in the greatest secrecy, to favor an ally (Australia) considered more vital - and certainly more docile - than another (France) in the great strategic battle with China? Battle of which the tenant of the White House has made the cornerstone of his foreign policy. (…) Macron and Biden are planning to launch “in-depth consultations” and see each other next month.

what concrete measures?

What common objectives?

the ambassador of France in the United States, Philippe Étienne, recalled at the end of last week in Paris for consultation, will return to Washington the next week.

A return necessary to continue the dialogue, but without having, at first glance, obtained the slightest consideration.

We were in shock

This decision was announced to us without any notice, with incredible brutality.

Especially since all the lights were green.

The finance bill for 2022, presented yesterday, raises questions from the High Council of Public Finance and criticism from the opposition

This last budget before the presidential election must finance many expenses announced in recent weeks by the Head of State, from the Beauvau of security to the energy check through the plan for Marseille or that for the independents.

it is the price of democracy.

(…) The budgets that precede a major election deadline turn out to be much more lax in terms of controlling public spending.

The political temptation is indeed very great for an outgoing team to promise and to promise more resources.

This is all the more the case today in France as money is very easy to find on the markets and rates remain low.

Ségur of health, revaluation of teachers' salaries, aid to the most precarious, Beauvau of security, revitalization of Marseille ... taken one by one, these measures meet legitimate needs. But, points out the evening daily, for lack of counterparts in terms of savings on other items, they are financed by debt. This is currently the case for half of public spending. Growth, which should slow from 2023 to regain its pre-crisis rate, will not be sufficient to ensure the sustainability of our debt

not more than a tax increase.

The low interest rates can give the illusion.

But resting the country's sovereignty solely on this hazard is a very risky gamble.

The rigor will wait,

To a growing demand for public money, the government is responding with so many promises, especially before a presidential election. Savings-who-can checks are followed by those for new expenses and small gifts. The billions are waltzing at the mercy of the presidential movements. (…) The prevailing discourse claims that, in the new world of low interest rates, all this would not be so serious. A very risky bet,

, which places our destiny in the hands of the financial markets. And which, in a headlong rush depriving it of all value, does not encourage, on the contrary, the good use of public money.