François Hollande wins in France

I really fail to see how that counters anything in my post.

What are you trying to say?

He's trying to say that Reagan's spending was a result of cold war policy and he might have cut spending had he been president after the fall of the Soviet Union, as Clinton did.

K, thanks.

So he countered 1/3rd of my post.

Don't ask me why, but I can't avoid to think in the Game theory when someone mentions Reagan.

I don't think Reagan had a sound mind during his presidency, considering some sources say that his Alzheimer's was already showing during the 80's. He was a just puppet, or an actor following direction.

Well, that is the thought.
Whether it was or not is still disputed.

Even if there is no proof backing it. I believe the Alzheimer's may have stricken him around the end of his presidency, but not in its entirety. I had a grandmother who had Alzheimer's and kind of know its effects. I am sure the White House had good doctors and remember he was not diagnosed until 1994.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/29/news/international/oecd-g7/index.htm
U.S. growth is expected to outpace the stagnant economies of European nations in the first half of 2012

@Kali (i want you to see this too)

Hah! You Europeans (and while I'm at it, Americans) and your unemployment and debt problems! Move to Australia, where we have the lowest debt to GDP and the third lowest unemployment of any developed Western country. Once you get used to riding a kangaroo to work every day you'll love it here!

Silly gibe aside, I've had a good look at Hollande's key policies and generally they strike me as slightly radical and unproven. Kali absolutely has a point. You can't just say "Well this policy worked for country X, it will definitely work for France too", it doesn't work like that. Without going into detail, different countries have different economies that work in different ways and will react differently to the same policies. The large increases in taxes, particularly on the wealthy, has me a bit skeptical. How many people are going to invest into the French economy when the highest tax bracket is 75%? Then again, I don't really buy into the claims that these kinds of taxes destroy economies.

I'm not going to predict how things turn out, just going to hope that they didn't fuck it up, for the sake of most of Europe.

On a related note, I don't like how people (mostly Americans and their media) have bastardized socialism to mean extreme left/communist, and therefore pure evil.

I don't know. There are probably a lot of third world countries like that.

Yeah, because the French economy is seriously fucked up. Both nominally and relatively, French labor costs are higher than all other major European nations, and I believe the highest in the EU. That means that the industrial output of a French workhour is both more expensive and less efficient than almost any other nation in Europe. Economic competitiveness is probably the largest problem the French have, and you don't solve it by hiking taxes on business and expanding public sector employment.

That's actually just plainly wrong. It's dropped over 2% on the year this year.

That's not the big problem. The big problem is that French industries are in dire need of structural reform and the only thing people want to talk about is how they can do less work for more pay.

The public sector obviously creates jobs. It'd be clearly false to claim that it doesn't. At the same time, however, public sector jobs aren't going to do anything to increase the efficiency of the private sector, and aren't going to generate wealth of their own. Opportunity cost, economics 101.

Germany isn't put in a tenuous position by holding Greek debt because Greek debt is relatively insignificant. Same goes for France. Greece isn't that big of a deal by itself. However, the shocks of its collapse could easily throw much larger and more significant economies like Spain and Italy under the bus, and French banks are the major, and in the case of Italy, the largest, stakeholders in both of them.

First off, no, not every politician campaigns on a populist agenda. Second, you've ignored the primary part of that paragraph, which outlined (again) the importance of making France's businesses competitive. If Hollande could do that and hike taxes, then it'd probably work out okay for him (barring any trouble from the other Eurozone economies), but he's promised to increase labor costs and use public sector employment to "fix" unemployment woes.

I already said I don't agree with austerity measures. It's a political statement, not an economic solution. However, by refusing to cooperate with Germany on the issue, France seriously undercuts the ability of the EU to deal with the existing crises. As can be expected of a populist platform, Hollande is clearly adopting a France-first policy here. That isn't fair or responsible given the role that France has in the Eurozone or as a key member of the EU. Considering the high risk that other debt-ridden Eurozone countries pose to France's domestic economic security, it's also not the smartest move to make.

Aww, Reagan. Able Archer, Iran Contra, Afghanistan, Evil Empire... But we'll sweep that under the rug since he made you pay a bit less in tax, mmm? I mean, never mind that he was the most likely president to blow us all to shit since JFK - your parents had a few more precious dollars to buy you Kool-Aid and Power Ranger action figures with.

Good lord.

How was Reagan the most likely president to blow everyone up?

Oh yeah France is screwed because austerity has been such a fucking success hasn't it.

Nah, I'd rather move to China. The future's there maaan.
(And I'm already learning the language)

That is because Australia (along with New Zealand) is one of the main countries with more economic freedom.

Indeed. Here in Portugal the tax system is so awfully high for companies, that most of the great ones (those who have the ability to do such a thing), had to change their headquarters to other countries. And while some of this big companies have been getting bail-outs, small and medium companies are closing and closing.

Define freedom.

The absence of legal obligation.

They will fizzle out in 15-20 years.